I would like to point out a sad omission in the Hellenic American Project’s (HAP) ’oral history’ interview of Linda Carol Trotter.

Although the interview topic was the plight of 1950s adoptees, no one focused on the big elephant in the room: AHEPA!

AHEPA, our biggest grassroots heritage organization, created the adoption program that injured thousands of Greek children in the 1950s. AHEPA’s officials literally sold Greek-born infants to American couples they did not vet, most of whom were non-Greek and non-Orthodox.

I understand that the HAP program consisted of only a single interview. Ms. Trotter is not a historian and, perhaps, knows nothing about AHEPA’s history, so it would be unfair to impose on her for that information. Nonetheless, it is impossible to discuss the plight of adoptees, any adoptee, without discussing what AHEPA did. The code of silence works well in masonic settings, but it has no place in an academic discourse.

The program focused on Ms. Trotter’s personal experience. Indeed, no one can dispute that Ms. Trotter’s testimonial is a story made for Hollywood. Her promotional YouTube videos show she has the potential to do well in Hollywood, and we should all support her endeavors. Her story is fascinating and she deserves to do well.

Our community, however, has an obligation to embrace all adoptees, all our fellow Greek-Americans who were abused by a shady adoption system designed and operated by AHEPA. Their problems are delicate and require our sensitivity and care. How can we achieve that when AHEPA’s public relations machine spreads the false narrative that AHEPA was never involved with adoptions, that AHEPA has no records, and that its officers know nothing. When pressed, Ahepans often argue that the adoptees should be grateful they were taken out of poverty. So what if they were put in non-Greek and non-Orthodox homes that deprived them of their human right to be raised in the ethnic and religious identity of their birth. At least they were raised as well-fed proud Americans.

It is now established that AHEPA did not vet the couples it sold children to. AHEPA had assumed the duty to conduct due diligence background checks, but failed to follow up. As a result, there are adoptees today who testify that they still suffer as a result of being raised by abusive adoptive parents. If AHEPA had vetted them and determined they were not fit to adopt, perhaps these poor adoptees would not have suffered.

There is no excuse for ignorance today. The facts about AHEPA’s involvement are now out in the open, well-researched, well-investigated, and well-reported for at least five years! Professor Gonda Van Steen published her shocking findings in 2019. Professor Mary Cardaras followed with her own research and a series of adoptee testimonials. Numerous books and articles now report the facts. All that remains is action. AHEPA, our largest heritage organization, must take up the adoptees’ cause. It must accept responsibility for its wrongdoing and immediately offer help.

The omnipresent Fr. Stamkopoulos graciously blessed the HAP event. That leads to another question, what is the Archdiocese doing to help the adoptees? They are very much part of the Greek-American flock, well within our Church’s domain.

The Archdiocese, however, should already be familiar with the adoptees. In fact, their relationship goes back to the beginning. When AHEPA began its adoptions in the early 1950s, then-Archbishop Michael allowed his name to be used as ‘honorary chairman’ of AHEPA’s orphan adoption committee. AHEPA printed Archbishop Michael’s name on its committee’s stationery. Michael’s involvement gave legitimacy to the shady adoptions. It was reported at the time that AHEPA’s perpetrators used that letterhead to persuade vulnerable widows in Greece’s countryside to give up their children for adoption. The archbishop’s name created the false impression that the Church would oversee the infants’ safety and welfare.

Both AHEPA and the Archdiocese must acknowledge the adoptees’ existence. Are they not part of our family, our community? What efforts do we make to help them?

Our community took its eyes off of the adoptees seven decades ago, and a great harm was done to them. Let us not repeat that mistake today!

Leonidas V. Georgiou is the author of ‘Unfinished Business in the Order of AHEPA’.