Elpida Karamandi

Elpida Karamandi was born on 1 January 1920, in Florina, Greece in an Aromanian family. Her mother was divorced from her husband and moved to her relatives in Bitola, then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where she remarried. Elpida grew up and was educated in Bitola and later continued her studies in Belgrade, where she became a member of SKOJ in 1939. When the Second World War began, Elpida was back in Bitola. In June 1941 she joined the Yugoslav Communist Party, but her activities were detected by the Bulgarian police and she was arrested. On her release Elpida resumed her resistance work against the occupiers.

In April 1942 she left Bitola and joined the First Bitola Partisan detachment. On 3 May 1942, the detachment was surrounded by the Bulgarian police. Heavily wounded, Elpida Karamandi was captured, and later died in Bulgarian captivity. She was declared a Yugoslav national hero on 11 October 1951.