Manolis Stavroulakis was born in Anos Meros, Rethymnon on Crete in 1927. In 1944, his older brother Kostas (b. 1917), who was a member of the Communist Party and acted in the resistance, was presumably executed by the Germans at the Kaisariani shooting range. On August 22, 1944, Stavroulakis witnessed the destruction of his village and the massacre of 38 villagers in a combined German retaliation effort aimed at residents of the region surrounding Agios Vaileios near Rethymnon.