Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44

463 Pages·1993·14.56 MB·English

by  Mark Mazower

Inside Hitler's Greece

Inside Hitler's Greece
·The Experience of Occupation,
1941-44
Mark Mazower
Yale University Press • New Haven and London 1993
Copyright© 1993 by Mark Mazower
First published in paperback 1995
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any
form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections l 07 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publishers.
Set in Bembo by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong,
and printed and bound in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mazower, Mark.
Inside Hitler's Greece: the experience of occupation, 1941-1944/
by Mark Mazower.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-05804-7 (hbk.)
ISBN o-300-06552-3 (pbk.)
1. World War, 1939-1945 -Greece. 2. Greece-History -Occupation,
1941-1944. L Title.
D802.GSM39 1993
940.53'37-dc20 93-13363
CIP
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Frontispiece: German anti-aircraft gun stationed in front of the Temple of Olympian
Zeus, Athens, 1941.
for
Deb

Contents
List of Illustrations
lX
Introduction
Xlll
Acknowledgements xx
Abbreviations and Foreign Terms
XXlll
Prologue: Swastika over the Acropolis I
PART I: The Chaos of the New Order: 1941-43
Venizelos's Funeral II
2 The Occupation Begins I5
3 The Famine 23
4 Black Market Axioms 53
5 'An Atmosphere of Imminent Catastrophe' 65
6 Greek Workers in the Reich 73
7 Dreams of a New Europe 79
PART II: 'This Heroic Madness': 1941-43
8 The Resistance of Daily Life 85
9 Prudence or Bravery? The Old Politicians 97
IO Becoming Organised I03
I I Urban Protest I08
12 'Freedom or Death!' I23
13 Politics of the Andartiko I38
14 The End of Italian Rule 144
PART Ill: The Logic of Violence and Terror: 1943-44
15 TheLogicofViolence I55
16 Anatomy ef a Massacre: 16 August 1943 I90
I7 'The Loveliest Time': the Behaviour and Values ef the German Soldier 20I
I8 The SS and the Terror System 2I9
I9 Greek Jewry and the Final Solution 235
Vll
Contents
PART IV: A Society at War: 1943-44
20 People's Democracy in Free Greece 265
21 BLAS: the People's Liberation Army 297
22 'A Cemetery Awash in Blood': the Counter-Revolution 322
23 'Tired Out by History': Athens '44 340
Epilogue: 'No Peace without Victory' 355
Notes 378
Archival Sources
Note on Sources
Index
Vlll
List of Illustrations
Frontispiece: Anti-aircraft gun: Athens, 1941. 11
L German troops enter Salonika. 2
2. German troops enter Athens. 5
3. German tanks beneath the Acropolis. 6
4. Field Marshal von Brauchitsch visits the Acropolis. 7
5. Signing the surrender. 17
6. Soup kitchen: Athens, 1941. 29
7. Buses in Athens, 1941. 34
8. Food queue: Athens, 1941. 35
9. A man collapses from hunger in central Athens. 38
IO. The municipal mortuary in central Athens. 42
l 1. Malnourished children: Athens, I 941. 45
12. A requisitioned caique. 59
13. The 1942 5,000 drachma note. 66
14. A German propaganda photo. 81
15. Vasilis Tsitsanis. 91
16. Chrysa Chadzivasileiou. 105
17a. Anastasia Siouli. IIO
l7b. Maria Manthopoulou. IIO
18. Demonstrators in Jannina. II5
19. Palamas's funeral. II8
20. An EAM rally. II9
21. Aris V elouchiotis. 126
22. A group ofELAS andartes. 128
23. Andartes around a camp fire. 130
24. German soldiers pose by the ruins of a sabotaged viaduct at Isari in
the Peloponnese. 136
25. Napoleon Zervas. 139
26. Soldiers visit the Acropolis. 158
27. Lieutenant Glitz interrogates a shepherd. 168
28. Planning operations against the andartes. 171
29abc. The mass execution at Kondomari on 2 June 194!. 174
30. A ruined village near Athens, 1944- 182
31. Refugees living in the mountains. 184
32. Children: Mikro Chorio, central Greece, 1943. 187
33. Women mourning. 189
lX
List of Illustrations
34. Colonel Josef Salminger, I 943. I93
35. Alexandros Mallios: Komeno, I988. I96
36. German soldiers pose for a photograph. 202
37. A donkey race: Peloponnese, August I943· 205
38a. The destruction ofDistomo, I944· 2I3
38b. Survivors: Distomo, I945· 2I3
39. The SS in Greece: Hans DCirhage, Jiirgen Stroop, Walter
Schimana, Walter Blume and Paul Radomski. 22I
40. A Purim play in Chalkis, I928. 237
41. Anti-semi tic measures in Salonika, I I July I 942. 239
42. Jews being deported, place unknown. 242
43. Errikos Sevillias (I90I-74) and family. 258
44. Jewish orphans leave Greece for Palestine, I945· 260
45. In the mountains of 'Free Greece'. 266
46. People's Court, I944· 272
47. A village council in Epiros, I944· 275
48. Resistance graffiti: Epiros, I944· 278
49. A woman delegate speaking at a public meeting. 280
50. The Little Eagles. 28I
51. A resistance school book. 282
52a. Village farmers listen to a speech. 286
52b. An ELAS orator: Epiros, I944· 287
53. Delegates to the National Council. 292
54. ELAS kapetans in Epiros, I944· 300
55. Andartes on the march. 306
56. New recruits to ELAS. 307
57. Two of Aris's bodyguards. 3I9
58. Rallis (on the right) reviews the Evzones: Athens, I944· 323
59. Security Battalionists under British guard after Liberation. 333
60. Colonel Poulos in a northern Greek village, I944· 338
6I. The blocco at Kokkinia, Athens, in August I944· 343
62. Security Battalions raid a factory. 344
63. Hanged resistance fighter is displayed in Athens. 347
64. Taking down a swastika on Samos at Liberation. 356
65. The Liberation of Athens. 36I
66. Greek villagers in Xylokastron welcome a Britishjeep. 363
67. A new pair of shoes: Athens, I945· 367
68. Civilians rush a wounded man to safety. A British sniper
fires from the Acropolis.
Andartes learn about the demobilisation terms.
Photo credits
Bundesarchiv (cover, frontispiece, I-5, I2, 26-7, 36, 42, 63); Benaki Museum
(6, II, 38b, 44, 65, 67); Kostas Paraschos (7, 9); Spiros Meletzis (ro, I6, 2I, 24, 32,
46, 53, 56); Kostas Balafas (I8, 25, 38a, 47-8, 50, 52a-b, 54-5, 69); Liddell Hart
Centre for Military Archives, King's College, London (22, 45, 49, 62); Imperial
x