The Fourth of August Regime and Greek Jewry, 1936-1941

279 Pages·2023·6.252 MB·English

by  Katerina Lagos

ST ANTONY’S SERIES
The Fourth of August
Regime and Greek
Jewry, 1936–1941
Katerina Lagos
St Antony’s Series
Series Editors
Dan Healey
St. Antony’s College
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
Leigh Payne
St. Antony’s College
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
The St Antony’s Series publishes studies of international affairs of contem-
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Antony’s College and Palgrave Macmillan has produced about 400 publi-
cations. This series is indexed by Scopus.
Katerina Lagos
The Fourth of August
Regime and Greek
Jewry, 1936–1941
Katerina Lagos
Department of History
California State University, Sacramento
Sacramento, CA, USA
ISSN 2633-5964 ISSN 2633-5972 (electronic)
St Antony’s Series
ISBN 978-3-031-20532-3 ISBN 978-3-031-20533-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20533-0
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A
cknowledgments
The idea for this book originated in graduate school when I took a course
on comparative fascism. At the time, little was written about the Metaxas
dictatorship, despite the plethora of personal materials and archival docu-
ments available for research. My interest in this generally underexplored
period in Modern Greek history led to my focus on the perception and
treatment of Greek Jews.
During the period that I wrote my DPhil thesis at St. Antony’s College,
I benefited from the advice given by my advisor, Richard Clogg, and from
other faculty at Oxford: Robert Gildea, Ruth Harris, and David Rechter.
Once completed, I expanded my research on various aspects of the regime
and presented my findings at various conferences and lecture series at
Oxford. My thanks to Renee Hirschon, Michael Llewellyn-Smith, the late
Peter Mackridge, and Othon Anastasakis. Othon has become a close friend
and has been a guiding force for this book. His comments and suggestions
have been invaluable, and I am very grateful to him. A huge debt of grati-
tude is also owed to Nick Geller, who has been fastidious in his editing of
this manuscript. Beyond the editing process, Nick has challenged me to
rethink some of my arguments, and our conversations have been critical to
the evolution of the book. Thanks, in addition, to Adam Lecznar for his
editorial comments and indexing.
The interviews that I conducted with Holocaust survivors were both
incredibly rewarding and poignant. Although the discussion focused on
events and people prior to the war, inevitably the shadow of the Holocaust
was a presence in our conversations. I am grateful to each of these warm,
wise φιλότιμοι (honorable, gracious) individuals who informed my
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
research. One individual stands out for his youthful and positive personal-
ity, Mr. Ilias Hatzopoulos. Our interviews were completed at his hotel in
Paleo Phaliro (The Coral), and Mr. Hatzopoulos was very candid and
forthcoming about his past. At the end of our interviews, we chatted a bit,
and I happened to mention that I knew how to Greek dance. Mr.
Hatzopoulos asked me if I could teach him a few advanced steps to impress
his wife and friends, and I enthusiastically obliged him. This was the least
I could do to thank him for the hours of interviews we had conducted
over the course of a few months, and seeing his smile when he told me
how he mastered his footwork was unforgettable.
The writing of this book occurred during COVID and, as a result, took
a bit longer than expected. With libraries and archives inaccessible, I am
indebted to Badema Pitic at the Shoah Foundation, University of Southern
California for providing me with access to their Holocaust testimonials.
Aimee Genova and Kathy Wallis were generous with their time to assist me
in the translations of many of the testimonials, and I am grateful to them.
Additionally, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
(Κεντρικό Ισραηλιτικό Συμβούλιο) kindly donated publications that I could
not acquire for this research. These materials will now be part of the
Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection, University Library and available
to others.
Finally, my thanks to close friends and colleagues for their support and
encouragement to complete this book. Dimitris Antoniou, Soo-Young
Kim, George Gassias, Panagiotis Andrikopoulos, George Paganelis, Nikos
Lazaridis, Alexander Kitroeff, Rena Kamberidou, Nikos Kalogerakos,
Katerina Kralova, Sharon Gerstel, Konstantina Antonakakis, and James
Horncastle have provided constructive feedback for the manuscript.
Most of all, I would like to thank Ioanna Foka-Metaxa and Andrew
Apostolou. Ioanna Foka-Metaxa (www.ioannismetaxas.gr) was one of the
first people I met in Athens when I began conducting research; she pro-
vided me with introductions to Holocaust survivors besides providing
critical feedback for this manuscript. Andrew Apostolou has been a friend
since we met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens. Andrew has an
encyclopedic knowledge of the material, and I am immensely appreciative
and grateful to him for all that he has done for me. Father Nikodemos and
all the sisters at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Kimi, Euboia,
together with my family, both in Seattle and Sacramento, are the reason
why this book is possible. Most of all, I dedicate this book to my mother,
Eleni, who made it possible for me to go to Oxford and to see me com-
plete this book. Σ’ευχαριστώ.
c
ontents
1 Jewry and Ioannis Metaxas 1
2 Jewish Communities and Antisemitism in Greece:
Nineteenth-Century Conflict and the Rise of Political
Antisemitism 39
3 Twentieth-Century Hostility and Obligatory Integration:
Marginalization and Distrust of the “Inassimilables” 75
4 The Ideological Leanings of the Metaxist Regime and
Greek Jewry 121
5 Metaxist Domestic Policies and Societal Perceptions 165
6 The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jewry:
Domestic Suspicion and International Support 205
7 Conclusions 243
Bibliography 251
Index 267
vii
A
bbreviAtions
AAIU Archives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris, France
AHMFA Archives of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, Greece
GAS General Archives of the State, Athens, Greece
GLA Gennadios Library Archives, Athens, Greece
HLHA Hellenic Literary and Historical Archives, Athens, Greece
HPNA Hellenic Parliamentary and Newspaper Archives, Athens, Greece
NAFO National Archives of the Foreign Office, London, UK
SKPA Spyros Kosmetatos Private Archive, Argostoli, Cephalonia, Greece
USSDA United States State Department Archive, Washington, D.C., USA
ix
l m
ist of Aps
Map 3.1 This map was sponsored by the Greek government and
deliberately overestimated the ethnic Greek population in the
southern Macedonian region 80
Map 7.1 Official map detailing the individual Jewish communities and
their losses during the Holocaust 250
xi