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

Rating:
Summary: A Battle With Adversity
Review: A stunning and engrossing account of the affects of occupation upon indigenous populations of Greece. While it centered mostly on the political aspects; it also included an appreciative amount on how the individual was affected and what part the individual played. Equally impressive was the unbiased description of ELAS through its political beginnings to its battle with the British at the end of the occupation. A group whose political asperations may be questionable, yet still provided the youth of the time with hope agianst tyranny (a fact disregarded by many) and the opportunity to rebel agianst it. Overall, any one should read this book (regardless of background) as an important lesson in how war affects civilians and how the afflicted populous battle with not only a physical enemy but also with ethereal ones like adversity and hopelessness. One can learn much on the human condition through the history of the people within this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Battle With Adversity
Review: A stunning and engrossing account of the affects of occupation upon indigenous populations of Greece. While it centered mostly on the political aspects; it also included an appreciative amount on how the individual was affected and what part the individual played. Equally impressive was the unbiased description of ELAS through its political beginnings to its battle with the British at the end of the occupation. A group whose political asperations may be questionable, yet still provided the youth of the time with hope agianst tyranny (a fact disregarded by many) and the opportunity to rebel agianst it. Overall, any one should read this book (regardless of background) as an important lesson in how war affects civilians and how the afflicted populous battle with not only a physical enemy but also with ethereal ones like adversity and hopelessness. One can learn much on the human condition through the history of the people within this book.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding work..
Review: Every Greek MUST STUDY this book.What can happen to a country when the winds of war sweep all aside,but the role of the various political factions and collaborators brought the total misery that was experienced in the period 1941 to 1950 and beyond. Greece was destroyed both by outsiders and locals alike and this book explores and relates all details. The true democratic character of the country was brutally supressed,first by the Germans and then by the "Allies". Greece did not achieve true democracy until AFTER 1981 when Papandreou was elected.The root causes of all misery that prevailed in Greece during Hitler's occupation were also responsible for the post war problems. This book tells all and a message should emerge from reading it.... for all Greeks "We have met the enemy and it is mostly us" Costas Spalaris

Rating:
Summary: The most poignant and accurate picture of Greece during WWII
Review: Every Greek of every political inclination must read this magnificently written book.

There were times, such as reading the note of an unknown Greek Jew at Auschwitz-Birkinau saying farewell to his parea...and to his beloved fatherland Greece,which brought tears to my eyes.

This engrossing book goes a long way in exposing many myths about the war years, including the recent apotheosis of Aris Velouxiotis- the "legendary" Kapetanios of the ELAS. He was,in fact, no "palikari"-but merely a psychotic,power-hungry murderer, no more and no less.I do not say this lightly for I am the son of a former ELAS fighter and this book confirms many of the things my father told me. One thing that it confirms is that we Greeks suffer from the disease of acute disunity.This book examines the consequences. Only in understanding the causes can we find a remedy to this disease which continues to plague us even today.I urge you all to read this book!

Rating:
Summary: History rewritting at its best
Review: If you like reading about Hitler, and if you're interested in Greece, then have I got the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: A valuable contribution to modern historical understanding
Review: Meticulously researched and thoughtfully written, Mazower's Book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of European history in the first half of the twentieth century, especially during the decade of the 1940s. As the title suggests, this is a work about the German occupation of Greece. The unique character of Greece's political, social and economic structures make the story especially complicated. The suffering of the Greeks during the occupation was particularly intense. The famine that caused many thousands of deaths is a part of the suffering. So were the occupiers' reprisals at resistance activity. The author offers insightful analyses of the work and organization of the resistance, including various Communist groups, to show how and why the communists were able to carry on a civil war against the Athens government once the war was over. In an excellent chapter on the suffering of Jewish Greeks, he details how about fifty thousand Jews -- mostly from Salonika -- were deported to death camps in Poland and elsewhere. Personally, I take some comfort in Mazower's statement on page 159 that, in general, most Orthodox Christian Greeks made a determined effort to save their Jewish compatriots from the invaders by hiding them and providing them with food.

Mazower has recently edited a book of fourteen essays titiled After the War Was Over, exploring the question of how collaborators were dealt with in the years following the occupation. ...

Rating:
Summary: History rewritting at its best
Review: The title of the book is misleading and misinforming to say the least, unless he (the author) wants by resuscitating the past to justify the present and capitalize for the future within the European Union. In fact the Axis powers divided Greece into three zones of occupation. The Germans controlled Athens-Piraeus, Thessaloniki and the area between Aliakmon and Strymon rivers as well the Aegean Islands and Crete; the area from the Strymon river to the Greek Turkish frontier was annexed by the Bulgarians; the rest of the country went to the Italians until the Italian armistice of 8th September 1943. All the occupiers were as brutal as their Germans allies were. The Germans were not either more or less brutal than the Anglo-Americans, Russians and French in Germany after the war (Perry Biddiscombe, 'Werewolf!), British in Cyprus (The Black Book of the British crimes in Cyprus, unpublished in the archives of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.), French in Algeria (General Paul Aussaresses, "the Battle of the Casbah) as it is the case of the occupiers around the world and the entire history of mankind. The real beast during this tragic period was the communist barbaric ELAS who fell upon the unarmed Greek people and murdered, murdered, murdered. It should have been interesting "professor" Mazower to have included in his book a couple of numbers: i.e. how many Germans were killed by ELAS activities, how many Greeks were executed by the German and how many Greeks were murdered by the ELAS and its cohorts of thugs. The real heroes of this tragic period, the Greek Governments in occupied Greece are vilified and called "collaborationists". The real collaborationists were the politicians who escaped in Middle East and on the payroll of the British spent the days conspiring against each others and the night in the cabarets of Alexandria (Egypt) a behavior that forced the Nobel prize George Seferis to write: "the ineptitude and stupidity of the Greek ruling class makes you vomit" (G. Seferis. "War Diaries")
The famine of 1941-42, the most tragic event of the period which had reached genocidal proportion, an estimated 7% of the prewar 7.5 millions of the Greek population died because of the famine, is dealt in such a way to put the entire blame on the Germans, and whitewash the British. In reality the British blockade of the Mediterranean was the major cause of starving the Greek people to death. (Pau Maun, "Per Arma Caritas" In Greek). Blockade that was enforced selectively to target the Greek people, while the Vichy France had all the Mediterranean supply routes open. It has been commented that the "only direct blockade advantage that the Allies could have hoped to draw from the starvation of Greece was the embarrassment of German transport arrangements, rather than any appreciable diminution of Axis supplies". This was obviously hardly worth the tens of thousand of deaths by famine in Greece.
As far as the annihilation of the Greek Jewry "professor" Mazower offers the paradigmatic truth. The fate of the Jews in Greece was sealed by the impious alliance between Nazism and Zionism. The Germans would not be able to round up the Jews in Thessaloniki, or Salonika, if he wishes, without help from the Zionist groups. Along the Germans the so-called Albala Command operated in an efficient and effective way to deliver the Jews to their exterminators. (Matarasso, "Not all of them died", in Greek and very rare book,)
Concluding the book is the best example of "when the myth becomes fact, write the myth".

Rating:
Summary: An Historian who Cares.
Review: This book is a favorite in our family as it Describes with a Heart, not only "cold" History, The Occupation of Greece and the Tragedy of Greek Jewry in WW2. There are many books in Israel to be found with personal accounts that have no scientific perspective. They can be boring. On the other hand there are Historians who write about WW2 as a military campaign, ignoring the Human Perspective. Mark Mazower is intelligent enough also to see thru the Political Background. Greece was divided like many countries by "Right-Left". This distorted many peoples views about what was happening. Some people (including some jews) who hated the British or the Communists, Co-operated with the Nazi's. Mark's Book is Historically Scientific, Not Politically Biased, and has enough Personal stories too make this a winner. I would like to read Mark's other books.

Rating:
Summary: Dense and Rewarding
Review: This tome begins with the chaotic political and social landscape of Greece preceeding World War II before delving into a nation ripped asunder by competing forces. Mazower's research is exhaustive and his art of story-telling is the perfect medium for relating the epic proportions of this relatively unknown chapter in the history of that war. For one who knew little of Greece's nightmarish occupation, Mazower held my attention from beginning to end. With so much to tell, the book is understandably dense. But as with anything of value, the effort is rewarded with unforgettable stories of treachery and bravery, quisling intrigues and patriotism, cruelty and the undying nature of the human spirit. Read it and weep!