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163-476: Greek victory [REDACTED] 45,000 men of ELAS (1944) [REDACTED] 10,000 men of EDES (1944) [REDACTED] 1,500 of EKKA Crete ( Cretan resistance ) World War II in Albania The Greek resistance ( Greek : Εθνική Αντίσταση , romanized :  Ethnikí Antístasi "National Resistance") involved armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted

326-552: A hunger strike demanding the release of his fellow EDA MPs that were imprisoned or exiled in the Greek islands. He ended his hunger strike upon the release of 7 MPs from their exile. He was released from prison on 16 July 1954. On 5 December 1958, he was arrested again and convicted of espionage , which was the common pretext for the persecution of the supporters of the left during the Cold War . The Soviet Union reacted circulating

489-522: A Bulgarian attack according to the 1934 Balkan Pact . Entry to this zone was forbidden to the Bulgarians, and the Germans maintained only a police and administrative staff there. The Germans also retained control of a patchwork of strategically important areas across the country. The region of Central Macedonia around Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki , was kept under German control both as

652-584: A collaborationist government: any such concession would have terminated the puppet government's legitimacy. Likewise, Italian suggestions for an outright military occupation without a Greek administration were rejected. Hitler and the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop , even cautioned the Italians of the dangers of annexing territories inhabited by large Greek populations, which might become hotbeds of resistance. Nevertheless, in

815-584: A communist veteran, called Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras (who adopted the nom de guerre Aris Velouchiotis ) to examine the possibilities of an armed resistance movement. Although its foundation was announced in late 1941, there were no military acts until 1942, when the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the armed forces of EAM, was born. The second largest organization was the Venizelist -oriented National Republican Greek League (EDES), led by

978-501: A counterweight to ELAS. Throughout the occupation period, Zervas did not attempt to change his doctrine and EDES remained clearly a guerrilla force. Its main theatre of operation was Epirus. Because it was a particularly poor district, most of the logistical support was provided by the British. When EDES was finally disbanded at the fall of 1944, it had about 12,000 fighters, in addition to 5,000 reserves. Another armed resistance group

1141-523: A declared Communist. EAM increased in size and its central committee sought a more experienced military figure to take command. Napoleon Zervas , the leader of a rival guerrilla group, was approached but could not be enticed to join ELAS. The post was filled by Stefanos Sarafis , a former Greek army officer and non-communist. Immediately upon assuming command of ELAS, Sarafis set about reforming its haphazardly organized and commanded bands. By September 1943,

1304-516: A former army officer, Colonel Napoleon Zervas , with exiled republican General Nikolaos Plastiras as its nominal head. Greece is a mountainous country, with a long tradition in andartiko (αντάρτικο, "guerrilla warfare"), dating back to the days of the klephts (anti-Turkish bandits) of the Ottoman period, who often enjoyed folk-hero status. In the 1940s, the countryside was poor, the road network not very well developed, and state control outside

1467-468: A joint ELAS-EDES force. This was the first and last time that the two major Resistance groups would cooperate, due to the rapidly developing rivalry and ideological retrenchment between them. Nevertheless, constant attacks and acts of sabotage followed against the Italians, such as the Battle of Fardykampos , resulting in the capture of several hundred Italian soldiers and significant amounts of equipment. By

1630-464: A line of demarcation running through Alexandroupoli and Svilengrad west of the Evros River . The Greek capital Athens fell on 27 April, and by 1 June, after the capture of Crete , all of Greece was under Axis occupation. After the invasion, King George II fled, first to Crete and then to Cairo. A Greek right-wing government ruled from Athens as a puppet of the occupying forces. Although

1793-462: A major shock in the Greek political scene, since Psarros was a well-known republican, patriot and anti-royalist. For EAM-ELAS, this act was fatal, as it strengthened suspicion of its intentions for the post-Occupation period, and drove many liberals and moderates, especially in the cities, against it, cementing the emerging rift in Greek society between pro- and anti-EAM segments. The resistance in Crete

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1956-518: A military corps, ELAS, that would first operate in the mountains of Central Greece , with Aris Velouchiotis , a communist activist, as their chief captain. Later, on 28 July 1942, a centrist ex-army officer, Colonel Napoleon Zervas , announced the foundation of the National Groups of Greek Guerrillas (EOEA), as EDES ' military arm, to operate, at first, in the region of Aetolia-Acarnania . National and Social Liberation (EKKA) also formed

2119-432: A military corps, named after the famous 5/42 Evzone Regiment , under Col. Dimitrios Psarros , that was mainly localized in the area of Mount Giona . Until the summer of 1942, the occupation authorities had been little troubled by the armed Resistance, which was still in its infancy. The Italians in particular, in control of most of the countryside, considered the situation to have been normalized. From that point, however,

2282-594: A million people homeless" (P. Voglis) in the course of their anti-partisan sweeps, mostly in the areas of Central Greece , Western Macedonia and the Bulgarian occupation zone. The most infamous examples in the German zone are those of the village of Kommeno on 16 August 1943, where 317 inhabitants were executed by the 1. Gebirgs-Division and the village torched; the " Holocaust of Viannos " on 14–16 September 1943, in which over 500 civilians from several villages in

2445-684: A politician, becoming a Member of the Greek Parliament for various left-wing parties over the years. In 2014, at the age of 91, he became a Member of the European Parliament for a second time in his life, for Syriza , making him the oldest-ever member of the European Parliament . He was also the most voted-for candidate in Greece. Glezos was an award-winning journalist, and worked as head-editor and editor for

2608-490: A postage stamp with Glezos, while the Greek government responded with a postage stamp depicting Imre Nagy . His release on 15 December 1962 was a result of the public outcry in Greece and abroad, including winning the Lenin Peace Prize . During his second term of post-war political imprisonment, Glezos was reelected MP with EDA in 1961. At the coup d'état of 21 April 1967, Glezos was arrested at 2 am, together with

2771-594: A power vacuum and meant an absence of a rallying point for the Greek people . Most officers and citizens who wanted to continue the fight fled to the British-controlled Middle East , and those who remained behind were unsure of their prospects against the Wehrmacht. This situation resulted in the creation of several new groupings, where the pre-war establishment was largely absent, which assumed

2934-521: A pro-royalist background. Occupation authorities were reluctant to arm potential groups willing to fight the left-wing EAM resistance due to the absence of a fascist movement in Greece and the general dislike of the Germans by the Greek population. Fascist organizations supported by the Germans were the National Union of Greece ( Ethniki Enosis Ellados , EEE), the EKK ( Ethnikon Kyriarchon Kratos ),

3097-460: A severe shortage of food in the major urban centres in the winter of 1941–42. Some of this shortage is attributable to the Allied blockade of Europe since Greece depended on wheat imports to cover about a third of its annual needs. These factors created the conditions for the "Great Famine" (Μεγάλος Λιμός) where in the greater Athens – Piraeus area alone, some 40,000 people died of starvation, and by

3260-526: A small, all-female company of partisans against the German occupational forces. Resistance in the cities was organized quickly, but of necessity groups were small and fragmented. The cities, and the working-class suburbs of Athens in particular, witnessed appalling suffering in the winter of 1941–42, when food confiscations and disrupted communications caused widespread famine and perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths. This caused fertile ground for recruitment, but lack of equipment, funds and organization limited

3423-536: A strategic outlet into the Aegean as well as a trump card between the competing claims of both Bulgarians and Italians on it. Along with the eastern Aegean islands of Lemnos , Lesbos , Agios Efstratios , and Chios , became 'Salonica-Aegean Military Command' ( Befehlsbereich Saloniki-Ägäis ) under Curt von Krenzki . Further south, the 'South Greece Military Command' ( Befehlsbereich Südgriechenland ) under Hellmuth Felmy comprised isolated locations of Athens and

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3586-647: A support protest in Brussels, along with thousands of Belgians in favour of Greeks voting negatively in the referendum, a few days before the latter takes place. He resigned from his position in the European Parliament in July 2015, being succeeded by Nikolaos Chountis . The same year, he left SYRIZA before the September 2015 Greek election , where he was an MP candidate with the newly formed Popular Unity party. In 2018, Manolis Glezos publicly voiced his opposition to

3749-523: A victory for the Axis. 15 of the 21 Greek divisions were deployed against the Italians, leaving only six divisions to defend against the attack from German troops in the Metaxas Line near the border between Greece and Yugoslavia/Bulgaria in the first days of April. They were supported by British Commonwealth troops sent from Libya on the orders of Winston Churchill . On 6 April 1941, Germany came to

3912-643: A volunteer for the Hellenic Ministry of Economics. During the Axis occupation of Greece , he worked for the Hellenic Red Cross and the municipality of Athens, while actively involved in the resistance . According to popular tradition, on 27 April 1941 Konstantinos Koukidis was ordered to lower the Greek flag, and raise the Nazi swastika flag. Koukidis allegedly lowered the flag and jumped from

4075-583: A windfall for the Resistance, as the Italian Army in many places simply disintegrated. Most Italian troops were swiftly disarmed and interned by the Germans, but on Cephalonia the Acqui Division (comprising 11,700 men) resisted for about a week (Greek ELAS partisans joining them) before being forced to surrender. Subsequently 5000 of them were summarily executed . Another 3,000 perished when

4238-626: Is now a public holiday in Greece.) Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini launched the invasion partly to prove that Italians could match the military successes of the German Army and partly because Mussolini regarded southeastern Europe as lying within Italy's sphere of influence. Against Mussolini's expectations, the Hellenic Army successfully exploited the mountainous terrain of Epirus . The Hellenic forces counterattacked and forced

4401-487: The andartes were launching direct attacks on Italian guard posts and barracks, while on 16 April, an Italian report noted that "control throughout the north-east, centre and south-west of Greece remains very precarious, not to say nonexistent". On 27 September 1941, the National Liberation Front (EAM) was established. It was nominally a " popular front " organization composed of a coalition of

4564-482: The 12th Army , Felix Benzler, the formation of a puppet government wasn't an easy task "because it is very difficult to persuade qualified civilians to participate in any form". The most influential Greek personalities hardly wished to make their re-entry into public life at such a moment, while archbishop Chrysanthos of Athens refused to swear such an Axis puppet. Suspicious of the Greeks' capacity for causing problems,

4727-567: The Abwehr and the Gestapo , and confessions used to roll up networks. The job of wireless operators was perhaps the most dangerous, since the Germans used direction-finding equipment to pinpoint the location of transmitters; operators were often shot on the spot, and those were the lucky ones, since immediate execution prevented torture. One of the most important forms of resistance were the mass protest movements. The first such event occurred during

4890-649: The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Department of Civil Engineering) in 2001, of the National Technical University of Athens (School of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering) in 2003, and of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (School of Philosophy) in 2008. On 30 March 2020, Glezos died of heart failure, at the age of 97. Alexis Tsipras , former Greek prime-minister, said, "He will remain for all eternity

5053-525: The Attica region, such as the Kalamaki Airfield , parts of the port of Piraeus , and the offshore islands of Salamis , Aegina , and Fleves ; the island of Milos as a mid-way stronghold to Crete; and most of Crete, except for the eastern Lasithi Prefecture , which was handed over to the Italians. Crete, quickly named " Fortress Crete ", came to be regarded as a de facto separate command; upon

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5216-604: The Axis occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II . The largest group was the Communist-dominated EAM - ELAS . The Greek Resistance is considered one of the strongest resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe , with partisans , men and women known as andartes and andartisses ( Greek : αντάρτες, αντάρτισσες , romanized :  antártes, antártises , meaning "male and female guerillas"), controlling much of

5379-585: The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and five other left-wing parties. EAM was virtually controlled by the KKE, although initially, the secretive and generally unpopular Communist party was successful in concealing this fact. The military wing of EAM was the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). Its first guerrilla band had been formed in Central Greece, under the leadership of Aris Velouchiotis ,

5542-588: The Communist Party of Greece . This uprising was suppressed by the Bulgarian Army, followed by massive reprisals against Greek civilians. By late 1942, more than 100,000 Greeks were expelled from the Bulgarian occupation zone. Bulgarian colonists were encouraged to settle in East Macedonia and Thrace with credits and incentives from the central Bulgarian government, including confiscated land and houses. The Bulgarian government's attempts to win

5705-593: The Flag of Nazi Germany from the Acropolis during the Axis occupation of Greece , along with Lakis Santas . After the end of the Occupation, his left-wing political beliefs and activism led to him being sentenced to death thrice; his imprisonments and legal troubles were often the topic of international interest, until his permanent release in 1971. Since the restoration of democracy in 1974, he had been active as

5868-652: The Greek National Socialist Party ( Elliniko Ethnikososialistiko Komma , EEK) led by George S. Mercouris , and other minor pro-Nazi, fascist or anti-Semitic organizations such as the Hellenic Socialist Patriotic Organization (ESPO) or the "Iron Peace" ( Sidira Eirini ). Cooperation of civil servants with the resistance, in particular the EAM, occurred even before a widescale resistance movement unfolded. For

6031-602: The Ionian Sea , where another 3,000 were lost. The Cephalonia massacre serves as the background for the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin . The Third Reich had no long-term plans for Greece and Hitler had already decided that a domestic puppet regime would be the least expensive drain on German efforts and resources as the invasion of the Soviet Union was imminent. According to a report by Foreign Office delegate of

6194-623: The Kingdom of Greece in order to assist its ally, Italy , in their ongoing war that was initiated in October 1940, having encountered major strategical difficulties. Following the conquest of Crete , the entirety of Greece was occupied starting in June 1941. The occupation of the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria withdrew under Allied pressure in early October 1944, with Crete and some other Aegean islands being surrendered to

6357-557: The Peloponnese . The northeastern parts of the country, eastern Macedonia and most of Western Thrace , were handed over to Bulgaria, and were de facto annexed into the Bulgarian state. However, a band of territory along the Evros River , on Greece's border with Turkey, remained under control of the collaborationist Greek government to give the Turkish government a pretext for disregarding her obligations to assist Greece in case of

6520-597: The Prespa Agreement between Athens and Skopje on the resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute -despite the agreement being promoted by the SYRIZA government party which he formerly supported. In an article for the Greek daily paper Kathimerini , he insisted that the people of the neighbouring country should "define themselves in accordance with their history, language, traditions... taking out of their mind

6683-734: The Vlach ( Aromanian ) population in the Pindus mountains and Western Macedonia also collaborated with the Axis powers. Italian occupation forces were welcomed in some Aromanian villages as liberators, and Aromanians offered their services as guides or interpreters in exchange for favors. Under Alcibiades Diamandi , the pro-Italian Principality of the Pindus was declared, and 2000 locals joined his Roman Legion , while another band of Aromanian followers under Nicolaos Matussis carried out raids in service of Italy. While most local Aromanians remained loyal to

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6846-424: The battle of Trahili , and the sabotage of Damasta . In reprisal, many villages were razed and their inhabitants murdered during anti-partisan operations. Examples include Alikianos , Kali Sykia , Kallikratis , Kondomari , Skourvoula , Malathyros ; the razings of Kandanos , Anogeia and Vorizia ; the holocausts of Viannos and Kedros and numerous incidents of smaller scale. On Euboea , Sara Fortis led

7009-473: The interwar years , the ethnic composition of the region's population had dramatically shifted, as Greek refugees from Anatolia settled in Macedonia and Thrace following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey . This left only a minority of local Slavic language speakers as the target of the Bulgarian government's recruitment and collaboration efforts. Because of these occupation policies, there

7172-458: The left-wing resistance claimed the government to be illegitimate, on account of its roots in the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas from 1936 to 1941. The Germans set up a collaborationist Greek government , headed by General Georgios Tsolakoglou , before entering Athens . Some high-profile officers of the pre-war Greek regime served the Germans in various posts. This government however, lacked legitimacy and support, being utterly dependent on

7335-467: The Acropolis holding it, rather than raise the Nazi flag. On 30 May 1941 Glezos and Apostolos Santas climbed on the Acropolis and tore down the swastika , which had been there since 27 April 1941, when the Nazi forces had entered Athens. It inspired not only the Greeks, but all subjected people, to resist the occupation, and established them both as two international anti-Nazi heroes. Hours later,

7498-617: The Allies by German garrisons in May and June 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe . Fascist Italy had initially declared war and invaded Greece in October 1940, but had been pushed back by the Hellenic Army into neighbouring Albania , which at the time was an Italian protectorate . Nazi Germany intervened on its ally's behalf in southern Europe. While most of the Hellenic Army

7661-663: The Athens University of Economics and Business) in 1940. In 1939, still a high school student, Glezos participated in the creation of an anti-fascist youth group against the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese and the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas . At the onset of World War II, he volunteered to join the Greek army in the Albanian front against Italy but was rejected because he was underage. Instead, he worked as

7824-497: The Axis , some Chams joined a mixed EAM battalion at the end of the war, but never ended up making a significant contribution to the resistance against Germany. (For local developments in 1944–1945: see Expulsion of Cham Albanians ). After the war, a Special Court on Collaborators in Ioannina condemned 2,109 Cham collaborators to death in absentia . However, by the time of conviction, they had already relocated abroad. Some of

7987-685: The Axis decided to withhold international recognition from the new regime, which remained without a Foreign Minister for its entire lifetime. General Georgios Tsolakoglou – who had signed the armistice treaty with the Wehrmacht – was appointed as prime minister of the Nazi puppet regime in Athens. Neither Tsolakoglou nor his cabinet of equally inexperienced generals had any previous political experience. The civilian ministers were also an unimpressive group without political background. The government itself

8150-425: The British government's support for EDES and EKKA with suspicion, and viewed Zervas' contacts with London and the Greek government with distrust. At the same time, EAM found itself under attack by the Germans and their collaborators. Dominated by the old political class, and looking already to the oncoming post-Liberation era, the new Ioannis Rallis government had established the notorious Security Battalions , with

8313-465: The Bulgarian annexations ran high, in early autumn 1941. The Germans responded swiftly, torching several villages and executing 488 civilians. The brutality of these reprisals led to a collapse of the early guerrilla movement. It was revived in 1942 at a much greater scale. The first event that signaled the beginning of organized, armed opposition to the occupation forces occurred in September 1942 when

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8476-560: The Communist Party and the EAM-ELAS forces occurred at 28 July 1943. The National Republican Greek League (EDES) was led by Napoleon Zervas, a former army officer and republican. EDES was formed on 9 September 1941 and was at the beginning thoroughly republican and anti-monarchist, but also attracted a few monarchists and other right-wing supporters. The British were instrumental in the development of EDES, hoping it would become

8639-679: The EAMite andartes . The Germans now took over the Italian zone, and soon proved to be a totally different opponent from the demoralized, war-weary and far less brutal Italians. Already since the early summer of 1943, German troops had been pouring into Greece, fearing an Allied landing there (in fact falling victims to a grand-scale Allied strategic deception operation, " Operation Barclay "). Soon they became involved in wide-ranging counterguerrilla operations, which they carried out with great ruthlessness, based on their experiences in Yugoslavia. In

8802-419: The German and Italian occupation authorities, and discredited because of its inability to prevent the cession of much of Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace to Bulgaria . Both the collaborationist government and the occupation forces were further undermined due to their failure to prevent the outbreak of the Great Famine , with the mortality rate reaching a peak in the winter of 1941–42, which seriously harmed

8965-535: The German army was instrumental in the conquest of Greece, this was an accident born of Italy's ill-fated invasion and the subsequent presence of British troops on Greek soil. Greece had not figured in Adolf Hitler 's pre-war plans as a target for German annexation: the country was poor, not adjacent to Germany, and did not host any German minorities. The Greeks themselves were seen by Nazi racial theory as neither valuable enough to be Germanized and assimilated, nor as sub-humans to be exterminated. Indeed, Hitler opposed

9128-420: The German sweeps "[turned] producing areas into burned fields and pillaged villages, and the wealthy provincial towns into refugee settlements". After the German invasion, the Italian government put forward vague demands for annexations in northwestern Greece, as well as the Ionian Islands , but these were turned down by the Germans, as they would have been a hindrance to concluding an armistice and establishing

9291-475: The German- and Italian-occupied parts of Greece. A licensing system banned the practice of trades and professions without permission, along with confiscation of estates of Greek landowners, which were given to Bulgarian peasants settlers from within the pre-war boundaries of Bulgaria. As a reaction to these policies, there was a spontaneous and poorly organized attempt to expel the Bulgarians with an uprising around Drama in late September 1941 primarily guided by

9454-541: The Germans administering the most important regions of the country themselves, including Athens , Thessaloniki and strategic Aegean Islands . Other regions of the country were run by Germany's partners, Italy and Bulgaria. The occupation reduced the Greek economy and brought hardships to the Greek civilian population. Much of Greece's economic capacity was destroyed, including 80% of industry, 28% of infrastructure (ports, roads and railways), 90% of its bridges, and 25% of its forests and other natural resources. Along with

9617-414: The Germans took it over from them, Jews living there were also deported. Greek Resistance groups were formed during this occupation. These resistance groups launched guerrilla attacks against the occupying powers, fought against collaborationist Security Battalions , and set up espionage networks. By late 1943 the different resistance groups began to fight amongst themselves. At the end of occupation of

9780-440: The Greek Fascist Party (EEE) Club in downtown Athens was blown up by the Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths (PEAN), a right-wing Greek resistance organization. Attacks on Axis personnel became more frequent from that month. On 25 November, the resistance together with the British mission destroyed the Gorgopotamos viaduct in Central Greece, disrupting the flow of Axis supplies to the North African front . By March–April,

9943-455: The Greek civilian population. Although there is an unconfirmed incident connected with Evzone Konstantinos Koukidis the day the Germans occupied Athens, the first confirmed resistance act in Greece had taken place on the night of 30 May 1941, even before the end of the Battle of Crete . Two young students, Apostolos Santas , a law student , and Manolis Glezos , a student at the Athens University of Economics and Business , secretly climbed

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10106-469: The Greek flag. The Greek soldier obeyed, but when he was done, he wrapped himself in the flag and threw himself off the plateau where he died. Some days later, when the Reichskriegsflagge was waving on the Acropolis' uppermost spot, two Athenian youngsters, Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas , climbed by night on the Acropolis and tore down the flag. The first signs of armed resistance activity manifested themselves in northern Greece, where resentment at

10269-472: The Greek government-in-exile, feared that after the inevitable German withdrawal, it would try to dominate the country and establish a soviet regime. This prospect was not only linked with the increasing distrust shown by many conservative and traditional liberal members of the Greek society towards the Communists and EAM, but also with British. The British were opposed to an EAM's after-war dominance in Greece due to their political opposition to communism, while on

10432-486: The Greek language was banned, and the names of towns and places were changed to traditional Bulgarian forms. Gravestones bearing Greek inscriptions were defaced as a part of the effort. The Bulgarian government tried to alter the ethnic composition of the region by aggressively expropriating land and houses from Greek people in favor of settlers from Bulgaria, and enacted forced labor and economic restrictions on Greek businesses, in an effort to influence them to migrate to

10595-585: The Greek mainland in October 1944, Greece was in a state of political polarization, which soon led to the outbreak of civil war . The civil war gave opportunity to those who had prominently collaborated with Nazi Germany or other occupiers to reach positions of power and avoid sanctions because of anti-communism , even eventually coming to power in post-war Greece after the Communist defeat. The Greek Resistance killed 21,087 Axis soldiers (17,536 Germans, 2,739 Italians, 1,532 Bulgarians) and captured 6,463 (2,102 Germans, 2,109 Italians, 2,252 Bulgarians), compared to

10758-402: The Greek nation, some collaborated with the Axis powers because of latent pro-Romanian feelings or anger toward the Greek government and its military. Diamandi's Legion collapsed in 1942 when Italian positions were taken over by Germany, and most of its leaders fled to Romania or Greek cities. Most active members were convicted as war criminals in absentia, but many convictions were forgotten over

10921-452: The Greek population's reaction. During the night of 28–29 September 1941 the people of Drama and its outskirts rose up. This badly-organized revolt was suppressed by the Bulgarian Army, which retaliated executing 300–500 people in Drama alone. An estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed by the Bulgarian occupational army during the next few weeks and in the countryside entire villages were machine gunned and looted. The town of Doxato and

11084-446: The Greek puppet government with his German counterpart, Ambassador Günther Altenburg , while the fragmented occupation regimes meant that different military commanders were responsible for different parts of the country. As the historian Mark Mazower comments, "The stage was set for bureaucratic infighting of Byzantine complexity: Italians pitted against Germans, diplomats against generals, the Greeks trying to play one master off against

11247-475: The Hellenic forces in exile. Wireless equipment, money, weapons and other support was mainly supplied by British Intelligence, but it was never enough. Fragmentation of groups, the need for secrecy, and emerging conflicts between right and left, monarchists and republicans, did not help. Urban resistance work was very dangerous: operatives were always in danger of arrest and summary execution , and suffered heavy casualties. Captured fighters were routinely tortured by

11410-415: The Ionian Islands the Greek civil authorities were replaced by Italians, presumptively in preparation for annexation after the war. Claiming the inheritance of the Republic of Venice , which had ruled the islands for centuries, the senior Fascist Party official Pietro Parini took steps to uncouple the islands from the rest of Greece: his decrees had the force of law, a new currency, the " Ionian Drachma ",

11573-406: The Italian surrender to reenter the Aegean Sea with the Dodecanese Campaign . From 1942 onwards, the German occupation zone was ruled by the duumvirate of the plenipotentiary for South-Eastern Europe, Hermann Neubacher , and Field Marshal Alexander Löhr . In September–October 1943, Jürgen Stroop , the newly appointed Higher SS Police Leader, tried to challenge the Neubacher-Löhr duumvirate and

11736-407: The Italians to plunder the country, and also with each other. The primary purpose of the German requisitions, however, was finding as much food as possible to sustain the German army. The occupying powers' requisitions, disruption in agricultural production, hoarding by farmers and breakdown of the country's distribution networks from both infrastructure damage and change in government structure led to

11899-457: The Italians to retreat. By mid-December, the Greeks had occupied nearly one-quarter of Albania, before Italian reinforcements and the harsh winter stemmed the Greek advance. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed. The initial Greek defeat of the Italian invasion gave the Allies their first victory over Axis forces on land, although due to German intervention, it eventually resulted in

12062-473: The Italians were more interested in making love than in making war, and that the Italians lacked the "hardness" to wage a campaign against the Greek guerrillas because many Italian soldiers had Greek girlfriends. After the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Italian zone was taken over by the Germans, often by attacking the Italian garrisons. There was a failed attempt by the British to take advantage of

12225-727: The Jews. They protect the Italian Jews both in Tunis and in occupied France and will not permit their being drafted for work or compelled to wear the Star of David. This shows once again that Fascism does not really dare to get down to fundamentals but is very superficial regarding problems of vital importance." Mass reprisals did sometimes occur, such as the Domenikon massacre in which 150 Greek civilians were killed. As they controlled most of

12388-486: The Nazi regime sentenced the perpetrators to death, but they were not identified until much later. Glezos was arrested by the German occupation forces on 24 March 1942, imprisoned, and tortured. As a result of his treatment, he was affected by tuberculosis . Glezos was arrested again on 21 April 1943 by the Italian occupation forces and spent three months in jail. In 1944, he was imprisoned by Greek collaborators and beaten for trying to escape. The end of World War II

12551-475: The Nazis: most chose either the path of passive acceptance or active resistance. Active Greek resistance started immediately as many Greeks fled to the hills, where a partisan movement was born. One of the most touching episodes of the early resistance is said to have taken place just after the Wehrmacht reached the Acropolis on 27 April. The Germans ordered the flag guard, Evzone Konstandinos Koukidis , to retire

12714-401: The Resistance gained pace, with EAM/ELAS, in particular, expanding rapidly. Armed groups attacked and disarmed local gendarmerie stations and isolated Italian outposts, or toured the villages and gave patriotic speeches. The Italians were forced to re-evaluate their assessment, and take measures such as the deportation of army officers to camps in Italy and Germany, which naturally only encouraged

12877-750: The Security Battalions, even in the streets of Athens, until the German withdrawal in October 1944. In March, EAM established its own rival government in Free Greece, the Political Committee of National Liberation , clearly staking its claim to a dominant role in post-war Greece. Consequently, on Easter Monday, 17 April 1944, ELAS forces attacked and destroyed the EKKA's 5/42 Regiment, capturing and executing many of its men, including its leader Colonel Dimitrios Psarros . The event caused

13040-675: The Slavic-speaking population in these regions, aiming to recruit collaborators and gather intelligence on what was happening in the German- and Italian-occupied zones. In 1942, the Bulgarian club asked assistance from the High Command in organizing armed units among those populations, but the Germans were initially very suspicious. Taking advantages of Italian incompetence and the German need for releasing troops on other fronts, since 1943 Sofia had been seeking to extend its control over

13203-591: The aid of Italy and invaded Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia , overwhelming Greek and British troops. On 20 April, after cessation of Greek resistance in the north, the Bulgarian Army entered Greek Thrace without firing a shot, with the goal of regaining its Aegean Sea outlet in Western Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. The Bulgarians occupied territory between the Strymon River and

13366-622: The anticipated Bulgarian withdrawal. There were a few instances of collaboration by the Muslim minority in Western Thrace , who mainly resided in the Komotini and Xanthi prefectures. The Bulgarian government also attempted to extend its influence to central and west Macedonia. The German High Command approved the foundation of a Bulgarian military club in Thessaloniki , and Bulgarian officers organized supplying of food and provisions for

13529-467: The area. As a result, armed collaborationist militias composed of pro-Bulgarian Slavic-speakers, known as Ohrana , were formed in 1943 in the districts of Pella , Florina and Kastoria . The ELAS units joined EAM in 1944 before the end of the occupation. The Soviet Union declared war on the Kingdom of Bulgaria in early September 1944. Bulgaria withdrew from the central parts of Greek Macedonia after

13692-400: The area. Meanwhile, around 90,000 Bulgarians left the area, nearly half of them settlers and the rest locals. The administrative power was handed over by the already ruling Bulgarian communist partisans to local subdivisions of ELAS. In 1945 the former Bulgarian authorities, including those in Greece, were put on trial before " People's Courts " in post-war Bulgaria for their actions during

13855-636: The assembly was abandoned. Glezos remained the President until 1989. In the 2000 Greek legislative election he led the list of Synaspismos (in English Coalition ) party of the radical left. In 2002, he formed the political group Active Citizens (which is part of Coalition of the Radical Left , an alliance with Synaspismos and other minor parties of the Greek left) and he ran as a candidate prefect for Attica . In March 2010, Glezos

14018-586: The authorities to "buy" the aid from them and then sell it on at inflated prices. The perception of suffering and pressure from the Kingdom of Greece's government in exile eventually led to the British partially lifting the blockade, and from the summer of 1942 Canadian wheat began to be distributed by the International Red Cross . Of the country's 7.3 million inhabitants in 1941, it is estimated that 2.5 million received this aid, of whom half lived in Athens, meaning that almost all people in

14181-399: The balance as a loan without interest that was to be repaid once the war was over. By the end of the war, this forced loan amounted to 476 million Reichsmarks (equivalent to 2 billion 2021 euros). Hitler's policy toward the economy of occupied Greece was termed Vergeltungsmassnahme , or, roughly, "retaliation measures", the "retaliation" being for Greece having chosen the wrong side. Germany

14344-495: The blessing of the German authorities, in order to fight exclusively against ELAS. Other anti-communist resistance groups, such as the royalist Organization "X" , were also reinforced, receiving arms and funding by the British. A virtual civil war was now being waged under the eyes of the Germans. In October 1943, ELAS attacked EDES in Epirus , where the latter organization was the dominant resistance group, by transferring units from

14507-440: The borders of the German zone in Macedonia to Boeotia , a territory of 30,000 km and 750,000 inhabitants. By this time (July 1943), the overall strength of the andartes was around 20–30,000, with most belonging to the ELAS, newly under the command of General Stefanos Sarafis . EDES was limited in operations to Epirus , and EKKA operated in a small area in Central Greece. The Italian capitulation in September 1943 provided

14670-455: The capital city received this aid. Although the food aid reduced the risk of starvation in the cities, little of it reached the countryside, which experienced its own period of famine in 1943–44. The rise of the armed Resistance resulted in major anti-partisan campaigns across the countryside by the Axis, which led to wholesale burning of villages, destruction of fields, and mass executions in retaliation for guerrilla attacks. As P. Voglis writes,

14833-480: The cities usually exercised by the Greek Gendarmerie . But by 1942, due to the weakness of the central government in Athens, the countryside was gradually slipping out of its control, while the Resistance groups had acquired a firm and wide-ranging organization, parallel and more effective than that of the official state. In February 1942, EAM, an organization controlled by the local Communist Party formed

14996-503: The collaborationist government paid the costs of the occupation, which resulted in greater inflation. Because the outflows of raw materials and products from Greece towards Germany weren't offset by German payments, substantial imbalances accrued in the settlement accounts at the National Bank of Greece . In October 1942 the trading company DEGRIGES was founded; two months later, the Greek collaborationaist government agreed to treat

15159-532: The communist organisations EAM and ELAS had difficulties in Florina and Kastoria. The majority of the Slav-speakers in Macedonia after mid-1943 joined EAM and were allowed to retain their organization. In October 1944 they deserted and departed to Yugoslavia. In November 1945, after the end of the war, some of then tried to capture Florina but were repulsed by the ELAS. Increasing attacks by partisans in

15322-477: The community of Aperathu , where he was elected as the President of the Community Council in 1986 elections. He then essentially abolished the privileges of the council, introducing a " constitution " and establishing a local assembly that had total control over the community administration. This model worked for several years, but in the long term the interest of the rest of his community wore off and

15485-423: The country. Initially, the strikers' demands were financial, but it quickly assumed a political aspect, as the strike was encouraged by EAM's labour union organization, EEAM. Finally, the strike ended on April 21, with the full capitulation of the collaborationist government to the strikers' demands, including the immediate release of arrested strike leaders. In early 1943, rumours spread of a planned mobilization of

15648-509: The countryside prior to the German withdrawal from Greece in late 1944. The rise of resistance movements in Greece was precipitated by the invasion and occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany (and its allies Italy and Bulgaria ) from 1941 to 1944. Italy led the way with its attempted invasion from Albania in 1940, which was repelled by the Greek Army . After the German invasion ,

15811-492: The countryside, Italy was the first to face the rising resistance movement in 1942–43. By mid-1943, the resistance had managed to expel a few Italian garrisons from some mountainous areas, including several towns, creating liberated zones ("Free Greece"). After the Italian armistice in September 1943, the Italian zone was taken over by the Germans. As a result, German anti-partisan and anti-Semitic policies were extended to it. The Bulgarian Army entered Greece on 20 April 1941 on

15974-482: The course of the Greek Civil War , in which many convicted Legion members actively fought for the government. Compared to the other two occupation zones, the Italian regime was relatively safe for its Greek residents, with a relatively low number of executions and atrocities compared to the German and Bulgarian zones. Unlike the Germans, the Italian military mostly protected Jews in their zone, and rejected

16137-413: The course of the concerted anti-guerrilla campaign, hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost 1,000,000 Greeks left homeless. Two other notable acts of brutality were the massacres of Italian troops at the islands of Cephalonia and Kos in September 1943, during the German takeover of the Italian occupation areas. In Cephalonia, the 12,000-strong Italian 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui"

16300-489: The course of these operations, mass reprisals were carried out, resulting in war crimes such as the massacres of Mousiotitsa on July 25, Kommeno on August 16, Lingiades on October 3, Kalavryta on December 13 and the Massacre of Distomo in June 1944. At the same time, hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost one million people left homeless. Despite the signing of an agreement in July 1943 between

16463-487: The death of 20,650 Greek partisans and an unknown number captured. BBC News estimated Greece suffered at least 250,000 dead during the Axis occupation. In the early morning hours of 28 October 1940, Italian ambassador Emanuele Grazzi woke Greek premier Ioannis Metaxas and presented him an ultimatum . Metaxas rejected the ultimatum and Italian forces invaded Greek territory from Italian-occupied Albania less than three hours later. (The anniversary of Greece's refusal

16626-678: The destruction of specific villages and the recruitment of their men. Quotas were even introduced determining the number of civilians or hostages to be killed in response to the death or wounding of German soldiers. EDES : EAM / ELAS : EKKA : PEAN : Other: British agents : Axis occupation of Greece#Liberation and aftermath The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers ( Greek : Η Κατοχή , romanized :  I Katochi , lit.   'the occupation') began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded

16789-470: The diversion of efforts towards western and southern Europe, and focused on the conquest and assimilation of Eastern Europe as the future German " Lebensraum ". Coupled with admiration for the Greek resistance to the Italian invasion, the result was that Hitler favoured postponing a final territorial settlement of Italy's claims on Greece to after the war. In the meantime, a local puppet government headed by Lt. General Georgios Tsolakoglou would be installed as

16952-444: The end of the occupation "it was estimated that the total population of Greece [...] was 300,000 less than it should have been because of famine or malnutrition". Greece received some foreign aid to make up some of the shortfall, coming at first from neutral countries like Sweden and Turkey (see SS Kurtuluş ), but most of the food ended up in the hands of government officials and black market traders, who used their connection to

17115-495: The end of the war. Similarly to the Ionian Islands, a local administration ( Këshilla ) was installed, and armed groups were formed by the local Cham Albanian community. For at least the beginning of the occupation, Muslim communities chose different political alignments according to the circumstances, alternating between collaboration, neutrality and, less frequently, resistance. Albanian and Greek communities allied with

17278-424: The first armed clashes resulted in 488 civilians being murdered in reprisals by the Germans, which succeeded in severely limiting Resistance activity for the next few months. However, these harsh actions, together with the plundering of Greece's natural resources by the Germans, turned Greeks more against the occupiers. The lack of a legitimate government and the inactivity of the established political class created

17441-525: The funeral of Greece's national poet, Kostis Palamas , on 28 February, which turned into an anti-Axis demonstration. During the last months of the Axis occupation, battles against the occupying forces and their collaborators took place not only in the mountains but also in cities. For example, the Battle of Kokkinia in March 1944 in the Nikaia (aka Kokkinia) suburb of Athens between the ELAS forces assisted by

17604-642: The heels of the Wehrmacht without having fired a shot. The Bulgarian occupation zone included the northeastern corner of the Greek mainland and the islands of Thasos and Samothrace , which corresponds to the present-day region of East Macedonia and Thrace , except for the Evros prefecture at the Greek-Turkish border, which was retained by the Germans over Bulgarian protests because of its strategic value. Unlike Germany and Italy, Bulgaria officially annexed

17767-576: The insistence of the Kriegsmarine , it was regarded as a target for eventual annexation after the war. The islands of Euboea and Skyros , originally allotted to the German zone, were handed over to Italian control in October 1941; southern Attica was likewise transferred to the Italians in September 1942. From the outset, the so-called preponderanza , 'preponderance') granted to Italy by Hitler proved an illusion. The Italian plenipotentiary in Greece, Count Pellegrino Ghigi , shared control over

17930-528: The introduction of measures such as those established in the German occupation zone in Thessaloniki. The Germans were purportedly perturbed as the Italians not only protected Jews on their territory, but in parts of occupied France, Greece, the Balkans, and elsewhere. On 13 December 1942, Joseph Goebbels , Hitler's propaganda minister, wrote in his diary, "The Italians are extremely lax in the treatment of

18093-463: The labour force by the occupation authorities, with the intent of sending them to work in Germany . The first reactions began amongst students on 7 February, but soon 1943 Greek protests against labour mobilization grew in scope and volume. Throughout February, successive strikes and demonstrations paralyzed Athens , culminating in a massive rally on the 24th. The tense climate was amply displayed at

18256-464: The late spring of 1943, the Italians were forced to withdraw from several areas. The towns of Karditsa , Grevena , Trikkala , Metsovon and others were liberated by July. The Axis forces and their collaborators remained in control only of the main towns and the connecting roads, with the interior left to the andartes . This was " Free Greece ", stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean and from

18419-654: The latter to join the underground en masse by escaping "to the mountains". These developments emerged most dramatically as the Greek Resistance announced its presence to the world with one of the war's most spectacular sabotage acts, the blowing up of the Gorgopotamos railway bridge, linking northern and southern Greece, on 25 November 1942. This operation was the result of British mediation between ELAS and EDES ( Operation "Harling" ), carried out by 12 British Special Operations Executive (SOE) saboteurs and

18582-410: The latter years of the occupation resulted in a number of executions and wholesale slaughter of civilians in reprisal. In total, the Germans executed some 21,000 Greeks, the Bulgarians executed some 40,000 and the Italians executed some 9,000. By June 1944, between them the Axis powers had "raided 1,339 towns, boroughs and villages, of which 879, or two-thirds, were completely wiped out, leaving more than

18745-485: The left-wing newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi , which are popular to this day; he also published six books. Born in the village of Apiranthos , Naxos , Glezos moved to Athens in 1935 together with his family, where he finished high school. During his high school years in Athens, he also worked as a pharmacy employee. He was admitted to the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Studies (known today as

18908-558: The logic of the spheres of influence they believed that such a development would lead the country, which traditionally considered belongs in their sphere of influence, to that of the Soviet Union. Finally the conflict of interests between them and the USSR settled after British secured Soviet assent to this in the so-called " percentages agreement " between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in October 1944. EAM on its part considered itself "the only true resistance group". Its leadership viewed

19071-686: The loss of economic capacity, an estimated 7-11% of Greece's civilian population died as a result of the occupation. In Athens, 40,000 civilians died from starvation and tens of thousands more died from reprisals by Nazis and their collaborators. The Jewish population of Greece was nearly eradicated. Of its pre-war population of 75–77,000, around 11–12,000 survived, often by joining the resistance or being hidden. Most of those who died were deported to Auschwitz , while those under Bulgarian occupation in Thrace were sent to Treblinka . The Italians did not deport Jews living in territory they controlled, but when

19234-585: The loyalty of the local Slavic language-speaking populations and recruit collaborators among them had some success, with the Bulgarian armed forces being greeted as liberators in some areas. However, the ethnic composition of the region meant that the most of its inhabitants actively resisted the occupying forces. East Macedonia and Thrace had an ethnically mixed population until the early 20th century, including Greeks, Turks, Slavic-speaking Christians (some of whom self-identified as Greeks, others as Bulgarians), Jews, and Pomaks (a Muslim Slavic group). However, during

19397-604: The most efficient way to run the country. Eager to pull German troops out of the country in view of the imminent invasion of the Soviet Union , and to shore up his relations with his most important Axis partner, Hitler agreed to leave most of the country to be occupied by the Italians. This was undertaken by the Eleventh Army under Carlo Geloso , with three army corps: XXVI Army Corps in Epirus and western Greece, III Army Corps in Thessaly , and VIII Army Corps in

19560-522: The national anniversary of 25 March 1942, when students attempted to lay a wreath at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. This resulted in clashes with mounted Carabinieri , and marked the awakening of the spirit of Resistance amongst the wider urban population. Soon after, from 12 to 14 April, the "TTT" (Telecommunications & Postal) workers began a strike in Athens, which spread throughout

19723-537: The neighbouring regions. This conflict continued until February 1944, when the British mission in Greece succeeded in negotiating a ceasefire (the Plaka agreement ) which in the event proved to be only temporary. The attack led to an unofficial truce between EDES and the German forces in Epirus under General Hubert Lanz . But the fight continued amongst ELAS and the other minor resistance groups (like "X"), as well as against

19886-518: The northwest face of the Acropolis and tore down the swastika banner which had been placed there by the occupation authorities. The first wider resistance movements occurred in northern Greece , where the Bulgarians annexed Greek territories . The first mass uprising occurred around the town of Drama in eastern Macedonia , in the Bulgarian occupation zone. The Bulgarian authorities had initiated large-scale Bulgarization policies, causing

20049-462: The occupation of Athens and the fall of Crete , King George II and his government escaped to Egypt , where they proclaimed a government-in-exile , recognised by the Allies . The British greatly encouraged the King to appoint centrist , moderate ministers; only two of his ministers were members of the dictatorial government that had governed Greece before the German invasion. Despite that, some in

20212-693: The occupied territories on 14 May 1941, which had long been a target of Bulgarian foreign policy. East Macedonia and Thrace had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913, when it became part of Bulgaria following the First Balkan War until being annexed by Greece in two stages. Later in 1913, Greece annexed parts of Western Thrace after the Second Balkan War , and then in 1920 at the San Remo conference , Greece formally received

20375-427: The other". Relations between the Germans and Italians were not good and there were brawls between German and Italian soldiers; the Germans regarded the Italians as incompetent and frivolous, while the Italians considered the behaviour of their ostensible allies as barbarous. By contrast, the Italians had no such inhibitions, which created problems among Wehrmacht and SS officers. German officers often complained that

20538-605: The partisans was death in combat as the German military forces were far superior. However, the guerrilla fighters also had to face starvation, brutal environmental conditions in the mountains of Greece, while poorly clothed and shod. The resistance also involved risks for ordinary Greeks. Attacks often incited reprisal killings of civilians by the German occupying forces. Villages were burned and their inhabitants massacred. The Germans also resorted to hostage-taking. There were also accusations that many of ELAS' attacks against German soldiers didn't happen for resistance reasons but aiming

20701-500: The people of the neighborhood and the Axis forces assisted by the collaborationist Security Battalions ended with the retreat of the Nazi army from the area. Another urban battle during the last year of the occupation was that of Kaisariani in April 1944, when ELAS defended their positions in the Kaisariani suburb of Athens against the Nazi collaborators. Resisting the Axis occupation was fraught with risks. Foremost among these for

20864-545: The post-war borders of Bulgaria and thereby to secure a strategic outlet to the Aegean Sea. But the United Kingdom, whose troops advanced towards Greece at the same time, stated that the withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from all occupied territories was a precondition for a ceasefire agreement with Bulgaria. As result on 10 October, the Bulgarian army and administration began evacuating and after two weeks withdrew from

21027-483: The pro-Soviet coup in the country on 9 September 1944 . At that time it declared war on Germany, but the Bulgarian army remained in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace , where there were several limited attacks from withdrawing German troops in the middle of September. Bulgaria hoped to keep these territories after the war. The Soviet Union initially also believed it was possible to include at least Western Thrace in

21190-464: The purposes of civil administration before the invasion, Greece was divided into 37 prefectures . Following the occupation, the prefectures of Drama, Kavalla, Rhodope and Serres were annexed by Bulgaria and no longer under the control of the Greek government. The remaining 33 prefectures had a concurrent military administration by Italian or German troops. In 1943, Attica and Boeotia was split into separate prefectures. Few Greeks actively cooperated with

21353-528: The regime as of April 1943 and was responsible for the creation of the Greek collaborationist Security Battalions . As in other European countries, there were Greeks willing to collaborate with the occupying force. However, few of the members of the Security battalions shared a pro-German ideology. The majority convinced themselves that the British approved anti-communist activity; others enlisted because of opportunistic advancement, while most of them came from

21516-569: The region of Viannos and Ierapetra in Crete were executed by the 22. Luftlande Infanterie-Division ; the " Massacre of Kalavryta " on 13 December 1943, in which Wehrmacht troops of the 117th Jäger Division carried out the extermination of the entire male population and the subsequent total destruction of the town; the " Distomo massacre " on 10 June 1944, where units of the Waffen-SS Polizei Division looted and burned

21679-492: The remainder of present-day Western Thrace province after its victory in WWI . Throughout the Bulgarian occupation zone, Bulgaria had a policy of extermination, expulsion and ethnic cleansing , aiming to forcibly Bulgarize , expel or kill ethnic Greeks. This Bulgarization campaign deported all Greek mayors, landowners, industrialists, school teachers, judges, lawyers, priests and Hellenic Gendarmerie officers. The usage of

21842-459: The reorganization of ELAS bands along conventional lines had been completed, and ELAS strength was about 15,000 fighters with additionally 20,000 reserves. Eventually, the EAM incorporated 90% of the Greek resistance movement, boasted a total membership of over 1,500,000, including 50,000 armed guerrillas, and controlled much of rural mainland Greece and attracted large numbers of non-Communists. The first contact between Soviet officers and members of

22005-595: The rest of Macedonia. After the Italian collapse in 1943, the Germans allowed the Bulgarians to intervene in Greek Central Macedonia, over the area between the Strymon and Axios rivers. The situation also forced the Germans to take control of Western Macedonia with the occasional interventions of Bulgarian troops. At that time the Greek guerrilla forces, especially the left-wing Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) were gaining more and more strength in

22168-687: The rest of the political leaders. During the Regime of the Colonels , the military dictatorship led by George Papadopoulos , he was imprisoned and exiled until his release in 1971. Manolis Glezos' sentences, from the Second World War to the Greek Civil War and the Regime of the Colonels total 11 years and 4 months of imprisonment, and 4 years and 6 months of exile. After the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, Glezos participated in

22331-573: The reviving of EDA. In the elections of October 1981 and June 1985 , he was elected Member of the Greek Parliament , on a Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) ticket. In 1984 he was elected Member of the European Parliament , again on a PASOK ticket. He was the President of EDA from 1985 until 1989. In the meantime, in 1986, he withdrew from the Parliament, in order to try to implement a grassroots democracy experiment. He did so in

22494-526: The role of resisting the occupation powers. The first resistance groups started appearing a few months after the beginning of the occupation of Greece, such as the Grivas Military Organization , founded in June 1941, and the organization "Freedom", led by Colonel Dimitrios Psarros , founded in July 1941. Also, in June 1941, shortly after the end of the Battle of Crete , the organization " Supreme Committee of Cretan Struggle " (AEAK)

22657-585: The ships Sinfra, Mario Roselli and Ardena, that were carrying them to mainland Greece, were sunk by Allied air raids and sea mines in the Adriatic. In many other places significant amounts of Italian weaponry and equipment, as well as men, fell into the hands of the Resistance. The most spectacular case was that of the Pinerolo division and the Lancieri di Aosta Cavalry Regiment, which went completely over to

22820-531: The spread of the resistance. The main roles of resistance operatives were intelligence and sabotage, mostly in cooperation with British Intelligence. One of the earliest jobs of the urban resistance was helping stranded Commonwealth soldiers escape. The resistance groups stayed in touch with British handlers through wireless sets, met and helped British spies and saboteurs that parachuted in, provided intelligence, conducted propaganda efforts, and ran escape networks for allied operatives and Greek young men wishing to join

22983-418: The strongest available patron and shifted their allegiances when a better one appeared. Many events were part of a cycle of revenge between local communities over land ownership, state policies, sectarian hostilities and personal vendettas. This cycle of revenge became nationalized during the war with different communities choosing different sides. Although the majority of Cham Albanian elites collaborated with

23146-445: The symbol of a fighter who knew how to sacrifice himself for the people." The Russian president Vladimir Putin sent a condolence message to the Greek government, which included, inter alia, the following words: "To his Excellency, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. May you accept [my] deep condolences for the loss of Manolis Glezos, a brilliant political and social figure of Greece and a hero of the Greek Resistance at World War II. Manolis Glezos

23309-489: The three main Resistance groups (EAM/ELAS, EDES and EKKA) to cooperate and to subject themselves to the Allied Middle East High Command under General Wilson (the " National Bands Agreement "), in the political field, the mutual mistrust between EAM and the other groups escalated. EAM-ELAS was by now the dominant political and military force in Greece, and EDES and EKKA, along with the British and

23472-553: The village of Choristi are officially considered today Martyr Cities. At the same time, large demonstrations were organized in Greek Macedonian cities by the Defenders of Northern Greece (YVE), a right-wing organization, in protest against the Bulgarian annexation of Greek territories. Armed groups consisted of andartes – αντάρτες ("guerillas") first appeared in the mountains of Macedonia by October 1941, and

23635-468: The village of Distomo in Boeotia resulting in the deaths of 218 civilians; the 3 October 1943 " Lingiades massacre " where the German army murdered in reprisal nearly 100 people in the village of Lingiades, 13 kilometres outside Ioannina ; and the " Holocaust of Kedros " on 22 August 1944 in Crete, where 164 civilians were executed and nine villages were dynamited after being looted. At the same time, in

23798-464: The war, spelling the demise of Greek rule in the region and its annexation by Bulgaria. The first non-communist resistance organization that emerged in the area had as main opponents members of the Aromanian- and Slav-speaking minorities, as well as the communists, rather than the Germans themselves. Because of the strong presence of German troops and the general distrust of Slavophones by the Greeks,

23961-404: The war. In general thousands of people were sentenced to prison, while ca. 2,000 received death sentences. Many Slavophones of Macedonia , in particular of Kastoria and Florina provinces, collaborated with Axis forces and came out openly for Bulgaria. These Slavophones considered themselves Bulgarian. In the first two years of occupation, a group of this community believed that the Axis would win

24124-501: The word Macedonia". Apart from his political work, Glezos invented a system to prevent floods , combat erosion and preserve underground water , that works by the constructions of a series of very small dams that redirect water to aquifers . For his contributions to democracy, to geological sciences, and to linguistics he was pronounced honorary Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Patras (Department of Geology) in 1996, of

24287-428: Was a SYRIZA candidate for the European Parliament in the elections of 25 May 2014 . He was elected to the European Parliament with over 430,000 votes, more than any other candidate in Greece. At age 91, he was also the oldest person elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 election. In 2015, Glezos took a firm stance in favour of the "No" vote in the Greek bailout referendum . As an MEP he also participated in

24450-551: Was a true friend of our country [...] He [also] greatly contributed, in person, in the struggle against the distortion of history. [...] With honour, Vladimir Putin. Moscow Kremlin , April 1st, 2020". His funeral was held in the First Cemetery of Athens , in public expense on April 1, with only his family present, due to the restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic . Glezos wrote articles in Greek newspapers since 1942 and

24613-426: Was additionally motivated by a desire to "pluck out the best fruit" to plunder before the Italians could get it. Groups of economic advisers, businessmen, engineers and factory managers came from Germany with the task of seizing anything they deemed of economic value, with involvement from both Germany's Economic Ministry and its Foreign Office involved in the operation. These groups saw themselves as in competition with

24776-418: Was armed resistance in the Bulgarian zone was that enjoyed widespread support from the civilians in the region; Greek guerrillas engaged the Bulgarian military in many battles, even entering pre-war Bulgarian territory, raided villages and captured booty. In 1943, previously united Greek factions began armed conflict between communist and right-wing groups with the aim of securing control of the region following

24939-410: Was attacked on 13 September by elements of the 1. Gebirgs-Division with support from Stukas , and forced to surrender on 21 September after suffering some 1,300 casualties. The next day, the Germans began executing their prisoners and did not stop until more than 4,500 Italians had been shot. The 4,000 or so survivors were put aboard ships for the mainland, but some of them sank after hitting mines in

25102-553: Was centred in the mountainous interior, and despite the strong presence of German troops, developed significant activity. Notable figures of the Cretan Resistance include Patrick Leigh Fermor , Xan Fielding , Dudley Perkins , Thomas Dunbabin , Petrakogiorgis , Kimonas Zografakis , Manolis Paterakis and George Psychoundakis . Resistance operations included airfield sabotages , the abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe by Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bill Stanley Moss ,

25265-475: Was founded. The first major resistance organization to be founded was the National Liberation Front (EAM), which by 1944 came to number more than 1,800,000 members (the Greek population was around 7,500,000 at that time). EAM was organized by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and other smaller parties, whereas the major pre-war political parties refused to participate either in EAM or in any other resistance movement. On February 16, 1942, EAM gave permission to

25428-403: Was introduced in early 1942, and a policy of Italianization initiated in public education and the press. Similar steps were undertaken in the eastern Aegean island of Samos . However, due to German insistence, no official annexation took place during the occupation. Italian policy promised that the region of Chameria ( Thesprotia ) in northwestern Greece would be awarded to Albania after

25591-402: Was located on the Albanian front lines to defend against Italian counter-attacks, a rapid German Blitzkrieg campaign took place from April to June 1941, resulting in Greece being defeated and occupied. The Greek government went into exile , and an Axis collaborationist government was established in its place. Greece's territory was divided into occupation zones run by the Axis powers, with

25754-472: Was no clear distinction between the civil and military administration, while even the military administration was divided among various sectors (Italian 11th army, German 12th army, " fortress Crete " etc.) . In December 1942, Tsolakologlou was succeeded by Konstantinos Logothetopoulos , a professor of medicine whose main qualification for Prime Minister seemed to be his marriage to the niece of German Field Marshal Wilhelm List . Ioannis Rallis became head of

25917-655: Was not the end of Glezos' plight. On 3 March 1948, in the midst of the Greek Civil War , he was put to trial for his political convictions and sentenced to death multiple times by the national government. His death penalties were reduced to a life sentence in 1950. Even though he was still imprisoned, Manolis Glezos was elected member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1951, under the flag of the United Democratic Left , also known as EDA ( Ενιαία Δημοκρατική Αριστερά, ΕΔΑ ). Upon his election, he went on

26080-485: Was participating in a protest demonstration in Athens, when he was hit in the face by a police tear gas canister. He was carried away injured. In February 2012, Glezos was arrested by riot police while protesting in Athens. He was sprayed with tear gas by one of the police officers in that area. In the June 2012 parliamentary election, Glezos was elected as MP of the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) party. Glezos

26243-585: Was swiftly fired after less than a month on the job. Walter Schimana replaced Stroop as the Higher SS Police Leader in Greece and established a better working relationship with the Neubacher-Löhr duumvirate. Residents of Greece suffered greatly during the occupation. With the country's economy having been reduced from six months of war, and economic exploitation by the occupying forces, raw materials and food were requisitioned, and

26406-420: Was the National and Social Liberation (EKKA), led by Colonel Dimitrios Psarros . In general, most of the major guerrilla groups were at least moderately republican in orientation, whereas the Greek government-in-exile had been connected with monarchism, the Metaxas dictatorship, defeatism, and abandonment of the homeland to the invader. Manolis Glezos In Greece, he is best remembered for taking down

26569-471: Was wracked by internal disputes and held in low esteem by the Greek public, especially after the Italians replaced the Germans throughout much of the country in June 1941. The puppet government was kept under strict Axis control. Two Axis plenipotentiaries, Gunther Altenburg and Pellegrino Ghigi , had the power to recommend the appointment and dismissal of Greek officials and were the key civilian figures in shaping Axis policy towards Greece. In addition, there

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