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Despite the importance of the German invasion of Greece in 1941, relatively little research has been conducted into the campaign's operational aspects, and a number of misunderstandings or misinterpretations have developed. One of the most powerful misconceptions was that the huge disparity in airpower, particularly dive-bombers, made it impossible for British and Dominion troops to hold the German advance. This article demonstrates, however, that despite its complete dominance of the Greek skies, the terror it inspired, and its almost continual operations against Allied positions, the Luftwaffe did not have the decisive role in the campaign that has so often been ascribed to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Greece had been conquered by the troops of the Axis Powers in spring 1941, they installed a rule of occupation existing until October 1944. The Government in Athens had to finance this occupation by making payments in advance and besides, making a forced credit available. This method led to an exorbitant overloading of the Greek economy and to a galloping inflation. The German Tax and Finance Ministry played an important, yet hardly noticed role as to the concrete implementation of the monetary exploitation. Almost unknown documents throw a light on the financing of the German Wehrmacht during WW II. Besides, the real burden on the Greek economy shall be estimated and connected with the general questions of war financing in the Third Reich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1942, one year after the occupation of Greece by the German 'Wehrmacht', the 'Reichswirtschaftsministerium' set up the DEGRIGES (Deutsch-Griechische Warenausgleichsgesellschaft / German-Greek organization for the exchange of goods) for the control of trade between Germany and Greece. The president was Otto Braun, owner of the Berlin-based 'Transdanubia', an Import- Export-Company. Braun organised in the 1920s in Bavaria illegal arms depots, and commanded 'Feme'-murders. In Hungary he supported the fascists, and achieves the 'aryanization' of Jewish companies. The focus of the investigation is on the activities of the DEGRIGES in the network of competing organizations like the greek branch of NSDAP, the Sudosteuropa-Gesellschaft, the SACIG (the Italian counterpart of DEGRIGES), and the Mitteleuropaischer Wirtschaftstag (MWT) − and on the competition with Hermann Neubacher, 'Sonderbeauftrager' of the Foreign Office for Greece, and Max Merten, one of the organizers of the deportation of the greek Jews to Auschwitz. In summary, it can be stated that the DEGRIGES was from 1942 until 1944 (when it was liquidated during the withdrawal of the 'Wehrmacht') an 'agency for the well-arranged exploitation of Greece'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on a panel on local governments during World War II, convened during the Historikertag, the annual congress of the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (VHD) and Verband der Geschichtslehrer Deutschlands (VGD) professional associations in Göttingen, Germany, from September 23-26, 2014. Topics discussed included resistance to German occupations of foreign nations such as Denmark, the cooperation of the people of Ukraine in the Nazi persecution of Jews in that country, and Greek resistance to Axis occupation.

This article discusses the film Mediterraneo, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, in order to problematize and renegotiate its apparent political and historical inconsistencies and contradictions. he ilm presents a narration of certain events that characterized the role of the Italian nation-state and the fascist regime in the conflict against Greece during World War II. But Salvatores avoids a linear, official, or objective representation of those historical events, and proposes instead a fragmented, subjective, and potentially subversive (re)reading of that period. he deterritorialized spatiality of a Mediterranean island becomes therefore, in this film, an emblematic space of autonomy where a newly formed community temporarily removes itself from the simplistic notions established by the logic of armed conflict. Salvatores thus questions and subverts the implications of a hegemonic, belligerent discourse perpetrated by the nation-states at war against each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article covers three aspects of the Holocaust that are commonly misrepresented or ignored. First, an endlessly repeated piece of misinformation, is the description of the Holocaust as a project to kill the Jews of Europe. Most ignore the evidence that all Jews on earth were to be killed, that some outside Europe were killed, and that there were preparations for the killing of Jews in the Middle East. The second is the German expectation of winning the war, and that certain policies in implementing the Holocaust can only be understood in the context of an expectation of easier completion after victory. The third aspect is the absence from most accounts of the personal interests of those doing the killing in promotions, medals, loot, etc. in the early years and in safety from dangerous assignment to fighting at the front in the later years of the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the nuances of Greek political allegiance in relation to the emergence of fascism in the country as of March 2013. It describes the paradoxical nature of the popularity of the neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn as Greece suffered under the Axis occupation of 1941-1944. The article also traces the origin of the nationalist feeling that has negatively affected immigrants following World War II.

Mired in controversy, the Eden-Dill Mission, which attempted to form an anti-Axis Balkan front to save Greece from Nazi occupation, has not received the attention it deserves from Anthony Eden's biographers. Yet it tested his leadership skills to the utmost as he grappled with the conundrum of how to bring Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia together in an anti-Axis Balkan front at the same time as protecting the recent conquest of Cyrenaica to defend Egypt. The associated military strategy owed much to General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East, whose long lost memorandum supporting intervention has been discovered and is reviewed herein. The importance of political factors - in particular trying to impress the Americans whose emissary, Colonel William (Bill) Donovan, played a key facilitating role - is shown to have influenced military strategy. The hopes invested in the mission were tinged with unreality and a Balkan front failed to materialise either diplomatically or militarily; nor was Greece saved. Eden emerged from the experience with his reputation tainted, but he survived as he was not held responsible for the military miscalculations and there were some benefits arising from his steadfast diplomacy, which he was compelled to play with a weak hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Trikala, central Greece, specific historical events significantly inform understandings of the present economic crisis through what is termed “cultural proximity”. This is the notion that previous times of social and economic turmoil, apparently distant points in time, are embodied within the context of the present. Some past epochs of prosperity and crisis have proved more significant than others in shaping contemporary crisis experience. As accounts of the Great Famine of 1941–1943 are brought to the fore by the current economic crisis, concepts of lineal time and the nationalization of critical events must be interrogated. Through considering theories of time as proposed by Michel Serres, this paper addresses how specific historical events can become embodied during the current economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a report from a July 19-21, 2012 conference in Munich, Germany on the memorial culture and historical policy of Greece during its period of German occupation. Topics of presentations included the alleged threat of reparations from the German government to the Greek people, Greek resistance movements, and the desertion of German Wehrmacht soldiers to join Greek resistance movements.

The article discusses British foreign policy towards Greece, emphasizing the British employment of the Truman Doctrine in its relations with the country during and after World War II. The author alleges that Great Britain manipulated the U.S. government's use of this doctrine to protect British strategic interests in Greece even after it had stopped giving aid to the country. British support for the exiled Greek government during the German occupation of the nation is detailed. The nations' relationship with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) is also examined.

The article discusses the history of the National Republican Greek League (EDES) and its role in resisting Nazi German occupation during World War II. It describes the influence of Greek political instability from military coups, corruption, and fraud on laying the foundations for Greek resistance to German occupation forces. It then discusses underground resistance movements led by politician Komninos Pyromaglou. Other subjects under discussion include the National Liberation Front (EAM), the Communist Party of Greece, and the Union for People's Democracy.