Occupation and Resistance, The Greek Agony 1941–44 (review)

Reviews 103 tion and suffocating bureaucracy, remains fully valid after the change of regime, since, as he observes correctly, centralization and uniformity are accepted by all political parties as axiomatic. Greece appears to be further than ever from a pluralistic educational system allowing for diversity and responsive to individual needs. Given the fact that most of the authors are of Greek origin or nationality while the remainder may clearly be described as Philhellenes , these articles may strike readers of other orientations as having a somewhat ethnocentric bias. Nevertheless, it is a tribute to the great progress achieved in scholarly examination of modern Greece during the past thirty years that so many specialized studies can attain so high a level of sophisticated analysis. William W. McGrew Anatolia College John Louis Hondros. Occupation and Resistance, The Greek Agony 194144 . New York: Pella Publishing Company, Inc., 1983. Pp. 340. None of the several books written on the same topic has up to now utilized so many ofthe existing sources and has covered the subject from so many aspects as this study. Its main advantage over the others is the extensive use of the captured German records now deposited in the U.S. National Archives. A number of obscure developments , covered until recently with uncertainty and doubt, are now illuminated by the German documents. The same can be said about the Public Record Office documents which were used, many of which have only recently become available to scholars. The author prefaces his narrative with a brief analysis of the historical background that ended with the Metaxas dictatorship. More detailed treatment starts with the events leading to the invasion of Greece by the Italians, their defeat on the Albanian mountains , and their retreat; and ends with the attack of the Germans against Greece and the beginning of the dramatic period of the Nazi occupation. If in other occupied countries the Germans applied a policy of "rational" exploitation, in Greece they resorted "to plundering and indifference" (p. 62). The structure ofthe administrative machine was complicated, with often overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions , especially between the military and political authorities. This 104 Reviews enormous structure, which is described in detail, was unable to prevent economic disaster and famine in Greece. Statistics ofthe number of people who starved to death are appalling. An equally depressing facet of the occupation was the cooperation offered to the Germans by the quisling administrations, by the Greek Nazis, whose organizations and leaders parade by in the book, and by collaborators in general. The annihilation ofthe Greek Jews was one more tragic page of this period. Whole communities of thousands of people from all over the country were sent to concentration camps, especially the Auschwitz, while others were exterminated in Greece. Out of these conditions the Greek Resistance was born. Few questions in modern Greek history are so controversial as the Greek Resistance against the Axis. And it is to the credit of the author that he has dealt with it with great objectivity and detachment . A number of writers of books on the same topic were participants themselves, and in their works try to explain or justify the point of view of their side. Professor Hondros, who evidently was too young to have lived through this period, views all these developments from a certain distance, avoiding emotionalism and one-sidedness . In connection with the origins of the resistance movement, the author correctly maintains that it started immediately after the defeat ofthe regular army. King George II's failure to plan any form of political or military resistance before leaving Athens, as well as the fact that the British Foreign Office and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) could not agree on a common policy toward the Resistance , gave the opportunity to the Communist Party to play a dominant role. The beginnings of the most effective resistance organization, the EAM/ELAS, and its growth, are discussed, as well as the appearance of the by far less numerous EDES and EKKA organizations . The four major political problems, i.e., the question ofthe return ofthe king, the unification ofthe resistance, the formation of a government of national unity, and the Greek armed forces of the Middle East...