Greek Women in Resistance (review)

288 Reviews similarly provides a slightly different take on the notion of the household and household economy in rural Greece. These essays might more usefully have been framed to challenge or contribute to the kind of position taken in Herzfeld's essay. Despite its flaws, Dubisch's collection demonstrates again the richness of the Greek ethnographic record and promises its continued contribution to the development of gender studies. Susan Carol Rogers New York University Eleni Fourtouni, Greek Women in Resistance. New Haven: Thelphini Press. 1986. Pp. 215. Until recently, reflecting patriarchal society, the history of women has been largely neglected. This is particularly the case with regard to Greece. Although there are several anthropological studies on the traditional role of women in rural society, there is a dearth of material, scholarly or popular, on women's participation in dramatic events which have impacted their society. Yet women throughout modern Greek history, at moments of crises—wars, occupation, civil war, dictatorship—have not been passive recipients of their fate placidly pursuing their traditional roles. Many have broken the bounds of traditionalism and have been transformed into dynamic political activists. In the process they have shed their self-perception, shared by the society at large, of women as inferior, weak creatures, incapable of being self-sufficient. The image of women, as creatures whose moral worth necessitates subservience to men and whose behavior must be governed by modesty has been repeatedly shattered. Eleni Fourtouni's Greek Women in Resistance is to be welcomed. It is an important contribution towards the recognition of "the other Greek woman," the woman who believed she had some control over her destiny. She fought against the Nazi occupation forces, joined EAM, and in some cases the Democratic Army during the civil war. Many found themselves in concentration camps in Trikeri and Makronisos . Fourtouni documents the women's lives and their experiences during the middle 40s until 1950, through the use of both oral histories and their own writings. The first part consists of accounts related by women, and translated by Fourtouni, who resisted the Nazis through a variety of activities from organizing child care centers to joining the guerilla forces and commanding women's units. Reviews 289 The later and longer part of the volume consists of translations of three journals kept by women who spent years in the concentration camps of Trikeri and Makronisos. The text is supplemented by photographs of women warriors and by drawings made by Katerina Hariati -Sismani, one of the political prisoners. The journals from the concentration camps, most vividly Victoria Theodorou's Trikeri journal, are poignant, compelling, heartwrenching portrayals of life under conditions of extreme deprivation , constant physical and psychological pain and outright torture. The manner in which they are written, a recitation of their experiences and their determination to survive with their dignity intact, makes them compelling reading—all the more compelling because of the absence of propaganda. The reader is left with an acute sense of indignation and despair at the brutality of humans towards each other. Despite the inhumaness of their existence, what emerges, is that for these women, of perhaps greater significance than their ideological commitment, was their determination not to be obliterated as human beings. Within the confines of irrational camp regulations which imposed unnecessary hardships on them, excruciating physical labor, the absence of sanitary facilities, a starvation diet, and periodic torture, these women survived. Some, particularly the women relatives of partisans, eventually succumbed in Macronisos and signed the statement of repentance making them eligible for release from the concentration camp. But 480 held out to the end, until during the early 1950s a mounting international outcry brought about their gradual release. None of the women active in the resistance against the Nazis or with the guerrilla forces during the civil war perceived of herself as a feminist. Yet what the women's stories highlight is their actions as autonomous individuals responsible to themselves and to their principles and not to male authority. Perhaps even more importantly, is their ability and their skill in forming a society—a society devoid of men—as they did in Tekeri. Within the confines of a concentration camp, a social organization...