Why Greece Didn't Join the Axis: ruclips.net/video/ulQy8K9bEM4/видео.html The German Invasion of Greece: ruclips.net/video/AZ_k5TMse6c/видео.html The Axis Occupation of Greece: ruclips.net/video/RxaFsQmQogA/видео.html
Your expositions of various collaborationist WWII governments are the very best and most incisive I've seen or read. Keep it up, as what you're doing is important. Your students are lucky to have you.
If you like this topic I recommend you the book (Ger) "Die Geheimdienste der Achsenmächte in Europa"/ (Eng google translated) "The secret services of the axis powers in europe" by Garbiele Faggioni Its very interesting Havent finish the book yet but its very nice to learn things you dont learn in school The topic WW2 in German schools dont really exist We only had talked about the rise of the regime and thats it Maybe a little talk about Berlin but not more thats just it I learned my whole life for the topic WW2 in school but it was just a waste of time We didnt do anything what I learned and I was very suprised that most of my classmates didnt even know what a Officer or General was Sorry for my bad English🤷♂️
I hope you enjoyed your staying in our beautiful country my dear Dutchman! Thank you for your research and efforts to inform the public because a lot of us don't know jack about our history.
Great video stefan. The main issues with famine and cholera where in athens thessaloniki and pireus. The rural areas did not have issues. For the security battalions in pelloponisos were organized against the communists guerillas of ELAS. Also the protests were organized by the archibishop damaskinos
Lad unfortunately in the United States, in the past twenty years, we have largely omitted this tragedy from our history books. So thank you for producing another brilliant video,on a semi forgotten history concerning the Fascist occupation of Greece. Kudos and God bless and family.
Thank you Professor, for teaching us topics that are overlooked in the period. 250,000 Greeks, dead by starvation, terrible! Criminal (political decision of Berlin, of course) and the Germans, really, had no resentment, as if the Slavs or other ethnic groups!. Greetings.
suggestion: Balli Kombëtar, collaborationist Albanians. I think an episode about them would be interesting, since there are no english videos about them.
Two things rarely mentioned about the occupation. First, many of the collaborators were given political posts in later governments and second, the Germans stole the Greek gold deposits which today amount to more than 100 billion euros. Otherwise great job.
@@HistoryHustle Can't wait for that one, although I know there's going to be a lot of bashing in the comments when you post it, for obvious reasons. Even here, in Crete, people still disagree, to this day, about what really happened. Good luck with that though, you do have a lot of Greek subscribers and viewers, that's for sure.
The Nazis put puppet governments in place all over Europe. An interesting exception was the Netherlands. The Dutch were neutral at beginning of war but ended up getting invaded anyhow. Germans didn't feel a need to put a puppet government in place and instead instituted a policy of Gleichschaltung. They considered the Dutch part of what they claimed as the Aryan Master race and believed they could assimilate them under direct German rule and make them part of Germany. Also In the Netherlands, the Nazis setup a Jewish collaborator council. Jewish collaborators were used as an instrument for organising the identification and deportation of Jews more efficiently to Nazi death camps In other words, just because someone collaborated does not mean they agreed with Nazis. There has to be context on case-by-case basis of what a collaborator did and why whether to truly think of them as war criminals. I would argue many collabertors (obviously not all) were actually well intentioned. In practice virtualy all collaborators opposed Nazi forces in their homelands (with exceptions in mostly german speaking areas like Austria). It is easy to say from the safety of our homes how we would never have collaborated but when someone has a gun to their head.. or face threats to kill loved ones.. or to execute hundreds.... compliance is more the norm than the exception. Frankly I find it morally repugnient how some a-la-carte treat collaberators as all being the same in some particular country for cheap self-righteous populist points. Some even use collaborators for racist and even extreme nationalists reasons that they frame as "human rights". (i.e. a manipulative way to portray a nation or ethnic group as "fascist" or "racist".. thus gain political currency to apply pressure on that nation by another nation)
@@mydogsbutlerYeah for example in Greece the communist party started chasing their own strategic objectives already from end 1943 when it was clear the Germans would lose the war. From 1943-1946 the communists held farce trials and killed many many Greeks who could be potentially dangerous to the future communistic regime. Up to this day the disillusioned leftists say that the communists were actually killing Nazi collaborators till 1949 when the civil war ended. It's very difficult to shine light on these aspects nowadays, people are again being ideologically polarised in 2 camps and objectivity is the victim
Excellent research and presentation as always. These insights into collaborationist governments of World War II are very informative and get a much clearer picture of what went on in the countries in question.
Great video thanks for featuring this! I’d previously commented that Tsolakoglou and Rallis were “pro-German” but it really seems like only Rallis was, seems more like Tsolakoglou was trying to hold some kind of Greek sovereignty together following the Greek defeat, Bulgaria’s annexations, and the Italian and German garrisoning of the rest of the country. This succeeded on paper but wasn’t really effective as you illustrated with the anecdote about the food crisis
It was impossible, Turkey was a new country and trying to cover its wounds from the great war, also the relations between Greece and Turkey were well. It would be catastrophic for Turkey if they joined the 2nd World War.
Turkey actually declared war to Germany in 1945, just before the end of the war in order to be with the victors and share the spoils of war! Hilarious!!
Thank you so much for focusing on Greek WW2. The events of WW2 and their reflection on the civil war have left a big stain on the soul of all Greeks today. Your videos help alleviate the pain a bit by talking facts and help to distance ourselves from the "fully-right vs fully-wrong" mentality of both sides of the civil war. PS. I would love to see a military scenario analysis (not sure if its in your scope of work) about the effects of the 6 week Greek delay to Operation Barbarossa.
Thanks for your reply. Sorry but I dont do what ifs. On other channels the thesis has been elaborated on. From what I understand it made no difference as the Germans were not beaten by the cold but their supply lines coming under strain because of the distance.
Allot thanks Sir Stefan for introducing this clearly explaining that ultra Miserable situation in Greece Through Three occupied actions in same times By (Italy , German & Bulgars )during WW2 ...I appreciate History Hustle for introducing & Producing efforts of these wonderful history coverages ...Good Luke
Another Great video bro!!! You forgot to mention the only thing that was positive, the fact that when tsolakoglou signed the armistice for it was under condition that no one of the encircled Greek army in Epiros wouldn't be imprisoned and let go.... If it wasn't for that my Reserve lieutenant grandad wouldn't live to have my dad etc 😝😝👌🏼😊
The surname of this Georgios Tsolakoglou seems to be Turkish. It literally means `the son of the lefthanded`.... Interestingly Wikipedia says he was of "Aromanian" origin...
Great video as always. Germany paid Greece 115DM in reparations to Greece in 1960. Then when Greece was suffering so badly during the late 2000’s Greek government debt crisis, they brought up the issue again and looked for further reparations. Shows how deep the scars of WW2 still burn today.
Hi Stefan are you able to do a video on Greeks in WW2 who collaborated with the Nazi forces in Greece. I have read that there were security forces made up of Greeks but that also an attempt was made by the Germans to set up a recruitment office for volunteers for the (waffen SS or Waffen Units)? Apparently it was bombed by the resistance killing 40 German soldiers and also those looking to sign up. Given collaboration was not raised very much in Greece post war it appears to be a murky area. Many thanks
As the Germans moved to the south and occupied Thessaloniki,they basically encircled Metaxas Line and then they moved to the left and were about to cut off then mail bulk of the Greek Army which was fighting in Albania.The King and the Goverment fled to Crete and after the Battle of Crete to Egypt. Tsolakoglou took the initiative for a truce with the Germans because a)he wanted to stop the unnessessary bloodshed and b)he hoped to avoid Italian and Bulgarian occupation of parts of Greece(at first the Germans were OK with that but then Mussolini protested,plus the Germans wanted all the available soldiers for Operation Barbarossa),in general i think he was a man of good intentions. Logothetopoulos was german educated with a German wife,he was politically inexperienced and unimportant. Ioannis Rallis is the most interesting of the three,he was part of the old political class,from a cosmopiltan family of traders and politicians,very experienced,and he basically took over from mid-1943,when everybody knew the Germany was going to loose the war,with aim to prepare the ground for communist-free post-war Greece(the British did a lot James Bond stuff in occupied greece) and after the Germans left in October 1944,we had the infamous ''Dekemvriana''(which make Athens the Cradle of the Cold War-pun intented) and then the very bloody Greek Civil War which lasted until 1949 and it's practically unknown outside Greece,unlike the Spanish Civil War
the results of the collaboration goverments would still affect the country for many years after the war up to 1974, as many of them would be used by the greek jounta. one of the best examples of the greek security batalions or germanotsoliades can be seen at the fight of Kokkinia -Nikaia (4-8/3-1944), a suburb of Pireus, and the so called roundup of Kokkinia(17-8-1944) a few months later, where practically the only german intervence were the vehicles and the guns used.
The security batallions operations in Athens were planned by the greek government,who had also a defence ministry,apart from the security forces of gendarmerie and police. Not by the germans. The issue at hand for the collaborators in 1943-44 was the growing influence of EAM,that had to be crushed. Of course the germans giving the OK was necessary and usually german army or SS detachments operated along having the final say,but the idea that the germans were giving orders to the batallions and the Rallis's government had no say at all or that they were slavishly doing what the germans wanted is misleading,to put it mildly. The collaborators,especially in the Rallis's period had a definite agenda of their own that hapened to fit the german wishes,they were NOT idiots or stupid fascists blinded by their ideology..Note that i refer to the security batallions operations,especially the infamous roundups of 1943-44 in Athens. In rural areas the german army was conducting antipartisan operations of his own.
Greeks didn't hate the Italians. Mussolini had expressed expansionist views over Greece when Hitler own expansionist views didn't target Greece. So Italy (along with Bulgaria) was perceived as a greater danger for the territorial integrity of the country. After the fall of Mussolini, Italy joined the allies and the Germans started hunting Italian soldiers in Greece. The Greek population hide many of them, providing them with shelter, food and civilian cloths, often those of the son they lost during the greco-italian war.
There is a book "DOSILOGOI", out in Greek which explores the issue regarding the German and than British collaborators (Greece may be the only country that the allies allied with the collaborators against the resistance). Please get the facts straight.
It's interesting video....As far as I know when German's arrived in Athens they saw a city with all windows closed meaning that they are not welcome at least.... Both my grandfathers fought in the war against Italy and if they did not been rescued by Germans propably would fall into Adriatic sea.....So how can we accept Italian occupation?And it's not true for sure that 95/of population was willing to help the Germans?The opposite happened..... Except partisans almost everyone could use every chance to show how hateful they were.... only collaborators were willing to do everything and most of them managed to get away with it unfortunately..... I do not want to write more because it's so many that could be a huge comment so I said the most important..... Good video
@@HistoryHustle According to the Germans which of course is not reliable at all... According to the numbers of people who executed by them i don't think so... They had problems for the first day.... In Crete we had the first massive executions in Europe.... The pride of wermacht died in Crete... the airborne Division... Besides at all time of occupation they had problems everywhere.... The bodies here in Athens and not only of course were in every day s sight.... from starving.... Nobody from Greece fought for or with them in eastern front and nowhere else....And i could say a lot of other things but no need to.... So of course I don't believe it.... People who collaborated and some of them made fortunes of course were but in very little number....As a conclusion i could say that I am proud of my country which not only fought the axis but also manage the first glorious victory against italy.... and fought the Germans till the end!!!! Churchill himself admit it and make it an example... Sorry but I think that this is something that not only is not true but insult our people... and of course Germans and Goebbels were expert in propaganda
Hello, You didn't mention that the protests about the workers who wanted the Germans to take them abroad, had been organized by EAM(NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT). In my opinion you also had to mention that the security battalions were formed by the Nazis in late 1943, because they needed a force, after the surrender of Italy.
OK Mr! You mentioned also the resistance and you had a picture of general Zervas of EDES. Are you going to talk about the leader of ELAS, Aris Velouhiotis? Because Aris and National Resistance is the same thing in Greece.
Τhe large demonstrations in Athens against the worker's draft in November 1942,and again in March 1942,"coincide" according to the official historiography with the resignations of Tsolakoglou and Lothetopoulos's governments...But it was these events of POLITICAL nature that alerted the old establishment to the "danger"(for them) of EAM dominating the post war Greece and pushed Rallis and other like minded politicians,military etc to collaborate with the Germans. These demonstrations of 1942-43 that ended with the bloodbath of the July 1943 demonstration are imho THE most pivotal events of the entire occupation period,by far.
@@Panos-xo9rc Thanks for the info my friend, I don't know if these events were the most important, which they were very significant of course, but during the occupation many great things happened by the Greek people, who they never surrendered and fought valiantly until the end.
Pontic refugees were organised socially in sort of a tribal fashion and settled in mainly in northern Greece after 1922. The collaborationist units that the germans raised out of pontic refugees(and by no means all of them were collaborators of course,rather the opposite)were not security batallions per se. The batallions were typically greek government units and organised and operated in south greek mainland,Peloponese and Athens. In northern greece the collaborationist units were raised by the germans themselves in ad hoc fashion and were more like local militias led by their chieftains,in contrast to the more mobile and gendarmerie like security batallions. Note that i refer to pontic refugees,NOT to the refugees from asia minor.
@@HistoryHustle since you are in Greece check to find out about the so called "Mpafralides". The turkish speaking (thus previously socialy isolated) pontic greeks who origin from the city of Bafra (in Pontus) and have been brutal anti-communist nazi collabs and later siding with the national army during the civil war mostly operating in western West Macedonia region, especially around the beautiful city of Kastoria. As you can guess their rage was also driven by the distrust and abhorrence by some of those "local" bulgarian slavomacedonians that used to inhabit rural areas there but today, thankfully, not anymore. Today its only either pontics or autochthonous indigenous proper Makedonian greek there. Its interesting tho to study the evolution of their psyche that largely stems from their linguistic isolation... Pronounced "Mpa-fra-lí*-thes". Even up to this day most are proud nationalists and thus Kastoria region always (eternaly) votes right wing in elections.
Most Pontic Greeks who had the chance to joined the resistance. And security battalions mostly operated in Peloponnese ans Attica, while Pontic Greek refugees mostly ended up in Macedonia and Thrace.
Did not know that Bulgaria had invaded western Thrace. It explains the mistrust to and mistreatment of Macedonian minority today in that area in Greece. And of course, Bulgaria had also invaded Macedonia and they tend to see it as "their" land. Hence it also explains Bulgaria's hostage policy in EU negotiations for Macedonia...Wow!
Two words about Logothetopoulos: He was a fanatical pro-Nazi, even before the war. If he had devoted himself exclusively to his scientific work, he would have remained in the collective memory as the man who introduced gynecology to Greece and as a mentor to the well-known MP Grigoris Lambrakis (who was assassinated in 1963). He chose to collaborate with the Germans and died in obscurity, as he deserved, despite all his important scientific work.
''fanatical pro-Nazi'' is the wrong description of Logothetopoulos, based on the fact that he became the second PM under the Germans. He simply had studied in Germany, had a German wife, admired German science and work virtues, but his texts indicate that he was foremost a Greek patriot. In fact pro-nazi Greek elements, rather few and marginal in pre-war Greece, were kept in the sidelines by the Germans themselves aiming to woo the Greek people with mainstream Greek nationalists in government. To think of them as ''traitors'' is just formalistic superficial thinking or due to a leftist political agenda.
@@834863 basically he took office because after they way axis treated Tsolakoglou, no one was willing to do Actually in his diary he clearly says that he knows that his going to be labelled as traitor and every person that cares about him tells him not to do so but he also express the fear that if the Germans take direct control of the country without any Greek representation thing will get far worse Also I will add that there was a good reason why the Germans didn't wanted to work with Greek Nazis They view them as street thugs that will not be able to run a day to day administration... And to be fair it wasn't far from true
In the 70s I met Lambrakides "Z" activists at U of Illinois. Strong advocates of democracy and anti fascism for Greece. I believe Andreas Papandreou and his PASOK party, reformed and democratized Greece in the 80s. Today Greece is finally a nation of activists for democracy. Never forget fascism! A lesson for America here.
I seriously suspect that mazower's "inside hitler's greece"was lauded in the greek press precisely because it was such a weak and hollow work that fitted with the wider narrative,back in the day...
@@HistoryHustle I can understand why it would appeal as "neutral" and "objective" to someone that is learning the history of the country in this particular historircal period. However some assumptions that are taken for granted in the book "inside Hitler's Greece" are false. For example, the popularity of EAM/ELAS is taken for granted and it can be said only as a joke the one million supporters claim. First of all, at the time EAM and ELAS were understood by the people as two different organizations. EAM was used as a pretence, especially in the beginning to attract members that were not even communist sympathizers. In these initial stages of EAM (up to late 1942) even people that were royalists became members of the EAM, believing the propaganda that it was a resistance movement. But after the hunt of the EKKA, EDES etc became apparent and the control of the EAM by the KKE/ELAS also, many of these people were retained into the EAM by coercion and pure fear of repraisals. So Mazower's claim of the "unquestionable" popularity of the EAM/ELAS is pure crap really, acting as a member of the KKE, not a neutral historian. Also the claim that this was "the first mass ideological movement in modern Greece" is another trash into the history of the country, since historical events like the revolution of the 1848, the events that led into the abdication of King Otto, the massive protests and public unrest about the language issue and of course the "Big Idea", are some examples of how WRONG this statement is. Also the Metaxas government was not "unpopular" as stated. At least among the royalists was popular and even if we take into account the effective propaganda mechanism, real facts like the development at the time of the social security service, strict labour laws, opening and paving tarmac suitable for cars for the first time in a large scale, etc Metaxas was not unpopular at all at the time. Also, the opening of the book with the death of Venizelos, really completely out context with the events of occupation, but he HAS to do it since Venizelos is the sacred cow of the modern political system of the country. Really if you want me to go point by point into the book, my answer is still far from finished, however, I believe that I made my point clear.
@@HistoryHustle my explanation is different than that of aftastos. First of all the book is too generic. For a greek reader with passing interest in the period it says nothing new. Almost like school type material or a tourist guide. Secondly,and more importantly,Mazower doesn't want to go heavy into hard sources and large narratives but prefers and almost relies on interviews from average joe's and presents us with how they went through all of it,their feelings, their day to day experiences etc. History from the ant's view so to speak,which i personally dislike. I was surprised when i read it in early 00's that "inside hitler's greece" had such rave reviews in the greek press,a country were there are several new books for the 40's every year,perhaps one or two every month. It was like having the musical press writing about how great is the music in supermarkets. Just a boring and very much centrist book catering for the centrist mid class neutral crowd in the Greece of late 90's and early '00's.
@@Panos-xo9rc about the comment that Panos made "very much centrist book". Now is generally accepted that the Liberal party of Venizelos was the "centre" of the political spectrum, even if from the strict point of political theory this claim is not justified. The current political establishment is dominated by descendants of Venizelos. The Mitsotakis and Papandreou families are very closely connected with Venizelos. Therefore, they favour their point of view about the modern history of this country which is the dominant narrative. If someone wants to be pleasant to them, he has to be pro-venizelist.
Tsolakoglou's puppet reign lasted till 1942 and the Greek Jews were deported in 1943. So no. That doesn't excuse Tsolakoglou for his collaboration though.
@@HistoryHustle I should have said Germany instead of the Germans. But otherwise my half Greek side is still very sceptical about Germany, they never paid any meaningful reparation to Greece except peanuts in the 60s. My father was born in 1932 in Saloniki and experienced the cruelty of German occupation. Lots of Germans and Austrians still enjoy the advantages they gained through the war. In my hometown Vienna this means the houses and businesses of people who had to flee or were killed in the 30s. As most were dead, people kept these spoils of War.
Well, everything has its value when we speak about history, but i think that the Greek resistance deserves more than 3 seconds in this video as it shows more about Greek people than the others mentioned.
Ok you said that Greece had no strategic value? Really? Greece is considered the soft underbelly of Europe. Its closer to Suez canal and the reason that Romney never got enough supplies is because all the supplies had to come through Greece. The Greek resistance made sure that the supply route was never fully functioning. Good videos but your sources need consideration
I'm definitely no fan of the Brits but but the British navy and RAF deserve the lion's share of the credit for cutting off supplies and defeating Rommel. I will allow that anyone, even the Greeks, probably deserve more credit than Monty.
It had no strategic value to Germany, who really did not care about what happened in Africa, they believed they would reach the Middle East through the Caucasus regardless of whether Italy took over Egypt and the Levant To Italy of course it did have immense strategic and political value, which is why they tried to invade in the first place.
A Greek friend of mine told me many years ago that the Greeks hated the Italians far more than the Germans. He said the Italians just took stuff, but the Germans actually built some useful things, like an aqueduct (in Athens, I think). Take it ding doing easy.
What the germans did in Greece was to burn several hundred villages,execute thousands,deport again thousands to germany as slave workers and set the stage for the civil war of 1946-49.The italian part of the occupation,up until september 1943, was a cakewalk compared with what followed.Greeks didn't hate italians,they considered them losers who were saved from total defeat in albania by the german invaxion.
@@julianshepherd2038 why shouldnt we be? Essentially because of them we lost the 95% of the 600k population of Constantinoupolis back in the Latin Siege on 1204 to be left with only 30k population of Constantinoupolis during the Ottomans siege in 1453... not to mention the stealing of its massive wealth of golds and riches. It has been by far the richest city in the world up to the day of the Latin siege.
His surname sounds turkish, but Tsolakoglu was from Karditsa, Central Greece, and not a refugee from Asia Minor of 1922. He was an officer in the Balkan Wars, WWI and the war in Asia Minor [1912-1922 altogether]. He led half the Greek Army in the Greek-Italian war 1940-41, an important architect of that Greek victory. His motive for surrender to the Germans, in defiance to orders from the anglophile government of Athens to sacrifice the surrounded Greek Army in order to give time to the British to be evacuated, was precisely to save Greek youth from needless annihilation, and to avoid surrender to the hated Italian invaders who coveted Greek territories. His motive for forming a Greek government under the Germans was to be able to hold the country together against the danger of dismemberment by Italians and Bulgarians in connection to hostile minority elements. His government was formed after consultations with the Greek political elite, consisted mostly of Generals of the Front, and was preferable to letting Greece to be directly ruled by foregn Gauleiters. He resigned a year later in protest to the Occupying Authorities, as did the next PM Logothetopoulos later. The third PM under the Germans Rallis was a traditional conservative politician who formed the Security Battalions with the sole aim to confront the Communists further advancing through the front resistance organisations EAM-ELAS to power upon Liberation. Some people are unable to think beyond the label ''collaborationist'', which to them amounts to ''traitor'', subject to formalistic thinking, unable of substantive historical understanding, otherwise serving cynically a leftist political agenda.
Not exactly that, not at all! First Tsolakoglou was a distignuished Greek officer . He participated in Balkan wars and the war with Turkey and he distinguished. At the war with Italy he was the General that inspared the victory. The schdule of the Greek Army was to impement 2 defence lines and they estimated to last 2 weeks . Tsolakoglou realized that we can win. He started the offence aggainst Italians and the others follwed later. He inspired the victore. And at the end during German invansion when the Artmy in Southern Albania or better north ipeiros started to collapse the army he rulled stayed and stopped the Italian attackes . the Greek Army in Albania , over 300 000n soldiers, wanted to be transported to Africa from the royal navy but the King who acted as a British Spy (he was responsible for the murder of Korizis prime minister) wanted he and the British, these army to fight (without food , ammunition etc) till the last soldier!!!! ie the British troops at Dunkerk didn't fight till the last but they wanted from Greeks to do so!! The Germans were right when they said that the British will fight till the last French Soldier. That period the Greekarmy in the front was Breaked down. Greek soldiers started to desert. Only Tsolakoglou soldiers stayed steal. So if they didn;t surrundered they will died all. the Bishop of city of Ioannina sended leters and even tried to go to Athens to explain the situation . HE said " In Athens can not understand the situation here" . Tsolakoglou gathers all the Generals and asked them if they can stay hold. Every one said "no, we are falling apart" . So in order to sane them for been accused for treason , he took all responsibility . To cover them they all setted up a rediculus stage. They said that he threatned them with a pistol (rediculus because after that they went to their units free and ofcourse rulled thousenda of soldiers each). Tsolakoglou's secretary Kanelopoulos (later distinguished politician) told him that he will be accused for treason and he replied "now my goal is to save the soldiers) . And he did it . We sighned a brevet ttreaty. Alla soldier returned to their homes free and all officers returned curring their guns. When Greece was ander German occupation there were two possibilities. 1) To put a German prime minister . This was the worst cas 2) To put a Greek prime minister All the Greek politicians refused to take over because they knew that thae will be accused for treason. All of them even Rallis, Logothetopoulos (who became prime ministers later) and papandreu the 1st prime minister how became prime minister in Cairo in exile goverment. But they all agreed that someone has to take over because we have terible problems with ?Bulgarians in MAcedonia. So Tsolakoglou took over and we limitted the damage in MAcedonia. Tsolakoglou have no reason to take over except from to help Greece . Hr had no future he was suffering (and he knew it) from leukemia . He knew he was going to die. He died from leukemia in NI|MITS hostital . This hospital was builded his expenses (from his money) and the scums asked him to pay for the medical bill!!! As a prime minister he deputized former Greek officers as ministers like General Katsimitros. An excelent officer who fight during war with Turks (in a battle with one battalion he stoped 2 Turkish divisions causing their General to commite suicide). He was that exact General that he faced the first Italian attack and stopped them, while the orders was to back dawn. The famine of the Greek people from which died over 600.000 Greeks caused because of the following. Tsolakoglou sended Katsimitros to collect food from the farmers but most of it were buyied out from spivs. Also some took the Germans. So there were no enough food . But the main reason were the British scums. They didn't allowed Greece to import food. They have confiscated boats with grains in Egypt load which prime minister Korizis had ordered. Also the royal navy blocked all the ships to deliver foods to Greece. And listen what those Bristish scums said "We don't allow the food to Greeks in order to rause again Germans" Those scums didn;t do this to French nor to enyone else but only to Greeks. Those deths by hanger happaned at 1st year of occupation not the next years. That's because they stopped that block. YEs we had hunger but not deaths by it. (Our allies British who . as frieds, coused as a lot of dissasters while Germans caused us dissasters as enemies.)
(continue) About prime minister Rallis. He took over when Germans started their retreat. At first the Greek politicians asked him to become prime minister but he refused and Tsol;akoglou took over. But why now? Now that Germans is clear that they will loose? WAs he an idiot? Ofcourse not! The situation at that time was the following . The country was terroristed by the assasins of ELAS (KKE Greek communists) . They were killing people , teroristed everything . For example , as an ex communist wrote in his book "commerats ", thaks god we been defeated" . Velouxiotis the leader of ELAS had the problem that too meny of his men , after seeing their atrocities, they deserted. In order to keep them . He selected 2 12year old sister from a village and he order 2 of his men who looked not so obeyable to kill them otherwise he would kill them. And they did it! Also ELAS hunded and killed the deserters and their families .The same to those who were right wing or looked like they will oppased to their goal to occupy Greece. Also ELAS distroyd almost all the partizan teams in Greece (few survived) ,. So we had ELAS to be dominant in the country. As Papandreou wrote in his book the country were driven to a civil war! ELAS didn;t performed any resistance to Germans ,just watting to capture Greece. But the Britished provided ELAS with weapons and money!!!! From then they planed the civil war. When rallis became prime minister he created the "Safty battalions" those battalions consisted from former soldiers and officers of the war and former ELAS partizans who deserted ELAS and huntied they and their families by ELAS. Before Rallis create those battalions asked Papandreou permition , who at that time had escaped to Egypt and British declared him as prime minister of Greece, to create them Also Papandreu asked British to approve those battalions and the agreed!!! People in the country asked for those battalions to save them from ELAS. The main mission of these battalions was to protect the villages from ELAS. Yes they un aθναωοιδαβλυ had a cooparation with Germans but ........... When British troops arrived in Athens logicaly they had to settle in Athens but they didn;t!!!! They campted away. Not only this but they arrested all soldiers of safty brigates. That way they left Athens defenceless to ELAS. Basicaly they provoked ELAS to start the butchery. they have planed ELAS to conquer Athens but few brave policemen didn;t allow it. For days they were fighting the communist and the british troops did almost nothing . They left them alone. Few british soldiers in the center of Athens and ELAS didn;t dare. After some days and the fail of ELAS attacks on policemen the british troops interfear. 22 thousand Greeks were butchered in December from ELAS thanks to British "friens" But why the british wanted a civil war in Greece? Too many reasons . 1st . They promiossed Cyprus 2nd Greece will claim north I|peiros (South Albania) . This area inhabits by Greeks and there is a treaty signed between Greece and Albania (after 1st word war and after Greek troops liberated this area) that this area will have some kind of independence for few years and then the people with referendum will decide to which country they will be attached. OF course this treaty which is active even today never impemented. 3nd Island dodekanisa (Rhodes, Kos etc|) which till then were under Italy had to go to an other country . Although they were liberatted by Greek Troops and inhabitted by Greeks (and foe centuries were Greek) our British frieds proposed to give them to Turky!!!! And it didn;t happen because Stalin (yes Stalin, for his purpose of course) demented to give them to Greece . Grrek fought Turk didn;t he said.
Why Greece Didn't Join the Axis:
ruclips.net/video/ulQy8K9bEM4/видео.html
The German Invasion of Greece:
ruclips.net/video/AZ_k5TMse6c/видео.html
The Axis Occupation of Greece:
ruclips.net/video/RxaFsQmQogA/видео.html
Πολύ ενδιαφέρον όπως πάντα.
Obrigado! 🇧🇷
@@marcoskehl 👍
Your expositions of various collaborationist WWII governments are the very best and most incisive I've seen or read. Keep it up, as what you're doing is important. Your students are lucky to have you.
Many thanks for your kind words. Btw, first reply! 🥇
If you like this topic I recommend you the book (Ger) "Die Geheimdienste der Achsenmächte in Europa"/ (Eng google translated) "The secret services of the axis powers in europe" by Garbiele Faggioni
Its very interesting
Havent finish the book yet but its very nice to learn things you dont learn in school
The topic WW2 in German schools dont really exist
We only had talked about the rise of the regime and thats it
Maybe a little talk about Berlin but not more thats just it
I learned my whole life for the topic WW2 in school but it was just a waste of time
We didnt do anything what I learned and I was very suprised that most of my classmates didnt even know what a Officer or General was
Sorry for my bad English🤷♂️
It is definitely a part of WW2 history that is not often talked about.
"This is Spaaaaartaaaaaa!" ... :D Another great video covering subjects we don't normally hear about otherwise..
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I hope you enjoyed your staying in our beautiful country my dear Dutchman! Thank you for your research and efforts to inform the public because a lot of us don't know jack about our history.
Thanks for your reply.
Great video stefan. The main issues with famine and cholera where in athens thessaloniki and pireus. The rural areas did not have issues. For the security battalions in pelloponisos were organized against the communists guerillas of ELAS. Also the protests were organized by the archibishop damaskinos
Thanks for replying! Glad you liked the episode.
Lad unfortunately in the United States, in the past twenty years, we have largely omitted this tragedy from our history books. So thank you for producing another brilliant video,on a semi forgotten history concerning the Fascist occupation of Greece. Kudos and God bless and family.
Thank you Professor, for teaching us topics that are overlooked in the period. 250,000 Greeks, dead by starvation, terrible! Criminal (political decision of Berlin, of course) and the Germans, really, had no resentment, as if the Slavs or other ethnic groups!. Greetings.
Soon more on the Greek Famine. Thanks for sharing your message again Juan!
Great content! It is important to highlight historical events that are not well known about.
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Another great video from the Master History Teacher 👍👍. Loved the view of Athens. Love your channel. Keep them coming. Thank you ❤️
Many thanks!!
suggestion: Balli Kombëtar, collaborationist Albanians. I think an episode about them would be interesting, since there are no english videos about them.
Yes, hope to cover Albania in WW2 in the future!
Two things rarely mentioned about the occupation. First, many of the collaborators were given political posts in later governments and second, the Germans stole the Greek gold deposits which today amount to more than 100 billion euros. Otherwise great job.
Thanks for your reply. I will shed light on the December 1944 events.
@@HistoryHustle Can't wait for that one, although I know there's going to be a lot of bashing in the comments when you post it, for obvious reasons. Even here, in Crete, people still disagree, to this day, about what really happened. Good luck with that though, you do have a lot of Greek subscribers and viewers, that's for sure.
Actually the greek gold deposits fled with the government first in Crete and later,Egypt,South Africa and finally England.
The Nazis put puppet governments in place all over Europe. An interesting exception was the Netherlands. The Dutch were neutral at beginning of war but ended up getting invaded anyhow. Germans didn't feel a need to put a puppet government in place and instead instituted a policy of Gleichschaltung. They considered the Dutch part of what they claimed as the Aryan Master race and believed they could assimilate them under direct German rule and make them part of Germany.
Also In the Netherlands, the Nazis setup a Jewish collaborator council. Jewish collaborators were used as an instrument for organising the identification and deportation of Jews more efficiently to Nazi death camps In other words, just because someone collaborated does not mean they agreed with Nazis. There has to be context on case-by-case basis of what a collaborator did and why whether to truly think of them as war criminals.
I would argue many collabertors (obviously not all) were actually well intentioned. In practice virtualy all collaborators opposed Nazi forces in their homelands (with exceptions in mostly german speaking areas like Austria). It is easy to say from the safety of our homes how we would never have collaborated but when someone has a gun to their head.. or face threats to kill loved ones.. or to execute hundreds.... compliance is more the norm than the exception.
Frankly I find it morally repugnient how some a-la-carte treat collaberators as all being the same in some particular country for cheap self-righteous populist points. Some even use collaborators for racist and even extreme nationalists reasons that they frame as "human rights". (i.e. a manipulative way to portray a nation or ethnic group as "fascist" or "racist".. thus gain political currency to apply pressure on that nation by another nation)
@@mydogsbutlerYeah for example in Greece the communist party started chasing their own strategic objectives already from end 1943 when it was clear the Germans would lose the war. From 1943-1946 the communists held farce trials and killed many many Greeks who could be potentially dangerous to the future communistic regime. Up to this day the disillusioned leftists say that the communists were actually killing Nazi collaborators till 1949 when the civil war ended. It's very difficult to shine light on these aspects nowadays, people are again being ideologically polarised in 2 camps and objectivity is the victim
Great work as always. Hope you had ( have ? ) a good time in Athens professor :) thanks for your efforts to educate people through these videos.
Thanks. And I did. Today I will go to Thessaloniki.
awesome video mate hope you do the Vichy government next
One day for sure! Thanks for watching.
Excellent research and presentation as always. These insights into collaborationist governments of World War II are very informative and get a much clearer picture of what went on in the countries in question.
Thank you for watching.
You cover some great niche areas of history, good video.
Many thanks Tom!
Excellent video again, Stefan. I always enjoy your channel. Your fearlessness in the subjects is outstanding. Cheers.
Thanks Paul.
Great video thanks for featuring this!
I’d previously commented that Tsolakoglou and Rallis were “pro-German” but it really seems like only Rallis was, seems more like Tsolakoglou was trying to hold some kind of Greek sovereignty together following the Greek defeat, Bulgaria’s annexations, and the Italian and German garrisoning of the rest of the country. This succeeded on paper but wasn’t really effective as you illustrated with the anecdote about the food crisis
Glad you found this interesting. Thanks for your reply once again:)
What about Logothetopolous?
Stefan you’re a boss ! Thanks for this very informative video I’ve learned so much again !
Thanks for replying.
Nice piece of work Stefan.
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Professor, great lecture!
Thanks Nikki.
Great video, Thanks. BZ.
These same people in much the same hierarchy were also in charge of the enormous Black market.
Thanks for your reply.
Great video Stephan. Also, I wonder what could've happened if Turkey decided to help the axis in Greece and become axis itself.
It was impossible, Turkey was a new country and trying to cover its wounds from the great war, also the relations between Greece and Turkey were well. It would be catastrophic for Turkey if they joined the 2nd World War.
Thanks for your reply.
Turkey actually declared war to Germany in 1945, just before the end of the war in order to be with the victors and share the spoils of war! Hilarious!!
Thank you so much for focusing on Greek WW2. The events of WW2 and their reflection on the civil war have left a big stain on the soul of all Greeks today. Your videos help alleviate the pain a bit by talking facts and help to distance ourselves from the "fully-right vs fully-wrong" mentality of both sides of the civil war.
PS. I would love to see a military scenario analysis (not sure if its in your scope of work) about the effects of the 6 week Greek delay to Operation Barbarossa.
Thanks for your reply. Sorry but I dont do what ifs. On other channels the thesis has been elaborated on. From what I understand it made no difference as the Germans were not beaten by the cold but their supply lines coming under strain because of the distance.
Allot thanks Sir Stefan for introducing this clearly explaining that ultra Miserable situation in Greece Through Three occupied actions in same times By (Italy , German & Bulgars )during WW2 ...I appreciate History Hustle for introducing & Producing efforts of these wonderful history coverages ...Good Luke
Thanks for your reply!
Great video!
Thank you.
thanks for the video very interesting
Thanks for watching.
Very good 👍
Thanks!
Another Great video bro!!!
You forgot to mention the only thing that was positive, the fact that when tsolakoglou signed the armistice for it was under condition that no one of the encircled Greek army in Epiros wouldn't be imprisoned and let go....
If it wasn't for that my Reserve lieutenant grandad wouldn't live to have my dad etc 😝😝👌🏼😊
@@WWEmAnIaAc very interesting to read. Thanks for sharing this.
The surname of this Georgios Tsolakoglou seems to be Turkish. It literally means `the son of the lefthanded`....
Interestingly Wikipedia says he was of "Aromanian" origin...
Thanks for sharing this.
Great video as always. Germany paid Greece 115DM in reparations to Greece in 1960. Then when Greece was suffering so badly during the late 2000’s Greek government debt crisis, they brought up the issue again and looked for further reparations. Shows how deep the scars of WW2 still burn today.
Thanks for sharing this!
People don't forget invasion for many many generations.
China is v angry about the Opium Wars.
Hi Stefan are you able to do a video on Greeks in WW2 who collaborated with the Nazi forces in Greece. I have read that there were security forces made up of Greeks but that also an attempt was made by the Germans to set up a recruitment office for volunteers for the (waffen SS or Waffen Units)? Apparently it was bombed by the resistance killing 40 German soldiers and also those looking to sign up.
Given collaboration was not raised very much in Greece post war it appears to be a murky area.
Many thanks
One day more on that in the future.
Can you do one video for the civil war of the greece 🇬🇷?
One day for sure.
As the Germans moved to the south and occupied Thessaloniki,they basically encircled Metaxas Line and then they moved to the left and were about to cut off then mail bulk of the Greek Army which was fighting in Albania.The King and the Goverment fled to Crete and after the Battle of Crete to Egypt.
Tsolakoglou took the initiative for a truce with the Germans because a)he wanted to stop the unnessessary bloodshed and b)he hoped to avoid Italian and Bulgarian occupation of parts of Greece(at first the Germans were OK with that but then Mussolini protested,plus the Germans wanted all the available soldiers for Operation Barbarossa),in general i think he was a man of good intentions.
Logothetopoulos was german educated with a German wife,he was politically inexperienced and unimportant.
Ioannis Rallis is the most interesting of the three,he was part of the old political class,from a cosmopiltan family of traders and politicians,very experienced,and he basically took over from mid-1943,when everybody knew the Germany was going to loose the war,with aim to prepare the ground for communist-free post-war Greece(the British did a lot James Bond stuff in occupied greece) and after the Germans left in October 1944,we had the infamous ''Dekemvriana''(which make Athens the Cradle of the Cold War-pun intented) and then the very bloody Greek Civil War which lasted until 1949 and it's practically unknown outside Greece,unlike the Spanish Civil War
Thanks for sharing this.
In order to understand better about Greek state in ww2 i suggest a book:ιστορικη αλήθεια και προπαγάνδα, εκδοσεων Ηλεκτρον 2017. History need to study
so what extend did the axis powers recognize the hellenic state?
Hard to say. As long as they obeyed I guess.
the results of the collaboration goverments would still affect the country for many years after the war up to 1974, as many of them would be used by the greek jounta. one of the best examples of the greek security batalions or germanotsoliades can be seen at the fight of Kokkinia -Nikaia (4-8/3-1944), a suburb of Pireus, and the so called roundup of Kokkinia(17-8-1944) a few months later, where practically the only german intervence were the vehicles and the guns used.
Interesting to read. Thanks for posting.
The security batallions operations in Athens were planned by the greek government,who had also a defence ministry,apart from the security forces of gendarmerie and police. Not by the germans. The issue at hand for the collaborators in 1943-44 was the growing influence of EAM,that had to be crushed. Of course the germans giving the OK was necessary and usually german army or SS detachments operated along having the final say,but the idea that the germans were giving orders to the batallions and the Rallis's government had no say at all or that they were slavishly doing what the germans wanted is misleading,to put it mildly. The collaborators,especially in the Rallis's period had a definite agenda of their own that hapened to fit the german wishes,they were NOT idiots or stupid fascists blinded by their ideology..Note that i refer to the security batallions operations,especially the infamous roundups of 1943-44 in Athens. In rural areas the german army was conducting antipartisan operations of his own.
That the Greeks preferred the Germans to the Italians is a blunt mistake.
I understand.
Greeks didn't hate the Italians. Mussolini had expressed expansionist views over Greece when Hitler own expansionist views didn't target Greece. So Italy (along with Bulgaria) was perceived as a greater danger for the territorial integrity of the country. After the fall of Mussolini, Italy joined the allies and the Germans started hunting Italian soldiers in Greece. The Greek population hide many of them, providing them with shelter, food and civilian cloths, often those of the son they lost during the greco-italian war.
Thanks for sharing this.
I seams that 1453 is the only conquest the autochthonous ethno-nationalists are aware of .
There is a book "DOSILOGOI", out in Greek which explores the issue regarding the German and than British collaborators (Greece may be the only country that the allies allied with the collaborators against the resistance). Please get the facts straight.
It's interesting video....As far as I know when German's arrived in Athens they saw a city with all windows closed meaning that they are not welcome at least.... Both my grandfathers fought in the war against Italy and if they did not been rescued by Germans propably would fall into Adriatic sea.....So how can we accept Italian occupation?And it's not true for sure that 95/of population was willing to help the Germans?The opposite happened..... Except partisans almost everyone could use every chance to show how hateful they were.... only collaborators were willing to do everything and most of them managed to get away with it unfortunately..... I do not want to write more because it's so many that could be a huge comment so I said the most important..... Good video
Thanks for your reply. Indeed, according to a German rapport 95% of Greeks was hostile to the Axis.
@@HistoryHustle According to the Germans which of course is not reliable at all... According to the numbers of people who executed by them i don't think so... They had problems for the first day.... In Crete we had the first massive executions in Europe.... The pride of wermacht died in Crete... the airborne Division... Besides at all time of occupation they had problems everywhere.... The bodies here in Athens and not only of course were in every day s sight.... from starving.... Nobody from Greece fought for or with them in eastern front and nowhere else....And i could say a lot of other things but no need to.... So of course I don't believe it.... People who collaborated and some of them made fortunes of course were but in very little number....As a conclusion i could say that I am proud of my country which not only fought the axis but also manage the first glorious victory against italy.... and fought the Germans till the end!!!! Churchill himself admit it and make it an example... Sorry but I think that this is something that not only is not true but insult our people... and of course Germans and Goebbels were expert in propaganda
Hello,
You didn't mention that the protests about the workers who wanted the Germans to take them abroad, had been organized by EAM(NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT).
In my opinion you also had to mention that the security battalions were formed by the Nazis in late 1943, because they needed a force, after the surrender of Italy.
The first thing I mentioned. Not its organizer but that's something for another video because the scope of this one was collaboration.
OK Mr!
You mentioned also the resistance and you had a picture of general Zervas of EDES. Are you going to talk about the leader of ELAS, Aris Velouhiotis?
Because Aris and National Resistance is the same thing in Greece.
Τhe large demonstrations in Athens against the worker's draft in November 1942,and again in March 1942,"coincide" according to the official historiography with the resignations of Tsolakoglou and Lothetopoulos's governments...But it was these events of POLITICAL nature that alerted the old establishment to the "danger"(for them) of EAM dominating the post war Greece and pushed Rallis and other like minded politicians,military etc to collaborate with the Germans. These demonstrations of 1942-43 that ended with the bloodbath of the July 1943 demonstration are imho THE most pivotal events of the entire occupation period,by far.
@@Panos-xo9rc Thanks for the info my friend,
I don't know if these events were the most important, which they were very significant of course, but during the occupation many great things happened by the Greek people, who they never surrendered and fought valiantly until the end.
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Which was the role of pontic refugees in Security Batalions?
Good question, anyone?
Pontic refugees were organised socially in sort of a tribal fashion and settled in mainly in northern Greece after 1922. The collaborationist units that the germans raised out of pontic refugees(and by no means all of them were collaborators of course,rather the opposite)were not security batallions per se. The batallions were typically greek government units and organised and operated in south greek mainland,Peloponese and Athens. In northern greece the collaborationist units were raised by the germans themselves in ad hoc fashion and were more like local militias led by their chieftains,in contrast to the more mobile and gendarmerie like security batallions. Note that i refer to pontic refugees,NOT to the refugees from asia minor.
@@HistoryHustle since you are in Greece check to find out about the so called "Mpafralides". The turkish speaking (thus previously socialy isolated) pontic greeks who origin from the city of Bafra (in Pontus) and have been brutal anti-communist nazi collabs and later siding with the national army during the civil war mostly operating in western West Macedonia region, especially around the beautiful city of Kastoria.
As you can guess their rage was also driven by the distrust and abhorrence by some of those "local" bulgarian slavomacedonians that used to inhabit rural areas there but today, thankfully, not anymore. Today its only either pontics or autochthonous indigenous proper Makedonian greek there.
Its interesting tho to study the evolution of their psyche that largely stems from their linguistic isolation...
Pronounced "Mpa-fra-lí*-thes". Even up to this day most are proud nationalists and thus Kastoria region always (eternaly) votes right wing in elections.
Most Pontic Greeks who had the chance to joined the resistance. And security battalions mostly operated in Peloponnese ans Attica, while Pontic Greek refugees mostly ended up in Macedonia and Thrace.
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Did not know that Bulgaria had invaded western Thrace. It explains the mistrust to and mistreatment of Macedonian minority today in that area in Greece. And of course, Bulgaria had also invaded Macedonia and they tend to see it as "their" land. Hence it also explains Bulgaria's hostage policy in EU negotiations for Macedonia...Wow!
Thanks for watching this one. In a few weeks I'll cover the Bulgarian occupation of parts of Yugoslavia.
Two words about Logothetopoulos: He was a fanatical pro-Nazi, even before the war. If he had devoted himself exclusively to his scientific work, he would have remained in the collective memory as the man who introduced gynecology to Greece and as a mentor to the well-known MP Grigoris Lambrakis (who was assassinated in 1963). He chose to collaborate with the Germans and died in obscurity, as he deserved, despite all his important scientific work.
Thanks for sharing this.
''fanatical pro-Nazi'' is the wrong description of Logothetopoulos, based on the fact that he became the second PM under the Germans. He simply had studied in Germany, had a German wife, admired German science and work virtues, but his texts indicate that he was foremost a Greek patriot. In fact pro-nazi Greek elements, rather few and marginal in pre-war Greece, were kept in the sidelines by the Germans themselves aiming to woo the Greek people with mainstream Greek nationalists in government. To think of them as ''traitors'' is just formalistic superficial thinking or due to a leftist political agenda.
@@834863 basically he took office because after they way axis treated Tsolakoglou, no one was willing to do
Actually in his diary he clearly says that he knows that his going to be labelled as traitor and every person that cares about him tells him not to do so but he also express the fear that if the Germans take direct control of the country without any Greek representation thing will get far worse
Also I will add that there was a good reason why the Germans didn't wanted to work with Greek Nazis
They view them as street thugs that will not be able to run a day to day administration... And to be fair it wasn't far from true
In the 70s I met Lambrakides "Z" activists at U of Illinois. Strong advocates of democracy and anti fascism for Greece. I believe Andreas Papandreou and his PASOK party, reformed and democratized Greece in the 80s. Today Greece is finally a nation of activists for democracy. Never forget fascism! A lesson for America here.
we want a video about poulos verband
?
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Poulos
Poulos was a greek officer that commanded a unit with greek volunteers that wore german uniforms and fought for german army
What a tragedy for historically rich culture to be plundered by the Axis. Thanks for the history lesson.
Thanks for watching.
Yes, this is quite accurate, even if Mazower isn't the best source really...
I seriously suspect that mazower's "inside hitler's greece"was lauded in the greek press precisely because it was such a weak and hollow work that fitted with the wider narrative,back in the day...
Please explain why Mazower''s book isnt good.
@@HistoryHustle I can understand why it would appeal as "neutral" and "objective" to someone that is learning the history of the country in this particular historircal period. However some assumptions that are taken for granted in the book "inside Hitler's Greece" are false. For example, the popularity of EAM/ELAS is taken for granted and it can be said only as a joke the one million supporters claim. First of all, at the time EAM and ELAS were understood by the people as two different organizations. EAM was used as a pretence, especially in the beginning to attract members that were not even communist sympathizers. In these initial stages of EAM (up to late 1942) even people that were royalists became members of the EAM, believing the propaganda that it was a resistance movement. But after the hunt of the EKKA, EDES etc became apparent and the control of the EAM by the KKE/ELAS also, many of these people were retained into the EAM by coercion and pure fear of repraisals. So Mazower's claim of the "unquestionable" popularity of the EAM/ELAS is pure crap really, acting as a member of the KKE, not a neutral historian. Also the claim that this was "the first mass ideological movement in modern Greece" is another trash into the history of the country, since historical events like the revolution of the 1848, the events that led into the abdication of King Otto, the massive protests and public unrest about the language issue and of course the "Big Idea", are some examples of how WRONG this statement is. Also the Metaxas government was not "unpopular" as stated. At least among the royalists was popular and even if we take into account the effective propaganda mechanism, real facts like the development at the time of the social security service, strict labour laws, opening and paving tarmac suitable for cars for the first time in a large scale, etc Metaxas was not unpopular at all at the time. Also, the opening of the book with the death of Venizelos, really completely out context with the events of occupation, but he HAS to do it since Venizelos is the sacred cow of the modern political system of the country. Really if you want me to go point by point into the book, my answer is still far from finished, however, I believe that I made my point clear.
@@HistoryHustle my explanation is different than that of aftastos. First of all the book is too generic. For a greek reader with passing interest in the period it says nothing new. Almost like school type material or a tourist guide. Secondly,and more importantly,Mazower doesn't want to go heavy into hard sources and large narratives but prefers and almost relies on interviews from average joe's and presents us with how they went through all of it,their feelings, their day to day experiences etc. History from the ant's view so to speak,which i personally dislike. I was surprised when i read it in early 00's that "inside hitler's greece" had such rave reviews in the greek press,a country were there are several new books for the 40's every year,perhaps one or two every month. It was like having the musical press writing about how great is the music in supermarkets. Just a boring and very much centrist book catering for the centrist mid class neutral crowd in the Greece of late 90's and early '00's.
@@Panos-xo9rc about the comment that Panos made "very much centrist book". Now is generally accepted that the Liberal party of Venizelos was the "centre" of the political spectrum, even if from the strict point of political theory this claim is not justified. The current political establishment is dominated by descendants of Venizelos. The Mitsotakis and Papandreou families are very closely connected with Venizelos. Therefore, they favour their point of view about the modern history of this country which is the dominant narrative. If someone wants to be pleasant to them, he has to be pro-venizelist.
Can you talk about my country Albania during ww2
One day. This Summer I wont make it to Tirana to shoot that content. Sorry. It will have to wait.
OK
Great work ! You must get the book herakles and the swastika !
Thanks. I shall look into it.
Italian created Pindus Republic for Tsintsars colaborateurs!
Sounds interesting topic. Hope to cover that one day.
@@HistoryHustle Yes, indeed!
were jews deported during the reign of Tsolakoglou?
Tsolakoglou's puppet reign lasted till 1942 and the Greek Jews were deported in 1943. So no. That doesn't excuse Tsolakoglou for his collaboration though.
@@HistoryHustle ok thanks
Bulgarians "slaughtered" not "expelled" greeks.
Please check
ruclips.net/video/BQg_rsmV9JI/видео.html
The Germans never had to pay for this. I really dislike them.
@@anasxeniadis5392 well in a sense the Germans paid with all their cities in ashes.
@@HistoryHustle I should have said Germany instead of the Germans. But otherwise my half Greek side is still very sceptical about Germany, they never paid any meaningful reparation to Greece except peanuts in the 60s. My father was born in 1932 in Saloniki and experienced the cruelty of German occupation. Lots of Germans and Austrians still enjoy the advantages they gained through the war. In my hometown Vienna this means the houses and businesses of people who had to flee or were killed in the 30s. As most were dead, people kept these spoils of War.
Well, everything has its value when we speak about history, but i think that the Greek resistance deserves more than 3 seconds in this video as it shows more about Greek people than the others mentioned.
See title. This video isnt about the Greek resistance. Hope to cover that later.
Ok you said that Greece had no strategic value? Really? Greece is considered the soft underbelly of Europe. Its closer to Suez canal and the reason that Romney never got enough supplies is because all the supplies had to come through Greece. The Greek resistance made sure that the supply route was never fully functioning. Good videos but your sources need consideration
I'm definitely no fan of the Brits but but the British navy and RAF deserve the lion's share of the credit for cutting off supplies and defeating Rommel. I will allow that anyone, even the Greeks, probably deserve more credit than Monty.
It had no strategic value to Germany, who really did not care about what happened in Africa, they believed they would reach the Middle East through the Caucasus regardless of whether Italy took over Egypt and the Levant
To Italy of course it did have immense strategic and political value, which is why they tried to invade in the first place.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
The nazi regime was very weak , in spite of having all that support from so many countries they were defeated very easily.
Well the Nazis basically pulled back out of there own.
@@HistoryHustle Due to the USSR...
A Greek friend of mine told me many years ago that the Greeks hated the Italians far more than the Germans. He said the Italians just took stuff, but the Germans actually built some useful things, like an aqueduct (in Athens, I think). Take it ding doing easy.
of course you are joking, The worst was Bulgarians in North Greece , then the Germans , but not Italians
What the germans did in Greece was to burn several hundred villages,execute thousands,deport again thousands to germany as slave workers and set the stage for the civil war of 1946-49.The italian part of the occupation,up until september 1943, was a cakewalk compared with what followed.Greeks didn't hate italians,they considered them losers who were saved from total defeat in albania by the german invaxion.
Greeks still angry about the Latins trashing Byzantinium
@@julianshepherd2038 why shouldnt we be? Essentially because of them we lost the 95% of the 600k population of Constantinoupolis back in the Latin Siege on 1204 to be left with only 30k population of Constantinoupolis during the Ottomans siege in 1453... not to mention the stealing of its massive wealth of golds and riches. It has been by far the richest city in the world up to the day of the Latin siege.
@@dimitriskaligeris5506 indeed. Bulgarians did worse to Makedonian and Thracian Greeks even than what Germans did to tbe rest of Greeks.
Ities with ostrich plumes in their hats on motorcycles looking like poor imitations of Confederate cavalrymen.
?
@@HistoryHustle Ities means Italians.
Rather the opposite as italian bersaglieri predate the confederate cavalry by several decades.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri
Tsolakoglou / Çolakoğlu
Typical Greek surname
Not an uncommon type of surname in Greece.
🇬🇷👍
Its Cappadokian Greek
Cappadokians often have turkish -oglu ending surenames
@@HistoryHustle Its Cappadokian Greek
Cappadokians often have turkish -oglu ending surenames
His surname sounds turkish, but Tsolakoglu was from Karditsa, Central Greece, and not a refugee from Asia Minor of 1922. He was an officer in the Balkan Wars, WWI and the war in Asia Minor [1912-1922 altogether]. He led half the Greek Army in the Greek-Italian war 1940-41, an important architect of that Greek victory. His motive for surrender to the Germans, in defiance to orders from the anglophile government of Athens to sacrifice the surrounded Greek Army in order to give time to the British to be evacuated, was precisely to save Greek youth from needless annihilation, and to avoid surrender to the hated Italian invaders who coveted Greek territories. His motive for forming a Greek government under the Germans was to be able to hold the country together against the danger of dismemberment by Italians and Bulgarians in connection to hostile minority elements. His government was formed after consultations with the Greek political elite, consisted mostly of Generals of the Front, and was preferable to letting Greece to be directly ruled by foregn Gauleiters. He resigned a year later in protest to the Occupying Authorities, as did the next PM Logothetopoulos later. The third PM under the Germans Rallis was a traditional conservative politician who formed the Security Battalions with the sole aim to confront the Communists further advancing through the front resistance organisations EAM-ELAS to power upon Liberation. Some people are unable to think beyond the label ''collaborationist'', which to them amounts to ''traitor'', subject to formalistic thinking, unable of substantive historical understanding, otherwise serving cynically a leftist political agenda.
My grandpa and his family were under German occupation newr Athens during ww2
Thanks for sharing.
Not exactly that, not at all!
First Tsolakoglou was a distignuished Greek officer . He participated in Balkan wars and the war with Turkey and he distinguished. At the war with Italy he was the General that inspared the victory. The schdule of the Greek Army was to impement 2 defence lines and they estimated to last 2 weeks . Tsolakoglou realized that we can win. He started the offence aggainst Italians and the others follwed later. He inspired the victore. And at the end during German invansion when the Artmy in Southern Albania or better north ipeiros started to collapse the army he rulled stayed and stopped the Italian attackes .
the Greek Army in Albania , over 300 000n soldiers, wanted to be transported to Africa from the royal navy but the King who acted as a British Spy (he was responsible for the murder of Korizis prime minister) wanted he and the British, these army to fight (without food , ammunition etc) till the last soldier!!!! ie the British troops at Dunkerk didn't fight till the last but they wanted from Greeks to do so!! The Germans were right when they said that the British will fight till the last French Soldier.
That period the Greekarmy in the front was Breaked down. Greek soldiers started to desert. Only Tsolakoglou soldiers stayed steal.
So if they didn;t surrundered they will died all. the Bishop of city of Ioannina sended leters and even tried to go to Athens to explain the situation . HE said " In Athens can not understand the situation here" .
Tsolakoglou gathers all the Generals and asked them if they can stay hold. Every one said "no, we are falling apart" . So in order to sane them for been accused for treason , he took all responsibility . To cover them they all setted up a rediculus stage. They said that he threatned them with a pistol (rediculus because after that they went to their units free and ofcourse rulled thousenda of soldiers each). Tsolakoglou's secretary Kanelopoulos (later distinguished politician) told him that he will be accused for treason and he replied "now my goal is to save the soldiers) . And he did it . We sighned a brevet ttreaty. Alla soldier returned to their homes free and all officers returned curring their guns.
When Greece was ander German occupation there were two possibilities.
1) To put a German prime minister . This was the worst cas
2) To put a Greek prime minister
All the Greek politicians refused to take over because they knew that thae will be accused for treason. All of them even Rallis, Logothetopoulos (who became prime ministers later) and papandreu the 1st prime minister how became prime minister in Cairo in exile goverment. But they all agreed that someone has to take over because we have terible problems with ?Bulgarians in MAcedonia. So Tsolakoglou took over and we limitted the damage in MAcedonia.
Tsolakoglou have no reason to take over except from to help Greece . Hr had no future he was suffering (and he knew it) from leukemia . He knew he was going to die. He died from leukemia in NI|MITS hostital . This hospital was builded his expenses (from his money) and the scums asked him to pay for the medical bill!!!
As a prime minister he deputized former Greek officers as ministers like General Katsimitros. An excelent officer who fight during war with Turks (in a battle with one battalion he stoped 2 Turkish divisions causing their General to commite suicide). He was that exact General that he faced the first Italian attack and stopped them, while the orders was to back dawn.
The famine of the Greek people from which died over 600.000 Greeks caused because of the following. Tsolakoglou sended Katsimitros to collect food from the farmers but most of it were buyied out from spivs. Also some took the Germans. So there were no enough food . But the main reason were the British scums. They didn't allowed Greece to import food. They have confiscated boats with grains in Egypt load which prime minister Korizis had ordered.
Also the royal navy blocked all the ships to deliver foods to Greece. And listen what those Bristish scums said "We don't allow the food to Greeks in order to rause again Germans" Those scums didn;t do this to French nor to enyone else but only to Greeks. Those deths by hanger happaned at 1st year of occupation not the next years. That's because they stopped that block. YEs we had hunger but not deaths by it. (Our allies British who . as frieds, coused as a lot of dissasters while Germans caused us dissasters as enemies.)
(continue) About prime minister Rallis. He took over when Germans started their retreat. At first the Greek politicians asked him to become prime minister but he refused and Tsol;akoglou took over. But why now? Now that Germans is clear that they will loose? WAs he an idiot? Ofcourse not!
The situation at that time was the following . The country was terroristed by the assasins of ELAS (KKE Greek communists) . They were killing people , teroristed everything . For example , as an ex communist wrote in his book "commerats ", thaks god we been defeated" . Velouxiotis the leader of ELAS had the problem that too meny of his men , after seeing their atrocities, they deserted. In order to keep them . He selected 2 12year old sister from a village and he order 2 of his men who looked not so obeyable to kill them otherwise he would kill them. And they did it!
Also ELAS hunded and killed the deserters and their families .The same to those who were right wing or looked like they will oppased to their goal to occupy Greece.
Also ELAS distroyd almost all the partizan teams in Greece (few survived) ,. So we had ELAS to be dominant in the country. As Papandreou wrote in his book the country were driven to a civil war! ELAS didn;t performed any resistance to Germans ,just watting to capture Greece. But the Britished provided ELAS with weapons and money!!!! From then they planed the civil war.
When rallis became prime minister he created the "Safty battalions" those battalions consisted from former soldiers and officers of the war and former ELAS partizans who deserted ELAS and huntied they and their families by ELAS.
Before Rallis create those battalions asked Papandreou permition , who at that time had escaped to Egypt and British declared him as prime minister of Greece, to create them Also Papandreu asked British to approve those battalions and the agreed!!!
People in the country asked for those battalions to save them from ELAS. The main mission of these battalions was to protect the villages from ELAS. Yes they un aθναωοιδαβλυ had a cooparation with Germans but ...........
When British troops arrived in Athens logicaly they had to settle in Athens but they didn;t!!!! They campted away. Not only this but they arrested all soldiers of safty brigates. That way they left Athens defenceless to ELAS. Basicaly they provoked ELAS to start the butchery.
they have planed ELAS to conquer Athens but few brave policemen didn;t allow it. For days they were fighting the communist and the british troops did almost nothing . They left them alone. Few british soldiers in the center of Athens and ELAS didn;t dare.
After some days and the fail of ELAS attacks on policemen the british troops interfear.
22 thousand Greeks were butchered in December from ELAS thanks to British "friens"
But why the british wanted a civil war in Greece? Too many reasons .
1st . They promiossed Cyprus
2nd Greece will claim north I|peiros (South Albania) . This area inhabits by Greeks and there is a treaty signed between Greece and Albania (after 1st word war and after Greek troops liberated this area) that this area will have some kind of independence for few years and then the people with referendum will decide to which country they will be attached. OF course this treaty which is active even today never impemented.
3nd Island dodekanisa (Rhodes, Kos etc|) which till then were under Italy had to go to an other country
. Although they were liberatted by Greek Troops and inhabitted by Greeks (and foe centuries were Greek) our British frieds proposed to give them to Turky!!!! And it didn;t happen because Stalin (yes Stalin, for his purpose of course) demented to give them to Greece . Grrek fought Turk didn;t he said.
Thanks for the additional information.