I believe that the hardest thing to do is to find a Greek family that didn't have any victims from the occupation or the civil War. This still haunts Greece in every aspect.
You will find MANY families who had no victims from the occupation. It's a historical FACT that the Germans had a lot of respect for the people of Greece. But you won't find many families who didn't have victims from the savagery and criminal activity of COMMUNISTS (partisans).
My grandmother was part of the resistance in the mountains of Parnitha and later joined the army till she retired. I heard so many stories of people lost and the bombarding
My grandmother that recently died used to live on the sides of a steep hill, the road was like 15% inclination downhill. When I grew up a bit, i asked her about the war and she told me this: "I was a young child, I will never forget how you'd see the Germans move lots of people up the top of the hill, in the middle of the night you'd hear the gunshots. Then for several days, the hill would echo the woes and groans of the ones that were left for dead, but were still barely alive. The times it would heavily rain, there was streams of water coming down through the road from the top of the hill, washing with it blood, bones, anything remaining of the people executed on the top". Insanity.
don't forget there were those that were with the germans and snitched people in the resistance. and there are still people that believe that the germans did what they did because of the resistance...my godmother's uncle had one of the first european newspapers against nazi
My grandfather(British) fought with the Greek commandos . He always spoke of the greek people with great affection, and how brave they were. I visited Greece in the 90's. When I visited some of the villages that he was in, the elderly people there literally got emotional and treated me like family. The best people.
What a coinsidence!! My grandfather who was from Crete helped 2 British officers and 1 New Zealand officer (they were parayroopers) to escape from the Germans took them to the mountains and then taken at night to a small beach to embark them to submarines which took them to middle East.
Was your grandfather SAS? The first Greek commandos (known as Ιερολοχίτες originally) were trained by SAS officers in 1942 and fought alongside the Brits in Tunisia and the Dodecanese campaign.
But the Greeks fought back even against impossible odds, like when the Greek pilot Marinos Mitralexis was attacking an Italian bombing raid, and his PZL 11 was outta Ammo, and went on a Kamakaze run into an Italian bomber, baled out himself and and took the survivors prisoner to march them to nearby Greek positions
@@johnryder1713 It was a different plane. P-24 was longer, has close cockpit, different engine and guns. Has an aerodynamic wheel covers too. P-24 was faster den P-11. Proppeler PZL P-24 Has 3wings, P-11 just 2😉
@@krzysztof5620 But was such a good plane produced unfortunately with out the hindsight of Spain to give it improvement, like the BF109 which was no great plane when it first faced the Russian types in Spain, but I checked out the P24 was an export variant, just with a French engine and not the restricted Bristol Mercury as well as the improvements
@@johnryder1713 Yes, Polish Air Force used still PZL P-11c, a new ones modern P-24 was export to Greece, Bułgaria and Romania (Romania has licence to build this planes.Romanian made based on it very good plane called IAR -80).Someone just few days before start the war. It all was a little past time planes in 1941, even 1939 too.
My uncle, Edward Potocki, passed away a few years ago. The Greek Government sent a huge floral arrangement and thanks for his service to the Greek nation during WW2. He was an Engineer/Top gunner on a B-17. I know he had flown bombing missions over Ploesti but had no idea he was involved in assisting Greek resistance. What little I could find out was that his B-17 was used to ferry in resistance fighters and weapons into isolated Greek airfields. The exact number of missions I couldn't find out, but they were conducted a night. His participation in the war ended in 1943 when his aircraft was shot up by BF-109s and crashed on landing at base in Italy. Shot in the legs and a broken arm he spent the rest of the war in US hospitals till1946. He never talked about it because it was classified. That floral arrangement was over 8 feel long and 5 feet high.
I'm so glad to know that we are still honoring those brave men who came to the aid of my country. My grandfather fought the Italians, the Bulgarians and the Germans as a foot soldier...then joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation. He forever loved and deeply respected the American, New Zaelanders and British men who sacrificed and fought such a terrible enemy. May your uncle rest in peace.
Our father was killed in 1944 as a Germans raged through Greece, pillaging stealing from homes Museum churches. I often wonder if that ugliness and rage that all the German youth had is still coming within the generations. Indoctrination is a very difficult disease to stamp out of a human being. Beings the good Lord has created man to be the most intricate being, there are two things. A human being can be good or evil. Has the evil of the second world war completely washed out from the fanatical people who considered God’s creation as simply a piece of meat? May God have mercy on the fallen heroes who were victims of the heartless German machine. And may the good Lord deal with those people according to his wise Plan and mercy.
As a Bulgarian I am not proud of the brutalities of the Bulgarian army towards the Greeks in WW2, and would like to say sorry to our Greek friends and neighbours, and to reassure them that, even though this is glossed over in Bulgarian high-school textbooks, Bulgarians generally know about the mistreatment of Greeks by the Bulgarian army in WW2 and agree that it was very wrong. I hope we continue to live in peace in the Balkans long enough so that we look into our violent past as a warning about what not to do to each other. With love and friendship, from Bulgaria.
Well fact is that nowadays between our nations we have the best relations balkan countries can possibly have. Let us be the example to our other neighbor countires :)
It's not your fault, friend. Thank you for educating yourself despite your government not talking about these facts. I appreciate your kindness and your taking the time to write this considerate message. We love you.
As a Greek I have to say that we too have made mistakes. The important thing is that while the governments of the Balkan nations are not as friendly to each other as they should be, us, the people of these nations feel as if we are brothers (or at least me (I'd like to think I am not the only one)) and in the end it's always the people and the relationships between them that matters.
What you just said shows you are an honourable person. Studying our histories we are going to find good deeds and bad deeds and it is not by brushing the latter off that we can move forward. Recognising, apologozing, and opting to never repeat again the same is the way forward. Today, two "traditional enemies" such as Greeks and Bulgarians have the best relations ever in their 1400 years history as neighbours. That is the way to move forward.
I completely agree with your points. Especially today it is very important to cultivate healthy relationships between our counties (and among neighbor countries in general) while also preserving our district cultures. Or to be exact, it is very important for each country and its people to retain their district cultures while avoiding the trap of nationalism, something which can be achieved by admitting it's past mistakes and moving forward, by establishing symbiotic relations with neighbor countries that might have been enemies in the past. Unfortunately, I cannot say that Greek schools help in that process. For example our history books mention that Alexander the great (who in many people's minds is a national hero) in his conquest spread Greek culture in the east and at the same time they gloss over the fact that he is one of history's biggest slaughterer. Another example which is derived from personal experience is that many teachers will lay claim to objectivity, denying that other peoples histories have any merit. Lastly, for a reason that I haven't figured out yet, in Greece (again at least to my personal experience) there is a rhetoric that assumes Greek superiority and that cultivates hatred. I mean classical examples of this ate the many graffiti on the streets which either are swastikas or explain how we **** the Turks, or the high percentage of people who supported golden dawn, a nationalist party before it was condemned as a terrorist organization. So, it is very nice to see many Greeks trying to educate themselves and others while also trying to reach out to our brothers and sisters wherever they are in order to establish a universal humanism, in which there are no borders between the hearts of the people. I am very happy to be one of those people and to see that others feel the same - I thank you for recognizing the mistakes of the past and for being willing to work with others in order to avoid repeating them.
I think it is sad that the Greek resistance fighters have not received more attention. You hear about the Partisans of Yugoslavia and the Maquis of France but very little about the Greek resistance fighters.
That is because Greeks hate Greeks. We executed and imprisoned our war heroes after our liberation war with Turkey because of political games and then we did the same to our resistance fighters because they were communists (again more political games).
Because, Greek partisans fought with the same zeal against Germans and their own nationalist forces in Greece... it was an internal civil war, while at war with Germany. Yugoslav partisan war is a different story - the nazis did not want any Slavic people around, and Germans did not consider Greeks real enemies; the trouble was that the British Crown possessed some Greek islands and sponsored the Greek resistance; Churchill gave Stalin Romania just to keep Greece with the West; so, the Greek partisan resistance fought against the Greek royal troops (anti-communist) after WW2 for a long time... when the Brits took things seriously, they kicked the communists out of Greece, sent them in exile in USSR... where they rightfully "belonged"...these partisans were able to return only after Greece joined West Europeans later in 1974... I have met many people who returned to Greece after the amnesty... many of them were still ardent socialists... Yugoslavs allied with their bigger brother on the East, Russians and became a socialist country. Greece, thanks to Brits and Marshall Plan remained with Western Alliance.
@@HK-pp9ig not exactly correct We had many resistance forces, before the germans were even kicked out the communists were killing the other resistance forces,only EDES got support from brittain but there were many others who were killed by EAM aswell.The communists also stayed in Greece only their leadership was kicked out and they were back soon after the civil war sadly
I was in Greece in february this year. One of the things that surprised me the most was how serious and meaningful WWII is for the country. Didn't have a tour in which that war wasn't mentioned, didn't appear in a monument or wasn't referenced by a street name. Truly my respect for those who don't forget their history
Funny enough i was in greece in Feb too , i went to vist my grandfather who survived through the war and the ensuing civil war. As mentioned in the video the germans came from bulgaria and my family lived on the right on the border , so we went to visit Fort Roupel and for a day we explored the old Metaxas line which is open to the public to explore. It was pretty cool old bunkers which havent seen use since the 60s free too explore.
@@icantthinkausername1136 don’t worry I went to all of them, the National museum to visit my hero Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης ο γέρος του Μοριά , the war museum in both Athens and Thessaloniki which were great but I missed one. Which was the Macedonian struggle museum which I’m going to go visit hope to learn more about Παύλος Μελάς ο ήρωας τις Μακεδονία. But I’m 100% going back to Roupel “ Τα οχυρά δεν Παραδίδονται καταλαμβάνονται”.
A good friend was a ten year old child who remembered the Germans in his small village. German soldiers were stationed there and if one was killed, the Germans would kill 10 Greeks.
I really admire the Greek people. They are so courageous and generous. I went on a holiday in Greece and arrived very sick and remained very sick for about 10 days. The country was in an economic crisis, and the people were really suffering. they were very generous to me, an American. And they were very generous to the people coming in desperation from other countries. Greece and the Greeks got a bad rap during the economic crisis that was not deserved. It is a poor country, but a generous country and rich in culture history values, the important things. They can’t always fix up their streets or buildings, but at night all you have to do if you’re in Athens is look up and you will see the Parthenon.
yeah, not just a bad rep for the economic crisis, but also sort of a bad rep for being on Serbia's side during the yugoslavia wars, we're not dirt poor but we're not all rich neither, an interesting little fun fact is Greece is one of the countries that have the lowest suicide rates
Poor country?! Maybe you don't know what you are talking about. Economic crisis? Probably you mean the economic crisis of the foreign banks in Greece, which were saved thanks to the money of the Greek people. "They can't fix the streets and buildings " Lol, I can name quite a few states that you can easily break your car because of the potholes or people seek refuge in the woods to set a tent due to homelessness.
An old woman still lights up the candles on the old cemetery at Crete. Among the dead there are German soldiers too. A man asked the old lady why she take cares the graves of her people's murderers and she just says because their mothers can't be here to do that. That is the mentality of the Greek people. The words of God are still living inside our souls... That's why we gave our lives for freedom
My dad and four uncles, all New Zealanders, attended the Battle of Maleme. German parachutists were involved, and my dad said they had to kill them. My dad said they were "beautiful men". The New Zealand soldiers all cried when they saw these poor dead men.
@@ScorpionFlower95it's true, I recall my grandfather respecting them because by his words "these men follow orders, they don't know the whole truth thus they can't be blamed, blame their superiors" though truth to be told modern day Greeks (around my age millennial and younger) we have lost our edge, we've become self entitled and spoiled to be honest, not all but many sadly
Μy great granddad found a German soldier in very bad condition in our island Paros. He immediately put him in their house and gave him shelter for the rest of the war. When he left he promised he'll never forget. Years later, when my great granddad was having his last breath in the same house and the family was gathered around his death bed the door knocked. My father (a child at the time) opened the door to find an old gentleman who he didn't recognise. My grandpa saw him and recognised him immediately! He said if he wanted to see Nikos (the great granddad) and if he wanted he needed to be fast as he was having his last breath. The smile Nikos had was magical and there he took his last breath. After leaving this word the German said in greek words "Καλό ταξίδι αδελφέ μου" which translates to "Have a good trip my dear brother". Humanity is beautiful but hatred destroys it
I am not surprised at all when learning about the pride and bravery of the greek people. After 11 years visiting the country in a row, I admire their resilience and sense of community. I am basque, we had our Gernika too, but this is on another level. Bravo Ellada! S'agapó! Maite zaitut!
The Greeks throughout history and time have given examples of resistance and have set the bar on numerous occasions.They deserve respect and to be remembered
Credit to the RHS Georgios Averof, when ordered to surrender to the German occupiers the crew of the old armored cruiser promptly gave them the finger, sailed out to link up with the Royal Navy and continued the fight. She survived the war and still can be visted in Greece today.
she survived indeed and she's sitting at the port of old phalerum (a municipality in the southern region of athens). i happen to live very close by, in the same municipality, and i typically bike in front of her once a week. the extra benefit of living this close to her is you get to go in the ship on your formative years with your classmates as it's a full-blown floating museum. most non-disabled (etc) adults pay for tickets BUT there are a bunch of free days every year AND there's another one of those days coming up on the 18TH OF MAY (9 days from writing this, on international museum day!), so i would assume it's a great place to visit if one happens to be there.
@@freedomgoddess Hopefully someday I get a chance to visit her in person. As the last Armored Cruiser in the world and technically still a commissioned warship like the USS Constitution and HMS Victory it would be nice to see the Hellenic Navy's ceremonial flagship up close.
@@williamcostigan91 To make it sweeter right next to her is Velos (one of the only four remaining Fletcher class destroyers) and Olympias a reconstruction of an ancient trireme.
It actually gets even more interesting because before the surrender of Greece the greek navy command order the crew of averof to sink it because they thought that the ship was too outdated and slow to safely retreat but the crew couldn't bring themselves to do it so they gave them the finger too , disobeyed their orders and tried to retreat and they succeeded
My family are from Klisoura in northern Greece. The attrocities committed there are still felt today. My grandmother told me some horror stories, stories she never forgot for the entirety of her life. No child should have witnessed what she did.
“Horror stories” of what german forces fighting against resistance movements ? Theres always something, the overused trope of “heartless germans” is about dead at this point like fml bro holy shit Its ironic the allies “liberated” Paris or any other major European city so that they could be swarmed by Ethiopian migrants 🤦♂️😂
@@Basedlocation German soldiers shooting civilians in the street. A baby being suffocated to dead under its dead mum. Soldiers raping women. Stories from people in other villages of civilians being murdered, babies being silenced with bayonets. Take your shit elsewhere. No child should grow up with the horrors of war and she was a sweet gentle soul her whole life but when she spoke about those times, her eyes would change, it deeply effected her.
@@Basedlocation as a Greek person I can assure you that this isn't ironic there were lots of horror stories of germans r***ing women and children and mass gen*cide so there nothing ironic with Heartless German soldiers
Hello, Greek person with relatives from Soufli here. I was so surprised to hear this specific story from my grandmother's hometown being mentioned in your channel because it hits so incredibly close to home, literally. I'm neighbours with an old woman, Miss Marika, whose father was one of the eight victims of the shooting. Thank you for making this video, those people died for a cause and they are not forgotten! i'm in tears, cheers.
Ευχαριστούμε γι αυτό το βίντεο. My family suffered a lot from the Germans, my grandfather's brother, Christos Zangas, was executed on May 1, 1944 in Kaisariani along with 199 other patriots. Thank you for this video. Greetings from Greece!
My grandfather was a young lawyer, 24 years old, fresh graduate of the Athens Law University with only 1 year as an acting attorney under his belt when the war broke out. Due to his higher education he was instantly put into officer school and in 6 weeks became a Captain of the Hellenic Armed Forces. He fought in the north, repelling the Italian invasion on our borders with Albania. He had 700 men and 6 tanks under his command, that was his battalion. Whenever I asked him to tell me stories from the war when I was a child, he only told me 1 thing: "You're too young for me to tell you stories of the war. The only thing you need to know is that I lost noone. 700 sons were given to me, 700 sons I returned to their mothers." It was only in my late teenage-early adult life that I understood the gravity of his words. He died at the age of 98, back in 2014. R.I.P grandpa. My grandmother on the other hand was a whole different story. She was a 12-year old girl when the war broke out, on her home island of Kefalonia (tutorial island from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey if you've played that game). She used to jump in the back of Nazi trucks to steal food. She, unlike my grandfather, had no qualms telling me stories of the war. How her whole family would huddle in the cellar of their home when the carpet-bombing was going on. How her mother (my great-grandmother) had to sell all her fortune, her jewelry and her paintings, in order to buy a sack of potatoes to feed her family. How the family villa was confiscated by the Nazis, used as headquarters while they were there, and then how they promptly bombed it to smithereens when they left so noone could use it again, leaving my great-grandmother and her 6 kids (my grandmother and great-uncles) homeless. She always used to say the Italians were nice to the kids. They would break out their mandolins during the evening and play music, for the kids. We all know how Italians love their music and their singing. But the nazis? They would kick kids around. Joke about the fact they had nothing to eat. Literally destroy leftovers so the Greeks wouldn't find ANYTHING to eat in the trash. She used to tell me half the Italian soldiers who were there did not even know WHY they were attacking their, quite similar culturally, neighbours. But the nazis? Whole different ball-game.
It's not a good thing to generalize. Not all Germans were bad. Most of them didn't want to attack Greece. My grandma was telling me stories about German soldiers, who were showing photos with their wives and kids to the local Greeks and they immediately started to cry. Many of them could also speak Greek, since they were astonished by the ancient Greek civilization.
During Nazi occupation Greece's population was about 7 million and about 450.000 of those civilians died of intentional starvation because everything was confiscated and sent to the Operation Barbarossa front. That would be winter 1941. Look up "Winter 1941 Athens" and see for yourself what they did as their general practice (e.g. even worse in Ukraine). And frankly I believe they would do it again, because they think of themselves as super humans of some kind. These things go together.
Not gonna lie, that quote from your grandpa about being given 700 sons and returning 700 sons gave me goosebumps. We lost my grandma this year, on new years even, whenever she had good days and was lucid I would ask her about stories since long-term memory is a lot clearer when you get older, and it helped keep her sharp. A lot of stories from the occupation, I remember one specific anecdote which seemed curious Whereas most people agree that Italians were, in general, nicer, and Germans crueler, strangely enough, my grandma told me that they had the opposite situation there, The German troops were disciplined and "Gentlemen" while the Italians were *dangerous* around girls and ladies Also quite a few stories from the civil war later on, in fact, I think that she probably has told me about more villagers and family members killed by partisans and other Greeks compared to the ones due to the Italians and Germans, but we did lose a few in the retaliatory killings after the Gorgopotamos bridge sabotage (my village is in the general area, some 20 km away)
@@Filonikisyou are the definition of germanotsolias... Of course in any group not everyone is bad... But what the Germans did in our country must never be forgotten.... A nation with no memory are a nation with no future...
I love Greece. I have been there often. I love the landscapes, the islands, the people, nature, the history, the culture, the cuisine, the climate. This video just adds to my admiration. May 2023 I was on Crete. I visited the German cemetery at Maleme, the Allied cemetery near Souda bay, the grave of Elfterios Venizelos and the small war museum at Theriso. Very impressive. Europe is in forever debt to Greece and the Greeks
We Filipinos fought bravely against the Japanese even during occupation, in a similar manner, to the point the Philippines can be considered Japan’s version of the Vietnam War. Of course though, many innocent Filipino civilians were killed (often raped in disgusting ways too) by Japanese brutality, I had little idea of the Greek resistance against the Nazis prior to watching this video, but once I did….. Well I can’t really put into words my sympathies, praises, and admiration to the Greeks, though I can say that it also takes me back to the bravery the ancient Spartans showed when the Persians invaded, and I’d like to think it was passed down even to the Greeks of the 1940s :) To Greeks reading this comment with love and praise from the Philippines, I can’t understate how much we understand very well the pain you all went through during the occupation, and personally I can’t help but give high loving praise to your resistance against the brutality of the Germans! I would’ve given you a comforting hug for that…. Also, may all Greeks who died fighting against the Nazis rest in peace, they have done far too much for Greece today. ❤️
And after all these we went through, we still have not received the war reparations! On the contrary Germany is getting richer and richer by the austerity measures they imposed on Greece. They even buy lots and lots of weapons...hhmmm...what for?? Bloodshed in Europe III???
in Greece, we have a pretty good knowledge of Japanese brutality in occupied lands (China, Philippines etc) from executions and torture all the way to death marches. Also of Japanese isolated soldiers who took shelter to mountains and forests and never surrendered even after the end of WWII or who committed suicide when they discovered Japan had been defeated.
if you are intrested you can search for a movie called: the last note, by Pantelis Voulgaris. I hope you find subtitles. another famous movie is captain corelli's mandolin, although it's more of a love story.
Many years back in 1974 I was in Crete for a holiday, we rented a 4x4 and went off the beaten track up into the mountains with another couple of Brits, after some time we came to a small isolated mountain village and decided to stop at the center of the village, there were a few small bars or cafes but although all the doors were wide open there was absolutely nobody in sight. We decided to rest under the shade of a large Olive tree in the middle of the square enjoying the peace and quiet and still wondering what was going on. After a while we began to hear some music in the distance, little by little it grew louder until finally into the square came the village priest followed by the whole village with band of music included. Most of the people had spotted us under the Olive tree and after the ceremony had finished two women approached us and tentatively asked us if we were German, we effusively replied no and that we were English, they both smiled broadly and hurried off towards the bar which was by now full of locals, a few minutes later they came out carrying a large tray loaded with food and drink, quite a number of locals said hello and shook our hands, we were astonished and really felt they were genuinely pleased to see us, we eventually understood from them that it was their liberation day from the Germans and in a true show of Greek hospitality, even though we insisted they wouldn´t accept payment for the food and drink.
that's how we Greeks are, we know how to share and money has no place in hospitality. Probably for Northern Europe, this culture is a bit foreign as everything is measured by money.
Ironic the greeks used to fight for western civilization until they were fighting against the crusaders FOR western civilization instead of allying themselves with Europes last hope they allied themselves with the jews in London and the jews in Washington, the judeo Bolsheviks in the kremlin and things haven’t changed
The struggle hardships and brave fighting both the Greeks and Yugoslavs had to go through is incredible and extremly underapreciated and forgotten, as a descendant of yugoslav partisans i am very happy Greeks get some screentime on this channel aswell
@@baki4341 *Do not forget about the Poles and their so well organized underground National Army (AK), which gave both occupants (Germans & Soviets) so many sleepless nights !!!!*
As a Greek, i feel the need to say "thank you so much for making this video". The worst thing to do to a Greek, is to directly threaten his beloved ones. Even if he fails, the word "revenge" will always be carved inside him. WE NEVER FORGET. I'm not sure if you'll ever get to read this comment, but to answer your last question, about making a video for the following Greek Civil War, i need to advise you that this war was much fiercer than WW2 and it still remains a very sensitive subject for the most of us Greeks. You re going to read a lot of myths and facts were it will be pretty hard to spot the real events and facts. My grandfather fought this Civil War and also was the man responsible for the "planning and executing" the last "victorious" battle given against the Greek Communists. He told me so many stories about this war and, lucky me, i 've recorded him telling each and every one of them. What i could not record at that time, were his face expressions. He was so sad and devastated about this war that i still remember his voice saying to me: "My lovely son, i wish you never get to live those days again" , "Killing a foreign enemy is so easy and emotionless compared to shooting down your brother, your father, your son.", "This is such a trauma that cannot be described by words.". If you do get to make this video, i really hope you mention those who were truly responsible for this war and the reasons behind that, so the upcoming generations learn from the mistakes we made in the past. Much love, and again, truly thank you for making this video.
@ΠέγκυΜπαρούνη Collaborator ha ha, he was kid at 15 when the war ended. He was also 5'11" and weighed only 90 lbs. His grandfather starved to death. His friends had their fathers taken away and executed by the Greek communists. They did collaborate with the British regarding German positions before the Civil War. He never claimed to be a "good Greek" or anything else he just wanted to move forward in the US.
My grandfather was young man during Serbian army retreat trough Albanian mountains to Greece in WWI . When I was a kid he would take us to Corfu to pilgrimage it’s the place that is largest grave yard of Serbs outside of Serbia. Grandpa told us how ordinary Greeks nurtured starved near death survivors of retreat. There is great love among Serbs towards Greeks.
So since your grandfather as part of Serbian army retreated trough Albanian mountains to Greece during the WWI you should also express gratitude to Albanians at least for allowing passage through their territory.
@@fatonbuza actually Albanians were ambushing and killing people who were weak, leaving their naked corpses in snow. Some Albanian clans were helpful and offered what little they had while others used it as opportunity to rob .
My wife is half Serbian. When we were there for three weeks we were treated like visiting royalty. Unbelievable love still exists between the two countries.
I am a French citizen living in Greece for the last 15 years, when you travel around every 50 km there is a Martyr village besides the organized a famine that killed 150,000 souls was a big % of the population back then. France was Mickey mouse compared to Greece. Respect!
Philippe I am grateful for your comments. I was born in a town (Arta) which is very close to the martyric village of kommeno (317 dead). The picture that haunts my childhood is that of a 50 year old man (he was a child during the massacre) whose mind "froze" in that day and re-lived the terror everyday. He was coming to town by bus and the bus stop was a few meters from my school. Everyday he started the same routine. Suddenly he was shouting TAT TAT TAT (machine gun sound) and then "he falls down, he falls down, he falls down , describing shot people collapsing. I hope he soon found peace. Death at the massacre day would be the best that could happen to him....
The people of France suffered heavily in WW2. Not sure really what you mean by the Mickey Mouse comment. Hundred's of thousands among the civilian population became victims in the fighting during 1944-45. Thousands were executed in heavy reprisals against resistance activity. Oradour-sur-glane mean anything to you? The people of Greece obviously suffered terribly during the war, but you should not forget your own history. I know for a fact that even today the French casualties of the war are often "forgotten" when war history is the topic, especially all the civilians that died in allied air raids in 1944. They probably had casualty rates close to what the soldiers suffered in the frontline at times. I'm not French btw and still I have a deep respect for the war time history of France.
@@moparman1692France had 1.000.000 army when surrdered to Germany. French men worked at the german industry while the German men were in army. It is a shame that France was one of the winners of the war!!!
At my Region in Crete, there was done one of the worst massacres by Nazis. At SE Heraklion, the Viannos region villages, about 10 villages, were grounded, and about 400 to 500 civilians executed, Older, Men, women, children...it was the retaliation after a small battle between partisans and germans in the region
Usually Germans would retaliate against local people 1-100 in Slavic countries, and 1-10 in other occupied country; for each German soldier killed, they would kill 10 local people; regardless of the participation. What Germans were capable of doing, you have to watch, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, USSR... Probably they did not expect Greek partisans to bother their lines... in the end, Germans had sponsored the new Greece in 1800s, even giving Greece a German king, Otto. Germans love Greece, and many Greeks moved to Germany after WW2. There is no general animosity; except for the leftist parties who still today try to blame Merkel for the Greek financial meltdown in 2008. Some blamed Germany for Greek downfall... forgetting how much Germany has contributed to Greece. It is similar with French people not being grateful with the USA, saving their a$$es twice, WW1 and WW2. Many Greeks still love Germany. Wars are bad anyway you see them.
@@jiji8414 Don't compare Yugoslavia to Serbia. Kragujevac is in Serbia. Ustasha regime occupied all the Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and created Serbian Genocide. I have relatives killed in Jasenovac only. Not to mention the all things they did in other places. Croatia tries to forget and minimise the Serbian Genocide. BTW, Serbs in Belgrade in Yugoslavia were offered just neutrality in order Germany attack Greece. UK organised protests and Serbs choose to fight rather to allow Hitler do whatever he wants with Greece. BTW, Serbs forcing Yugoslavia to WW2 against Hitler resulted in saving the whole outcome of the war with Hitler having to do much stuff in Yugoslavia before invading Soviet Union in winter. And what did Serbs get? How the Europe treat us? By stealing Kosovo and Metohija. And what did Greeks get? Northern Epirus back maybe from fascist Albania? Not! Greeks were very damaged, but so we're Serbs. Tito the dictator was a Croat-Slovene who wanted to put under the carpet everything committed against Serbs and everything Serbs did. Thank you Europe for not thanking us.🇷🇸🇬🇷
Back in 1995, I motorcycled from Irepetra to Paleohra via the Nida plateau coming across a monument in the middle of nowhere dedicated to the villages of Anogeia and Damasta (I think? may be wrong) raised to the ground in retribution for the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe in WW2. I had no camera so wrote down the Cyrillic txt in a notebook which i still have. This was in 1995, I always remember it.
I think most Americans, myself included, have always had a great affection for Greece and it's people. Democracy and Western civilization itself can all be traced back to Ancient Greece. 👍
and so did the Germans. Germans from the time they were not even together under one union, loved Greece; Prussia, and other German states supported, agitated and sponsored the Greek War for Independence. Germans even gave Greece a German king after Greece became independent, king Otto. I believe, Germans behaved that way in Greece for two reasons, first they did not imagined that Greeks (partisans) would harass them as much as they did; and the second reason is; the Brits could have taken Greece before the Germans if they were not tough. Greece's king Metaxas allied with the Brits, had expressed his hate for Hitler before he attacked Greece.
@@HK-pp9ig I know that Hitler wasn't happy with Mussolini for invading Greece without telling him. The last thing he wanted to deal with while he was preparing to invade the Soviet Union was having to go and clean up another mess made by the Italians (North Africa being the other). He probably would have liked to have recruited the Greeks into the Axis to help him invade the Soviet Union. I don't know if that was ever a possibility before they aligned with the British, or if the Axis forces had any support in Greece at all. No matter what support Germany may have planned on within Greece for the Axis, it all went out the window as soon as the Italians invaded.
The Americans effectively betrayed their allies when they decided postwar to go soft on the people and business interests behind the Hitler regime who were as guilty of war-crimes (e.g. through slave-labour exploitation) as the murderers on the front line. Read about the exploits of Wall Street's John McCloy, in particular. The Gerrnans' top men in Greece and Italy (like Kesselring and General Student) should have been executed for all the massacres but they weren't.
My grandpa was part of the resistance in the Albanian mountains, I will never forget the horrific stories he told me as a small child of the circumstances and the toll it took on them. Depleted of everything, drinking water next to bodies with frost bites and gangrene and the only thing that kept them fighting was their sheer willpower. We really were one of the smallest countries in the axis's path, but fought as hard as we could resulting in great delays in their arrival to Russia and it's not well known at all.
Greeks have had a long and proud history of standing up to foreign invaders going right back to King Leonidas and the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.
Did you know that all Greeks north of the city of Thebes (included) and the Greeks of Asia Minor were allied to the Persians? Krete and Argos remained nutral.
@@ΔημήτριοςΣκουρτέλης---Yes I knew that Greeks fought for the Persians. But your missing the point. The Greeks that fought the Persians eventually won and it started with Leonidas and his Spartans.
As a Greek born and raised in Ioannina I felt all the emotions this video can provide. I don't have many stories to share. Still, one thing that my grandmother made sure I would remember was how adamant my family, my great-grandfather's side especially were in treating the Germans equally. She said that they would burn two of the German stations for every house the soldiers tried to destroy in my village. And that would go on for days until the Germans decided to leave. My grandparents are all gone now but this memory remains in my mind. Greeks may forgive but they do not forget, as a nation we have endured invasions and slavery to other countries, economic struggles, and ridicule but at the end of the day, we still put a smile on and continue. You could say this way of living is in our blood. Cause it is. Thank you for this video, for sharing the history, and for shedding some light!
Interessant immer höre ich wie grausam die Deutsche Besatzung war ich habe da nur eine Frage Warum kamen dann Griechen in den 50er Jahren um in Deutschland zu Arbeiten in den 50er wo Der Krieg nicht so lange her war .
@@denisk2850 Westdeutschland brauchte Arbeitskräfte für seine expandierende Industrie. In Ostdeutschland kamen griechische Kommunisten bis 1973 als politische Flüchtlinge. Viele griechische Kinder wurden während des griechischen Bürgerkriegs von den kommunistischen Rebellen unfreiwillig in die Deutsche Demokratische Republik umgesiedelt. At least thats what I know from history classes. You cannot deny how cruel the effects of war were, for both sides, I am only pointing out what my grandmother said about the German occupation in the country based on that specific period she was a part of. I wasnt the one who witnessed the war, her generation was, so what i am doing is relaying information. Same way a German would provide information if you asked them about that period.
I feel lucky to have been born in Sweden, which hasn't been to war since 1814. But my maternal grandparents lived through both WWII and the civil war. They were only 7 and 8 years old respectively when the Germans invaded but they still have clear memories of the horrible occupation. I'm proud of the widespread resistance to the occupiers and I want to thank you for making this video telling the story of the brave men and women of occupied Greece. Ελευθερία ή θάνατος!
1:06 No help by the British against Italian army. Misleading information. 1:43 Greek soldiers did not wear German uniforms. 3:54 Around 800.000 died Greeks died during WW2, not only 300.000
There was some aerial support by the RAF ... As for the deathcount apparently the estimates vary a lot, but 800,000 is close to the highest I've seen(apparently things like the subsequent civil war or the large wave of migration out of the ruined country compound the task of calculating exactly how many were murdered by the Germans), the real number was probably somewhere in the middle between that and what he mentioned.
@@mariosmoschis5526 The only help from the brits were to trigger the Germans to invade Greece. In addition their secret services are considered responsible for the death of Ioannis Metaxas by poisoning, because he did not want British troops in Greece in numbers enough only to provoke Germans.
Don't reply to this bastard. He is one of those ultra nationalists who want to believe in "back stabbing" theories. British did help us during the war and also after the war(during our civil war). I am grateful to Britain for helping us defeat the communists and remain a democracy
My dearly departed grandmother was a young girl when she was brutally kicked down the stairs of her own occupied home near Ioannina by a German officer, breaking her hips and receiving no treatment. The reason was that the food she served him was too cold. I never heard her disparage anyone for the entire blessed time that I knew her, and I therefore never gave much thought to that story , other than the fact that her enduring limp and associated discomfort sometimes made me remember. Until on her deathbed 60 years later, in her delirium, when I visited her she screamed out in terror believing I was "Hans". She never go to see "me" again before the end came. That's an example of how much they took away.
Being born in Greece , I have to say that this video brought me tears. If it wasn't for these men and women , who put their lives at risk just for the chance that their kids and grandkids could be free, the world today would be a lot different. A massive thank you to all those heroes that remain unnamed, and fought for their human rights! They will always be in our hearts ❤
I visited a village in Crete that was attacked by Nazi retaliation squads and you can still see bullet holes with bullets in them in some of the older buildings that weren't burnt down
My great grandfather , he was living in Rhodes , italian occupied Dodecanese and him along with some special forces placed a big amount of explosives , under around 20 hangars of an axis airfield near the village of Kalathos destroying 17 planes and damaging at least 3 more of them . I never got a chance of meeting him in person since he died in 1964 . But his deeds were recorded in a book and both my father and grandmother (before she passed away) told me of how humble and brave he was .
Recently someone in Rhodes made a documentary about him. There's also a statue in Rhodes to commemorate him. The documentary is shown in local schools, my daughter saw it.
6:05 I can't stop crying , because this reminded me the stories of my grandma who passed away in 1999. She was always keen on Italians because they always gave her food for her "bambini" . Without knowing it, they helped her and her two first borns survive, and this is how she gave birth to my mother 10 years after the end of the occupation. Italiano and Bambini were the only foreign words my grandmother knew. This video crashed me , under the heavy burden of the bravery of my ancestors. Thank you. I can verify the stories described in the video as I can recall them from my granmothers experience shared with me. 55 years after the start of the occupation, I could feel the deep impact this occupation had to the soul of my nanna. She had the .. "luck" to be living in a big city like Athens. I can't event think about the stories from the countryside. My granda wasn't called to go to Albanian war at the Greco-Italian war, because he had a problem with his leg and couldn't walk but he went volunteerly. By with own will. Along with all other men, I was described that they were joining the forces no questions asked, filling up the trains to 150% of capacity and singing for freedom and loved ones along their journey to the battlefield. Ouph, my head is bombed with memories of those stories at the moment. I remember one after the other and as I rewind it in my head, I have a new ones come up. Thank you for this video
My grand-grandfather was executed by the Nazis at his way home. The brother of my grandma-at the time a young monk in the Monastery of Mega Spilaion,which is close to Kalavryta- was executed by the Nazis and his body was thrown from a tall rock.They will always be remembered!
my great grandfather was also executed in kalavryta and my grandfather who was 9 at the time with his baby sister and their mother were prisoned in the school of the village which was set in fire with all the other women and children but managed to escape...
Damaskinos of Athens, the Regent of Greece during the occupation published a letter denouncing the Nazi's from taking Greeks 'the Jewish Greeks' stating that "Today we are... deeply concerned with the fate of 60,000 of our fellow citizens who are Jews... we have lived together in both slavery and freedom, and we have come to appreciate their feelings, their brotherly attitude, their economic activity, and most important, their indefectible patriotism" When the SS commander threatened to have him shot, he responded "According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hanged, not shot. Please respect our traditions!" Man was a fucking legend.
@@JerryReddy-z5u No it was just a threat. They already were facing the most widespread resistance movement of WW2. They didn't want to fan the flames that hard by giving a huge reason for even more to join the resistance.
Very informative, I was completely unaware of the level of Greek resistance against Nazi occupation. It's amazing how many people suffered at the hands of Germans.
"The iconic British statesman Winston Churchill, who led the United Kingdom during World War II, reportedly praised the Greek people in a BBC speech during the first days of the Greco-Italian War, stating: “Until now we used to say that the Greeks fight like heroes. Now we shall say: Heroes fight like Greeks”."
True, and before the end of the war; he was forced to concede to Stalin either Romani or Greece; Churchill betrayed the Romanians who he had promised support, and kept Greece with the West.
@@HK-pp9ig Britain was a fading world power at the time and the real power that gave away half of Europe to Stalin was Roosevelt. Strangely nobody blames him for any of that. But you are entitled to your opinion regardless.
@@jamisonmaguire4398 Yes, the US emerged as the greatest power after WW2, but England had the aura of the colonial power, and Roosevelt listened to Churchill. Roosevelt died before the war ended, so nobody was interested in him anymore. And, giving parts of Europe to Stalin... he was a madman up to par with the German madman... the West tried to appease Stalin, otherwise he would have taken the entire Germany, and would have not let Austria out, and for sure would have clawed in Greece as well.
My grandfather was at his first day of elementary school when the Nazis invaded. Once he got home, he witnessed my great grandmother dying from a German bombing. He never got over the traumatic experience and there were times in his sleep when he was calling out for her. It must had been a recurring PTSD nightmare. May they both Rest In Peace.
Some Germans who survived the war in Russia said that if they had simply invaded a month or six weeks earlier---as Hitler had originally planned---it would have made all the difference. Hitler had to postpone the invasion of Russia--which Hitler called Operation Barbarossa--to rescue the Italian army from being beaten in Greece. Mussolini invaded Greece without telling Hitler in advance. Mussolini did not like being a "junior partner" and decided to act on his own. @21:12 Stalin was right to say that the tenacity of the Greeks decided the outcome of WWII. Another crucial and overlooked "might have been" was that after Germany had conquered France, Hitler met with Franco in southern France in order to get permission to have his army peacefully enter Spanish territory in order to attack the British fortress at Gibraltar. Franco refused Hitler's request. Had Hitler taken Gibraltar, he would have controlled the western Mediterranean (and with Mussolini's alliance, the central Mediterranean), and the British would have been cornered at the Suez Canal. The war would probably have taken a very different turn. Hitler pointed out to Franco that German military assistance had helped Franco win the Spanish Civil War, but Franco still would not give in to Hitler's plans. Miles away from the French train station where Hitler was waiting to meet Franco, Franco deliberately had his train stop for about two hours in order to show Hitler that he was not his underling. In the Fest biography of Hitler, Fest claims that Hitler said during his final days in the bunker that he regretted not having supported the anti-Franco Spaniards during their Civil War.
What's interesting is that initially, after the fall of France, Franco sent couple of his diplomats to inquire about the prospects of conquering Gibraltar, but AH was too occupied and didn't receive them. Later Canaris quietly persuaded Franco to oppose the operation, which he did after consulting with the british.
Interestingly, the delay of Operation Barbarossa wasn't mentioned in this video. I was expecting something besides Stalin's comment which wasn't specific at all. I find this crucial delay is often ignored in many WW II documentaries. It's obvious in hindsight and shouldn't be glossed over or overlooked by historians and researchers. The Germans lost the war because of their failed invasion of Russia. They opened a second front too late forcing them to continue the fight when the temperatures eventually plummeted. Expecting a quick defeat, the Germans didn't intend or prepare to fight the Soviets through the winter in their element where they had a solid advantage through attrition. It eventually cost them everything because they had to take care of Greece which put up an unexpectedly high resistance delaying the big offensive.
@Speedy Gonzales yes however I don't think it's late. If they really wanted, they could honor their word. The problem is, if they do go ahead ans pay, then more countries would follow.
Then Churchill sent British troops to occupy Athens and massacre the EAM resistance fighters in December 1944. 4,000 people were killed and it sparked a civil war. All because the British refused to disarm the Security Battalions who had cooperated with the occupiers.
@@AndrewCampbell-x5u the real reason is never to give Medirenean ports to the Soviets. Our Guy Tito was aiding communists . British would have killed not 4k but 4 m Greeks for their aim
Thank you for this video. My grandfather's family was executed among other civilians , for hiding english guerillas.. The executed villagers 62.. My grandfather's family 12.. These things cannot be forgotten.. Honor and glory to the victims of german occupation , we would do the same again
As someone who lost two family members at Bergen Belsen, I thank the Greeks for their courage & bravery in the face of overwhelming odds & oppression. Thank you
The 300,000 casualty figure is very low. I think it may have been 3, 4, or 5 times that when accounting for hunger, immigration and the general brutality across the whole country. Every city, town and village was affected, which is why the number given for casualties is a huge underestimate.
883,000 GREEKS LOST THEIR LIVES IN WW2 DURING THE AXIS OCCUPATION . THATS 13% OF THE POPULATION . THE COMMUNIST DURING THE CIVIL WAR KILLED MORE GREEKS . COMMUNISM IS CANCER . AVVRAM BENEROYA , A JEW FROM BULGARIA THAT FOUNDED THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN GREECE IS BURRIED IN ISRAEL .
…I’m an “educated” American; yet, I’ve NOT known of Greece’s fierce stance against The Germans…! THIA recounting of the Greece struggle against the invading Germans gave me chills; The Greek People are incredibly determined to maintain their identity. I salute YOU GREEKS…. 😳😃👍🏻
My Grandfather was just an infant when the Nazis invaded our beloved Greece. I don't know for sure if he took part in resistance, but the fact he survived three and a half years of occupation from the unholy Axis Alliance proves he is one of my heroes. He's 84 now, and I find him a recognized war hero of the Greek army. We all live in Pennsylvania, but we will fight for Hellas to our final breath.
I'm moved by your comment. I think it is quite difficult to keep up loving your fatherland and nationality while living abroad. Your pappous did an excellent job. I hope you can visit Greece, see its colours and forms, smell its scents, listen to and try to speak its language, get to know your people, live among them the more you can, make memories. That's for sure the best way you'll never forget your own identity. I wish you and your family all the best from Greece.
Churchill...look up what happened on Churchill's orders in December 1944. 28 civilians were murdered in Athens...by the British troops. It's called "Britains Dirty Secret".
@@reinereine1896 that quote is from Greek Italian war during their attempt to invade Greece. The same way we fought with Italians, we fought with Germans in the line of Metaxa, the fortified place in the Greek Bulgarian borders (they bypass them after days to go to Thessaloniki for the general command), the same way we fought them in resistance during the occupation. Well, some of them yes, others was, until the chief head give them orders from USSR do fight the Greeks so Greece will be communist.... And that was something terrible...
@@bertrecht913 You may not like his methods , but in war you do whatever it takes to defeat the enemy . Look at the outcome of WW2 . If the British and their Empire countries had not stood up to the Axis aggression , and also succeeded in manipulating the USA and the USSR into joining them , we would not be here now . Those Arctic convoys were expensive but they kept the Soviets going and gave them hope . The USA with its large German heritage and fifth column and isolationist policy was wooed by Churchill and drawn into the British side by every means possible . Britain was not nearly as ready for war as Germany and Chamberlains “Peace in our time “ accord with Hitler delayed the war by a year which gave the British aircraft industry vital time to build fighters for the all important BOB . It was Churchill who overcame the defeatists in the British Establishment and pro Nazi Royalty , to declare a united British stance against Hitler ,and rallied the populations morale with his inspiring speeches . I honestly think that without Churchill , the war would have been lost to the murderers . Hard decisions had to be made and mistakes were made too , but we can thank Almighty God that He had Winston Churchill exactly where he was needed at the perfect time . I hate bullies .
1) there is no Greek family where the younger generations have not heard horror stories about WWII. I remember one from my father, who back in 1942 was just 11 yrs old. He was along with other kids of his age stealing stored food from the occupying forces in the port of Piraeus. Once he was caught red-handed and given such a hard spank by the German guard that he could not sit on his bum for days. But the story I wish to share with you, for the memory of my late father (may his gentle soul rest wherever it is) is this: he and his bro managed to sneak in their house two stolen cartons of German milk cans which were placed under the table in the dining room for lack of other space. Table with table cloth running half the height of the table. Hardly the boxes put in place, heavy knocks at the door - German patrol of 3-4 soldiers storm in the house to inspect (God knows for who or what). Family of 6 and my grandfather's old mother who has laying in bed, weak, 7 persons in total. As the soldiers were going from room to room, they spotted the old lady, said sth like ''mutter? mutter?'' to my grandfather, and eventually left. They never noticed the cartons!! My father thought it was some miracle from heaven. Every time he told me the story, he would end it with the phrase ''if they had found we would have been all executed on the spot''. Another tragic vignette: a young lad had been caught stealing, fell in the street while trying to run away. German car run on him, he died under the wheels, in front of the eyes of my father. When Germans occupied Greece, they took a ...loan from the Gr national treasury; ever since Greece has tried to recuperate this amount + interest rate. I have heard of present day calculations, anything between 50 to 250 billion euros, depending on how you calculate it (I have no clue which calculation is correct or what would be a realistic amount). Germans will never pay this back. They have tried various arguments over the years, from an alleged ORAL agreement between Adenauer and Karamanlis back in the '50s to ''you got Marshall Plan aid, and it was more than your fair share of post war compensation''. Germany will never pay this back. 2) about starvation: Greece had the 2nd highest percentage of civilian deaths during WWII, due to starvation with 2.6% (Russia had 2.9%). Unlike Russia however, Greece would never scorch crops to stall invading forces and there is no such thing in Greece as ''Russian winter'' :) To deal with starvation, black market flourished as always during war situations, and people would sell an apartment for 25lt of olive oil. It became so rampant and properties switched so many hands that after the war, courts would decide thus: either the black market hawk would pay for the true value of the apartment and keep it, or the (ex-)owner of it could get his apt back by paying the going price of the 15lt of olive oil. 3) about stealing ordinary citizens' (slim) savings: German soldiers were upon arrival to Greece all equipped with a Greek ''version'' of Deutchmarks. It was simply massively produced paper cut to look like currency. Soldiers would walk in a bakery (for example), pay with this fake money and get shortchange in drachmas which was not fake money. So, cunningly, they would buy bread and receive extra money before walking out of the shop! 4) the most ferocious resistance Germans faced was on the island of Crete. It probably and partially explains why so many younger Germans visit the island. Cretans fought even with rakes against Wehrmacht paratroopers. Apologies for the long message and greetings from Athens/Gr.
our neighbour- Harold Addis was on Crete in 1941.- escaped too Sweden and made it back too new zealand in 1946 aged 57 as he had lied about his age in 1940 makeing out he was 35 too new zealand army too get in.''
Thank you for this beautiful video. As a Greek person, I have to say, we really need a morale boost. Our country has been suffering from a disastrous economic crisis since 2008, and the unfair and brutal austerity measures imposed by EU. Tens of thousands have left Greece in search of a better life (myself included), others stayed back, struggling to survive, with constantly lower wages and rising prices. Governments of the past 15 years, in tandem with the EU, have been selling off our land and infrastructure to multinational companies, kicking people out of their houses, privatizing everything. What the nazis started, the German-spearheaded EU and our traitor governments are trying to finish. But we will not be subdued. Like our grandfathers, we will survive. Hail to the Greek people and to the community spirit that has kept us alive for so long.
Thank you for this long overdue celebration of Greek courage and resistance and, yes, please do consider a deeper dive. If I may share a distant personal connection to these valiant men, women and children. In early 1990s my parents visited Chania in Crete from where my grandfather emigrated as a young boy. They were sitting in the cafe when in walked an old man, almost seven feet tall, with a long white beard, vest, walking staff and large billowy pants tucked into knee-length kid boots. As he walked in, everyone in the cafe (men and women) stood silently. The man saw my folks were visitors and bowed slightly to them. When my mother asked her cousin who he was, he said he is one of the few remaining partisans who took to the hills and fought the Nazi invaders with little more than a few hunting rifles and knives. Only they are accorded the singular honor of wearing that particular local dress. Sadly, he like the other remaining partisans, are probably gone. So, yes, please continue to tell the stories in honor of these unsung warriors.
My grandfather was born in 1935 in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. As a young teenager I would ask him to tell me the stories of growing up during the German occupation, although he was just a young boy, not even 10 years of age. The things mentioned in this video are extremely accurate with how he described it to me. The Germans came and took away all of their food, and they would go hungry, he used to slam the cupboard doors at home in his village and cry to his mother (my great-grandmother) about how he wanted bread to eat. She could only tell him in response that there was no bread to eat. During the Italian invasion through Albania, his father (my great-grandfather) was sent to fight for his country against the Italians. Luckily, he returned home with his life. My great-grandfather had already been living a rough life, as he was a migrant from Asia Minor, being kicked out of his village during the population exchange, himself and his sibling being sent to various places in Greece. My great-grandfather would stand atop his hilltop village of Afalonas where he would later watch Axis ships come and go from the Gulf of Geras. My grandfather would tell me about how they, as children, used to jump on, cling to, and ride on the back of the Nazi vehicles when they came through the country roads to take their local produce such as olive oil. Then my grandfather would tell me about the most darkest stories. In the town of his birth, Mytilene, the Nazis had rounded up men who had defied them. They took them to a nearby forest and tied them up to the trees. They shot the men dead, and then cut the trees down according to each man's height. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Greece, he had later heard of a story of a father and son who were being put to work by the Germans. This particular task included digging, and when the son fell and collapsed to the ground, his father had gone to help him back up, but before he could, a Nazi had shot his son and killed him. After the war, my grandfather would go on to work in the Greek air force as a mechanic. Then, after being introduced to my grandmother, he flew to Australia to live. My grandmother later meet up with him in Australia when she arrived by boat and they would get married. In the 70's my great-grandfather, who had come a long way from being expelled from Asia Minor by the Turkish, and fighting the Italians in Albania, ended up moving to Melbourne, Australia to live with his son and his household, dying in 1995 at the age of 89. My grandfather has now since passed away in 2018 at the age of 82. I wish he were still here to retell these stories, but I realise that this is now my duty.
"I wish he were still here to retell these stories, but I realise that this is now my duty." I don't know why, but this sentence got me... Respect to you and your family for your contributions and for keeping the memories alive.
Είμαι από Πελοπόννησο. Οι Γερμανοί, για αντίποινα, έκαψαν το χωριό της μητέρας μου. Δυστυχώς πληρώσαμε με πολύ πόνο και αίμα ως Έλληνες. Το χειρότερο όμως είναι ότι ελάχιστοι δοσίλογοιτιμωρήθηκαν, η Γερμανία δεν μας πληρώνει για το κατοχικό δάνειο που πήρε ούτε για τις καταστροφές που προκάλεσε! Δυστυχώς αυτοί που μας κυβερνουν εδώ και πολλά χρόνια είναι απόγονοι των συνεργατών των Γερμανών!
@@williampawson5476 The 41% of people voted for them. The 59% didn’t vote for them. Giving the fact that 50% didn’t vote in the last 5 years and last month elections for EU parliament 62% didn’t vote because they are disgusted with politicians!
@@heroduelist9242 Our allies betrayed us then too. When the Greeks were tortured and executed in Smyrna, their ships were a bit further away watching and enjoying the 'show'. Then the bones of Greeks were taken to factories in Europe to make fertiliser!
By the way, resistance shouldn't be turned into a pissing match, ESPECIALLY by people who've never picked up a rifle to hold a post. All resistance deserves honour.
Exactly. And not every act of resistance required a gun. In France a car factory foreman worked out how to assemble vehicles in such a way they would pass inspections but would blow either the transmission or gearbox after about 5 hours use. The run up to D day a special code was transmitted across Europe leading to every postal service accidentally miss directing every piece of official mail. All those acts took incredible bravery and could lead just as easily to execution
My late grandfather grew up an orphan because the Germans massacred his village of Kleisoura as retaliation. 280 people died that night including both his parents (my great grandparents).
@@jimmythemonk673 για να παίρνω απαντήσεις σαν την δικιά σου...ο εθνικός στρατός πολέμησε ο ελληνικός...αυτοί που αναφέρεις αποδείχθηκαν..αδελφοκτόνοι...ο Ζέρβας δλδ δεν πολέμησε??
We still harbour resent towards the Germans about WW2 (and the 2009 crisis didn't help), my grandma told me that the italians that were occupying her village never mistreated anyone and when they were relieved by their Germans counterparts some were mistreated because they refused to hurt people and an Italian officer stayed for a year in hiding from the Germans.
My own maternal grandmother used to say the same thing, that they didn't despise the Italians the same way they despised the Germans in her village. Her being born in Cephalonia played a part at that in my opinion tho, because those islands are close to Italy and have similarities in their cultures. When Italy surrendered to the Germans, Italian soldiers (who were then enemies of the Germans and not allies) would sometimes beg for food and water and the locals would help them. Don't know if any Italian was spared the execution in Cephalonia thanks to the locals, but I'd like to find out. (P.S. If my grandmother had any thing to dislike the Italians for, that was for stealing away her horse, so that they could eat it. But he was a smart horse, ran away and found his way back 😌)
Yes because Italy had no big stake in this war, while Germany had a big stake, and if they lose, they believed (their leadership apparently believed) that they would lose everything (they believed that if they lost that war, there would be no german people in the future) , and so they were desperate to win the war. And after 1941, when the invasion of Russia started they were increasingly desperate for food and labor resources, because all men were fighting on the (eastern) front in Russia. And this is why they started confiscating food from occupied lands (such as Greece). The Italians never needed to confiscate food, because there was no need for extra food in Italy, because the italian army was much smaller than the german army, and most of it was still in Italy, and not in another place (from which they would then need to be provided with food). And also, for the same reasons, the Italians would never care much if partisans killed italian soldiers (because they did not care about the war very much because they had little to lose - they lost only the greek inhabited Dodekanese) , while Germans could not afford to lose soldiers for as silly reasons as this in Greece, and so they needed to come up with something to give the partisans the anti-motivation to kill german soldiers. What would you do in their position? Let the partisans start killing more and more of your soldiers? Do not understand me wrong: I do not justify all actions they did. But I do not know what I would have done myself in their position.
It's the reason there's no resentment against the Italian people. They also suffered under fascism, and their soldiers were forced to fight against their will. It's one if the reasons they didn't act in cruelty. In complete antithesis to the German soldiers who arrived later, and acted in a very cruel and vindictive way. It's important to remember they raped, murdered and destroyed, even when they retreated. That's what the Greeks will never forget.
@@anastasiakallinic Italy has the insane problem of division. The rich north ruled and still rules. They sent starved and poor Southern soldiers around to fight for their stupid colonial desires. My own great-grandfather was sent to the North of the country, he managed to escape and walked for a month on feet, and It wasn't even enough, he had to sold his watch to be able to buy a ticket for a ship that took him back home to Sicily. It was a complete disaster. Despite the partisans in the North fighting the Nazis, You can still find Northern Italians who are SO proud of the fact that they never betrayed the Germans. It must be the longbards blood that makes them so stupid. They love the Germans because they are descendants of germanic barbarians invaders. They always talk about Germans as "superiors" etc. If only the Romans could see those people calling themselves "Italians"... they don't know the Romans would have called them barbarians. As much hateful as they are, calling us Arabs, to be quite honest, I definitely prefer to be related to the Arabs than a bunch of germanic barbarians. Unlike barbarians, Arabs used to be scientists, mathematicians etc. p.s. I truly wish the best to the people of Greece. Ancient country with a very ancient history. God bless you ❤
My father was in the Dodecanesian Regiment of the Greek Army and fought at the Albanian front holding the line. He is one of the heroes Churchill refers to. My mother's house was taken at gunpoint by the Nazis. She was given her three youngest siblings and had to hide further up the mountain in their summer cabin, until the Germans left the area, nine months later. Both of my parents homes were pillaged. My father's was stripped of all marble. My mother's home had all the livestock, goats, chickens, rabbits, basically anything edible, had been taken. There was nothing left to eat when they returned. They both immigrated to the U.S. in 1947. My mother died two years ago at 103 years old. A week never went by when she did not remember the war and wanted to discuss some aspect. My father died in 1990. He refused to speak about the war. Not only did these atrocities stay with them for the rest of their lives, but they have been passed on to the next generation. I visited the Holocaust Museum in Kalavryta last year and stood on the hill where the town's men were murdered. Sadly, we learn nothing from history, because we continue to repeat the past. May their memories be eternal.
And you know now , how miserable was situation , in this South Balcan part of Europe ! Being Colony for 2000 years because we were poor ! And you must know the situation of Cold War after 1960 ties , when we were divided on Socialistic and Kapitalistic sides ! You were closed country up to 1974 being under Junta , (always "happy" you were not under communist) , ha ha ha ha ! Today we are free of that "evil" communism and Junta , but Wars are still active between us ........ My heart is broken we are having War in Ukraine and in Palestine ? Communism have gone but you still hate Tito who made abracadabra and "have changed" Macedonian Bulgar into Slav Macedonian . You dont have in your history books proper history about process of Slavianisation and how Bulgarian and Slav Macedonian are not the same ! The RUclips is full of offending words about Republic Macedonia . Now we are with that "North" preposition but you are still unsatisfied keeping commenting how there isn't country Macedonia in this World . Playing the most democratic ancient Greeks still after 3000 years !
My grand grandfather fought in the mountains of Albania against Italians ,Albanians(chams) and after Germans. He was telling me stories. Crazy stuff...
My grandpa fought in Albania as well:) Passed away early 2000s . I'll never forget my grandparents stories about the nazi occupation. How my great grandma would put dirt purposely on my grandma's face as a young girl to make her look less appealing to Italian/German soldiers.
As a 23 year old Greek guy, i fully understand why Germany is still a very hated country around here. Personally, i hold nothing against any country or race but the atrocities the Germans committed against us can not and should not be forgotten. Especially considering that everything described in this video happened just 80 years ago, which is scarily close to present day. Plus the fact that Germany has NEVER repaid us in any way for what they did is a key reason for the hate they still receive from us.
Οι Γερμανοι ποτε δεν πληρωσαν για τα εγκληματα πολεμου,απ'οσα μου ειπε η μητερα μου ο Καραμανλης ο γερος διεγραψε τα χρεη τους...για να τους χρωσταμε εμεις τωρα...
"never repaid us in any way" In 1960, Germany concluded a treaty with the Greek government to compensate Greek victims of Nazi German terror which amounted to 115 Million German mark. These payments were explicitly marked as payments to the victims and were not supposed to be a general reparation treaty. I might be wrong but according to currency conversion and inflation calculator 115M german mark in 1960 is around 282 million USD today. It's obviously not a lot but it is more than you purported.
The GDP per year is 200 billion USD. That is literally 1% of that, its nothing. Not to mention stolen artifacts. The Problem isn't the German people as a whole though but the governments.
The number of casualties due to hunger and retaliations was over a million people. And yet even in 2023, Germany REFUSES to pay war reimbursements to Greece and Poland .
I guess if Silesia East Prussia and Pomerania are returned and ditto for Polish Eastern territories are returned to Poland 🇵🇱, I am German Silesian East Prussian and Brandenburg, also with Polish blood
A leopard never changes its spots. The German soul hasn't changed a bit. They still only see the rest of europe as exisiting merely to service them (financially this time). A horrible race of people.
Brother you getting shit ton of money from eu(literally german economy) already and do worse compared to turkey. Germany should never pay war reimbursements. History has shown us that this causes even more unrest in a nation. Didn't you understand why WWII occur in the first place
My grandfather was a fighter pilot, fresh out of the Airforce Academy when the war broke out. After the Germans occupied Greece, he was left stranded along with many of his co fighters. They were "smuggled" to Egypt with the help of civilian fishermen in fishing boats who for months were risking their lives to help them. IN Egypt they re-formed the Hellenic Airforce under the commands of the RAF
Proud to say that Greeks have always been on the correct side of history, from the Battle of Thermopylae, WWII, and even the Korean War. We must never forget what we have given the world. (Medicine, theory, mathematics, the list goes on)❤
One method of open resistance that the Greeks used was that they would return the Nazi raised arm salute - but they did it with spread fingers. Whilst the Germans were under the impression that the Greeks were returning an incorrect Sieg Heil, in fact to the Greeks this is the equivalent of the British two finger salute. It dates back to ancient times when watching Greeks pushed mud into the faces of the lines of captured prisoners after successful campaigns.
My grandmother was a child when nazis occupied Greece. They where a family of 7 . In the house they had a cow from where they where able to eat. One night the nazis took the cow from the family dispite my great grandmother begging to not do so because she wouldn't have to feed her children. Days passed and the children where hungry but they where all surviving, except my grandmother who was very very sick, she had kwashiorkor ( like the hungry children in Africa). A german soldier show my grandma and gave her food and medicine which saved her .
Very good video, and I was surprised to hear a big truth that is hardly ever mentioned today: That after the liberation, the heroes of the greek resistance were treated like criminals. It's true, and even worse, the collaborators of the nazis manned all the state positions. This unjustice was the main cause of the civilian war.
This is all very well done! I know there's a lot regarding the german occupation of Greece during ww2, and hopefully it can be a good introduction to those who want to learn more and look for themselves. One of my grandparents was from one of the villages neighbouring Chortiatis, one of the villages that the Nazis burned down. I remember listening to my grandmother tell me stories, (she was a child at the time), about the people from the neighbouring villages that sought shelter elsewhere, how her thoughts back then were that "they reeked of death", of the burned houses and burned corpses. One of countless villages razed by the Nazis, which left many Greeks to have a deep rooted hatred towards Germans, even to this day.
My grandfather fought Germans at Rupel. When the Germans occupied Thessaloniki, one German officer shout at Greek soldiers to get out and be free. While the men were getting out of the Rupel German soldiers were saluting them with honour. Even them knew that day that it wouldn't be an easy task to occupy Greece. Nice work. Thank you for this video.
My grandfathers used to tell me stories about the German occupation. They were around 10 and 15 years old at the time. The one grandfather was from a family of farmers and the other one from a family of fishermen, so they managed to survive the hunger. They used to tell me about how brutal the nazis were with people even children. They hung retaliatiors on the central square. One story that the older grandfather used to tell me is this. An uncle of his had arrived to the island (I am from the island salamina, near Athens) and he brought them some raisins. In the meanwhile the germans were building an emplacement on a mountain and were recruiting citizens to help. My grandfather (around 15 years old at the time) was one of them. He was assigned the difficult task of carrying materials on the mountain. A friend of the family was one af the builders, a far less tiring job and when he llearnt about the raisins he made a deal with my grandfather. He told him that he would convince the germans that he was also a builder in exchange for some of the raisins. And so he did. The problem was tha my grandad didn't know how to build., so the wall ended up crooked. The germans were obviously not very pleased. I believe that thiw wall is standing on that mountain.
My grandfather was 17 when the German paratroopers started falling on Heraklion, I’m told he fought as a civilian until his leg got messed up by an explosion and spent the rest of the occupation helping around in the clinic he was sent to and supplying the resistance with medicine
My father's village on Mount Olympus was a centre of resistance in Thessaly. The Germans burned it to the ground and left one out of thirteen churches standing. Buildings since the time of the Eastern Roman Empire just gone and this event caused his family to live a life of poverty.
For historical accuracy, Metaxas didn't declare 'no', to the Italian ambassador after the insulting demands for surrender. He replied in French: 'So, it's war '.
Greeks had the support of the British, who owned some Greek islands, including Cyprus... and wanted Greece on their side... Greece could have gone on the German's side if it wasn't for the king; Germany had given the newly formed modern Greek state their very first king in 1832, Otto. Churchill wanted Greece more than the Germans...and the rest is history.
@@HK-pp9ig The British had the support of the US, who owned half the planet. Without their support, the UK would have folded and surrendered, or would have joined them(the Germans), given the fact they had been ruled by a partly German family tree for the past 300 years. But they didn't. And the rest, as they say, is history.
@@HK-pp9ig Metaxas had very mixed feelings about the Austrian painter. On one hand he really respected him for the way he apparently put the German economy back together. On the other the absolutely detest him and his ideology to the point that he wrote in his diary that he rather die than cooperate with him
My grandparents are from Greece. My grandma lived near Kalamta, life was terrible, but it was better than in the cities. Many people moved from the cities to the villages. My grandfather lived in Athens and saw many people starv to death. He was looked after by his 2 older sisters and sent to a village so be would be ok. The saying during the Axis occupation of Greece was, When the Italians come, hide the women. When the Germans come, hide the men.
Turks were not affected by the Germans, as Turkey was neutral in WW2 after it had crumbled during WW1, but it was really friendly with the Germans nonetheless. It took to much persuasion from the Brits to keep Turks on the Allied side after WW2... because Turks knew they could be in trouble from communist Russians.
And then the civil war came which was 10 times worse than the Germans. I guess you know the story of communists descending on Kalamata and decapitating civilians with rusted food cans?
@@aris9560 OK Aris, thanks for bringing that up... I agree, I believe the civil war was much worse than the Germans... Germans did not hate Greece; how could they? Germans/Prussians helped Greece War of Independence, and gave the new Greek state a German king to help alliances with the west... but Greek partisans harassing the German lines, and the threat from the Brits in the Aegean Sea made them be anxious; Germans could not afford not to have Greece; plus Metaxas had "badmouthed" Hitler to the Brits before Germans attacked Greece. I think, without the partisans, Germans would have behaved similarly to Denmark with Greece. Also, Greece had troubles in the northeast, with Bulgaria taking Thrace and probably more... Macedonia?... not sure, but I know, Bulgarians entered Greece, and Germans could not convince them not to invade Greece... Bulgarian troops behaved worse than the Germans... but the northeast is agrarian plain, so people did not die from hunger as in Athens, where there was no agriculture, no food production... many factors made the Greek situation really bad.
My friend's parents who lived through WWII in rural Greece always referred to that time as the occupation. They rarely called it the world war. I discovered that the word occupation defined many things, namely hunger, fear, poverty and loss of liberty.
Thank you for this very informative video. I visited Crete twice in the early 1980's, first the East, then the West and toured extensively. I soon found the Cretans are wonderful people, very helpful and kind. I found German tourists were tolerated for the money but otherwise very disliked, not forgiven for their Farther's sins. Example, one evening I saw Germans told "there is no vacant accommodation in this village". They were turned away despite the late hour, when I knew well there was accommodation. In those days I was a blue eyed blonde. It helped to wear a Union Flag T shirt. That was until the villagers discovered one of my uncles fought and was captured at Souda Bay; then I was treated as family by the entire village.
@@sakisgr1396 Why, though? I wonder what Germany should have done instead during the economic crisis. From an outside perspective, Greece manouvered itself in a very bad position and then tried the easy way out by denying all responsibility and blaming someone else. I find it hard to blame the Germans for not wanting to sink an unlimited amount of money into an obviously failed system. So they demanded changes in exchange for a still ungodly amount of money. Not saing that this was the perfect solution, but Greeces approach was for sure not a good one either.
When greece was free again, a British newspaper wrote: "From now on, we won't say that Greeks fought like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks"...
Thank you for this. It was well made and very moving. I hope to travel around Crete this autumn and I will pay my respects to those who resisted, wherever I can. (A UK veteran)
Even when WW2 ended, the Civil War that followed in Greece was absolutely brutal. It was as if the Germans never left, but this time it was our own people dealing the damage.
How come the Greek resistance wich was the longest never got the appreciation? I can see why Greek people have the feeling that people envy them. There are some morons which say Alexander the Great wasn’t Greek Cleopatra wasn’t Greek King leonidas wasn’t Greek Achileas wasn’t Greek The list goes on and on i am Dutch and i have read a lot about Greece. People should be very respectful to Greeks and enjoy Greece
I'll tell you why. It's the hebrews behind this hate. When the Hebrew usa leaders divided Yugoslavia they made new made small counties with fake history ,which was ruled by communist leaders ,like Albania, Skopje the fake Makedonia and Bulgaria. They teach them propaganda since young children and here you go. They are brainwashed with lies .
Because some people are simply antihellenic for whatever reasons and will never change. Many people don't understand that Greece has *many* enemies. Germans look down on Greece as backward if not in pure contempt. None of the southern Balkan countries like Greece except the Serbs. The Turks want to annihilate the country and that's over 80,000,000 people from that country alone! The British elites have had recurring political issues with Greece going on for two centuries. The Americans consider Greece a giant military base and treat it in exactly that way. When you have the world's most powerful countries that don't have your best interests at heart you will experience all kinds of setbacks and never progress. Besides, the current geopolitical climate strongly opposes nationalism for any country, especially European nationalism. Even the recent governments in Greece have been pushing to deter nationalism from taking hold as much as they can up to the point of imprisoning nationalist politicians! So, key facts of WW II and other historical periods are not going to be widely taught or disseminated.
@@Taleton true. But streets of Salonica are still paved with Jewish tonbstones. Karamanlis and cop collaborated with holocaust to steal Jewish property
Yeah honestly, saying that "this" country hated it more than any other is really dumb, I don't think any country liked the occupation (Not counting Austria of course)
My granddaddy came to America from the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian sea, below Corfu.(during the first world war) During the war, WWII his siblings and their families were on the island. Other relatives were also on the island. He had a brother who was a ship captain in the merchant marines, and a brother-in-law also a ship captain in the merchant marine. They stayed at sea and helped that way. My great aunt said the Italians were very vicious to them, but the Germans would take things from them, but mark their houses so as not to loot them more than once. The Germans marched a bunch of Italian troops off a cliff into the sea in the northern part of our island. Oh, my great aunt buried her olive oil and coffee and other food in her garden, to hide things from the Germans My aunt and my mother went to Greece in 1950 to spend the summer. When my mother landed in Peraius that was the day the Korean war broke out. She always told me the stories of seeing grown men crying. They all lived through horrible times during the civil war and saw much brutal killing. I would like to watch anything you would like to do on Greece. I am very proud of my heritage and culture and know from things I have read over the years, they fought so hard for Greece. I am so proud of all they did to fight the Germans and Italians
During the late 60's two friends of mine from England visited Chalkidiki in Northern Greece. They told me that every time they met with the locals, they have been asked if they were Germans. When they replied back that they were English, people smiled and were extremely hospitable towards them. Some Greek areas suffered more than others. Among those is Crete, eastern Macedonia and Chalkidiki. In a village in Chalkidiki the Germans put all the villagers, including women and children, inside the church and burned them alive.
Very "smart" these people in Chalkidiki: so if the visitors had been actually Germans, they would not have been as hospitable to them, even though they would have done nothing bad to them themselves.
@@tomorrowneverdies567''These people in Chalkidiki'' were the few survivors. ''These people in Chalkidiki'' had seen most of their relatives dying a horrible death. You think 15 years or so is enough to forget? Think again.
@@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt and because they had not yet forgotten, this means that they can be impolite, or inhospitable to people who had nothing to do with these events, and just because their nationality was German? Think again.
These videos are for those who say that Greece is a country that has not given anything to humanity in the last 1000 years. I will remind my European friends that Greece has given much more than most European countries. And I'm not only talking about ancient Greece, but also about modern Greece. Resistance to the Nazis, Pap tests for women, several Nobel prizes, Olympic games,... And for those Germans who talk about Greece's debt, let me remind them that their ancestors killed 15% of the Greek population, every Greek house has 1-2 dead because of the German Nazis, let me remind them that they never paid morally, criminally or financially for their crimes in Greece, and also to remind them of the loan they took from Greece by force and never returned to the Greeks. As for the loans the Greeks have taken from EU, the Greeks pay them back and with high interest. Nobody does us a favour. Let them stop pointing fingers at us and better sit and study some history before they blame.
Very well said! I am the son of a Polish soldier who fought the Germans in Warsaw in 1939 and later Northern France in 1940. He and the rest of his family knew and still remember how terrible the Germans were, my father told me some of the things he experienced fighting the Germans and how they were to not only Polish POWs but regular citizens. My mother was a Jewish refugee from Vienna who escaped to London in March of 1939. . Everyone else of the family who couldn’t get out of Austria were all murdered by the Germans. 24 family members including my mothers mother and the youngest family member being a little girl who was only 2 or 3 years old. My mother use to say …never forget and never forgive! God bless Greece! Greetings from New York.
@@philipnestor5034 My dear Polish friend, what I hate in the world is hypocrisy. They blame a country for its mistakes when they themselves have committed much more. I am also bothered by their selective memory. They blame a country for 3 bad elements from morning till night, but they never praise it for the good it has offered. This is called prejudice and toxicity. Greetings from Greece to beautiful Poland and beautiful New York Greek Greetings and Greek loves. 💙🤍
@@Ελλάδα-ω3θ Thanks for writing back. I agree with what you said,all true. Recently when I was at the post office the man working at the desk told me how he went to visit Greece to visit family and they took him to a mass grave when Greek citizens were machine gunned by German soldiers and he told me his Grandfather was in the grave. I remember going to Minsk in Belarus back in 2010 with my daughter and we visited a few mass graves ( they are all over in Eastern Europe) and I told my daughter your great grandmother ( my mother’s mother) is in one of these graves. Never forget and Never forgive!
@@philipnestor5034 I totally understand what you are saying and I agree. Great crimes were committed and went unpunished. In Greece there is not a single house that does not have 1 or 2 or even 3 victims from that time. All Greeks have bad stories to tell you from that time. The majority of Greeks have forgiven the Germans for what happened. It bothers us, however, that many of them mock us, insult us, belittle us, while we have forgiven them for the evils they did to Greece. At the time when Greece was experiencing the economic crisis, I was afraid to enter pages that talked about Greece, because I could not stand the comments of many Germans. They spoke very disparagingly and badly about us. The Greeks in that tragic period 2010-2018, had to deal with austerity, unemployment, 17,000 suicides throughout the country, uncertainty, hunger for many families. At the same time, we had to deal with the malicious comments of the Germans and their friends.
@@philipnestor5034 I remember my grandmothers (who died in 2008 and 2018 respectively) when I was a child telling me stories from the Italian and German invasions. I will not forget the fear on their faces, how they trembled or moved their hands during the descriptions... From there I understood that they had experienced bad situations. Anyway, I wish that peoples would acquire humanity over the years, recognize the mistakes of their ancestors and try to correct them and not repeat. At least the Greeks made mistakes that hurt our own country and hurt ourselves, but we didn't invade other countries and hurt no one. We didn't steal or kill anyone.
I believe that the hardest thing to do is to find a Greek family that didn't have any victims from the occupation or the civil War. This still haunts Greece in every aspect.
You will find MANY families who had no victims from the occupation. It's a historical FACT that the Germans had a lot of respect for the people of Greece. But you won't find many families who didn't have victims from the savagery and criminal activity of COMMUNISTS (partisans).
My grandmother was part of the resistance in the mountains of Parnitha and later joined the army till she retired. I heard so many stories of people lost and the bombarding
My grandmother that recently died used to live on the sides of a steep hill, the road was like 15% inclination downhill. When I grew up a bit, i asked her about the war and she told me this: "I was a young child, I will never forget how you'd see the Germans move lots of people up the top of the hill, in the middle of the night you'd hear the gunshots. Then for several days, the hill would echo the woes and groans of the ones that were left for dead, but were still barely alive. The times it would heavily rain, there was streams of water coming down through the road from the top of the hill, washing with it blood, bones, anything remaining of the people executed on the top". Insanity.
It wasn't civil war, it was a failed communist coup
don't forget there were those that were with the germans and snitched people in the resistance. and there are still people that believe that the germans did what they did because of the resistance...my godmother's uncle had one of the first european newspapers against nazi
My grandfather(British) fought with the Greek commandos . He always spoke of the greek people with great affection, and how brave they were. I visited Greece in the 90's. When I visited some of the villages that he was in, the elderly people there literally got emotional and treated me like family. The best people.
Thank you so much for your words and thank your grandfather for being there for us.He is also a hero!
What a coinsidence!! My grandfather who was from Crete helped 2 British officers and 1 New Zealand officer (they were parayroopers) to escape from the Germans took them to the mountains and then taken at night to a small beach to embark them to submarines which took them to middle East.
Was your grandfather SAS? The first Greek commandos (known as Ιερολοχίτες originally) were trained by SAS officers in 1942 and fought alongside the Brits in Tunisia and the Dodecanese campaign.
@@ntonisa6636 No,my grandfather was an ordinary citizen he was a well known shoomaker born and lived in a village near Heraklio in Crete all his life.
@@effievassiliadis6503 I was asking the person who commented first 😅😊
But the Greeks fought back even against impossible odds, like when the Greek pilot Marinos Mitralexis was attacking an Italian bombing raid, and his PZL 11 was outta Ammo, and went on a Kamakaze run into an Italian bomber, baled out himself and and took the survivors prisoner to march them to nearby Greek positions
IT was not P-11, IT was P-24
@@krzysztof5620 Was that an export version or just a reiteration of the basic aeroframe?
@@johnryder1713 It was a different plane. P-24 was longer, has close cockpit, different engine and guns. Has an aerodynamic wheel covers too. P-24 was faster den P-11. Proppeler PZL P-24 Has 3wings, P-11 just 2😉
@@krzysztof5620 But was such a good plane produced unfortunately with out the hindsight of Spain to give it improvement, like the BF109 which was no great plane when it first faced the Russian types in Spain, but I checked out the P24 was an export variant, just with a French engine and not the restricted Bristol Mercury as well as the improvements
@@johnryder1713 Yes, Polish Air Force used still PZL P-11c, a new ones modern P-24 was export to Greece, Bułgaria and Romania (Romania has licence to build this planes.Romanian made based on it very good plane called IAR -80).Someone just few days before start the war. It all was a little past time planes in 1941, even 1939 too.
My uncle, Edward Potocki, passed away a few years ago. The Greek Government sent a huge floral arrangement and thanks for his service to the Greek nation during WW2. He was an Engineer/Top gunner on a B-17. I know he had flown bombing missions over Ploesti but had no idea he was involved in assisting Greek resistance. What little I could find out was that his B-17 was used to ferry in resistance fighters and weapons into isolated Greek airfields. The exact number of missions I couldn't find out, but they were conducted a night. His participation in the war ended in 1943 when his aircraft was shot up by BF-109s and crashed on landing at base in Italy. Shot in the legs and a broken arm he spent the rest of the war in US hospitals till1946. He never talked about it because it was classified. That floral arrangement was over 8 feel long and 5 feet high.
I'm so glad to know that we are still honoring those brave men who came to the aid of my country. My grandfather fought the Italians, the Bulgarians and the Germans as a foot soldier...then joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation. He forever loved and deeply respected the American, New Zaelanders and British men who sacrificed and fought such a terrible enemy. May your uncle rest in peace.
Our father was killed in 1944 as a Germans raged through Greece, pillaging stealing from homes Museum churches. I often wonder if that ugliness and rage that all the German youth had is still coming within the generations. Indoctrination is a very difficult disease to stamp out of a human being. Beings the good Lord has created man to be the most intricate being, there are two things. A human being can be good or evil. Has the evil of the second world war completely washed out from the fanatical people who considered God’s creation as simply a piece of meat?
May God have mercy on the fallen heroes who were victims of the heartless German machine. And may the good Lord deal with those people according to his wise Plan and mercy.
@@vasilikim4686Amen!
@greco2k That men from his name it is sound like he was polish. Don't you think 🤔
Wow.
I really wish he could have seen the flower arrangement!!!
As a Bulgarian I am not proud of the brutalities of the Bulgarian army towards the Greeks in WW2, and would like to say sorry to our Greek friends and neighbours, and to reassure them that, even though this is glossed over in Bulgarian high-school textbooks, Bulgarians generally know about the mistreatment of Greeks by the Bulgarian army in WW2 and agree that it was very wrong. I hope we continue to live in peace in the Balkans long enough so that we look into our violent past as a warning about what not to do to each other. With love and friendship, from Bulgaria.
Well fact is that nowadays between our nations we have the best relations balkan countries can possibly have. Let us be the example to our other neighbor countires :)
It's not your fault, friend. Thank you for educating yourself despite your government not talking about these facts. I appreciate your kindness and your taking the time to write this considerate message. We love you.
As a Greek I have to say that we too have made mistakes. The important thing is that while the governments of the Balkan nations are not as friendly to each other as they should be, us, the people of these nations feel as if we are brothers (or at least me (I'd like to think I am not the only one)) and in the end it's always the people and the relationships between them that matters.
What you just said shows you are an honourable person. Studying our histories we are going to find good deeds and bad deeds and it is not by brushing the latter off that we can move forward. Recognising, apologozing, and opting to never repeat again the same is the way forward. Today, two "traditional enemies" such as Greeks and Bulgarians have the best relations ever in their 1400 years history as neighbours. That is the way to move forward.
I completely agree with your points. Especially today it is very important to cultivate healthy relationships between our counties (and among neighbor countries in general) while also preserving our district cultures. Or to be exact, it is very important for each country and its people to retain their district cultures while avoiding the trap of nationalism, something which can be achieved by admitting it's past mistakes and moving forward, by establishing symbiotic relations with neighbor countries that might have been enemies in the past. Unfortunately, I cannot say that Greek schools help in that process. For example our history books mention that Alexander the great (who in many people's minds is a national hero) in his conquest spread Greek culture in the east and at the same time they gloss over the fact that he is one of history's biggest slaughterer. Another example which is derived from personal experience is that many teachers will lay claim to objectivity, denying that other peoples histories have any merit. Lastly, for a reason that I haven't figured out yet, in Greece (again at least to my personal experience) there is a rhetoric that assumes Greek superiority and that cultivates hatred. I mean classical examples of this ate the many graffiti on the streets which either are swastikas or explain how we **** the Turks, or the high percentage of people who supported golden dawn, a nationalist party before it was condemned as a terrorist organization. So, it is very nice to see many Greeks trying to educate themselves and others while also trying to reach out to our brothers and sisters wherever they are in order to establish a universal humanism, in which there are no borders between the hearts of the people. I am very happy to be one of those people and to see that others feel the same - I thank you for recognizing the mistakes of the past and for being willing to work with others in order to avoid repeating them.
I think it is sad that the Greek resistance fighters have not received more attention. You hear about the Partisans of Yugoslavia and the Maquis of France but very little about the Greek resistance fighters.
Because the Greek partisans' effort was shoved under the rag by our government. They were considered "communist gangsters" up until the late 70s.
That is because Greeks hate Greeks. We executed and imprisoned our war heroes after our liberation war with Turkey because of political games and then we did the same to our resistance fighters because they were communists (again more political games).
Because, Greek partisans fought with the same zeal against Germans and their own nationalist forces in Greece... it was an internal civil war, while at war with Germany. Yugoslav partisan war is a different story - the nazis did not want any Slavic people around, and Germans did not consider Greeks real enemies; the trouble was that the British Crown possessed some Greek islands and sponsored the Greek resistance; Churchill gave Stalin Romania just to keep Greece with the West; so, the Greek partisan resistance fought against the Greek royal troops (anti-communist) after WW2 for a long time... when the Brits took things seriously, they kicked the communists out of Greece, sent them in exile in USSR... where they rightfully "belonged"...these partisans were able to return only after Greece joined West Europeans later in 1974... I have met many people who returned to Greece after the amnesty... many of them were still ardent socialists... Yugoslavs allied with their bigger brother on the East, Russians and became a socialist country. Greece, thanks to Brits and Marshall Plan remained with Western Alliance.
We even managed to have a civil war during the resistance.. its insane
@@HK-pp9ig not exactly correct
We had many resistance forces, before the germans were even kicked out the communists were killing the other resistance forces,only EDES got support from brittain but there were many others who were killed by EAM aswell.The communists also stayed in Greece only their leadership was kicked out and they were back soon after the civil war sadly
I was in Greece in february this year. One of the things that surprised me the most was how serious and meaningful WWII is for the country. Didn't have a tour in which that war wasn't mentioned, didn't appear in a monument or wasn't referenced by a street name. Truly my respect for those who don't forget their history
Funny enough i was in greece in Feb too , i went to vist my grandfather who survived through the war and the ensuing civil war. As mentioned in the video the germans came from bulgaria and my family lived on the right on the border , so we went to visit Fort Roupel and for a day we explored the old Metaxas line which is open to the public to explore. It was pretty cool old bunkers which havent seen use since the 60s free too explore.
You should have went to the war museum
@@icantthinkausername1136 don’t worry I went to all of them, the National museum to visit my hero Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης ο γέρος του Μοριά , the war museum in both Athens and Thessaloniki which were great but I missed one. Which was the Macedonian struggle museum which I’m going to go visit hope to learn more about Παύλος Μελάς ο ήρωας τις Μακεδονία. But I’m 100% going back to Roupel “ Τα οχυρά δεν Παραδίδονται καταλαμβάνονται”.
@@batzathebeast6750 yeah my friend you know 💪🔥
@@icantthinkausername1136 I saw the changing of guard in Athens
Respect for the Greek. Their history can be accounted to thousands of years and yet they are still there despite all the bad times they had.
A good friend was a ten year old child who remembered the Germans in his small village. German soldiers were stationed there and if one was killed, the Germans would kill 10 Greeks.
I really admire the Greek people. They are so courageous and generous. I went on a holiday in Greece and arrived very sick and remained very sick for about 10 days. The country was in an economic crisis, and the people were really suffering. they were very generous to me, an American. And they were very generous to the people coming in desperation from other countries. Greece and the Greeks got a bad rap during the economic crisis that was not deserved. It is a poor country, but a generous country and rich in culture history values, the important things. They can’t always fix up their streets or buildings, but at night all you have to do if you’re in Athens is look up and you will see the Parthenon.
Not a poor country by any means.
yeah, not just a bad rep for the economic crisis, but also sort of a bad rep for being on Serbia's side during the yugoslavia wars, we're not dirt poor but we're not all rich neither, an interesting little fun fact is Greece is one of the countries that have the lowest suicide rates
@@OperatorMax1993 Yeah, we work so much we dont have time to commit suicide lol.
@@MonasteryOfSilence yep lol
Poor country?! Maybe you don't know what you are talking about. Economic crisis? Probably you mean the economic crisis of the foreign banks in Greece, which were saved thanks to the money of the Greek people.
"They can't fix the streets and buildings " Lol, I can name quite a few states that you can easily break your car because of the potholes or people seek refuge in the woods to set a tent due to homelessness.
An old woman still lights up the candles on the old cemetery at Crete. Among the dead there are German soldiers too. A man asked the old lady why she take cares the graves of her people's murderers and she just says because their mothers can't be here to do that. That is the mentality of the Greek people. The words of God are still living inside our souls... That's why we gave our lives for freedom
This story has been around since I was a child, don't know if it's accurate tho
My dad and four uncles, all New Zealanders, attended the Battle of Maleme. German parachutists were involved, and my dad said they had to kill them. My dad said they were "beautiful men". The New Zealand soldiers all cried when they saw these poor dead men.
@@ScorpionFlower95it's true, I recall my grandfather respecting them because by his words "these men follow orders, they don't know the whole truth thus they can't be blamed, blame their superiors" though truth to be told modern day Greeks (around my age millennial and younger) we have lost our edge, we've become self entitled and spoiled to be honest, not all but many sadly
Μy great granddad found a German soldier in very bad condition in our island Paros. He immediately put him in their house and gave him shelter for the rest of the war. When he left he promised he'll never forget. Years later, when my great granddad was having his last breath in the same house and the family was gathered around his death bed the door knocked. My father (a child at the time) opened the door to find an old gentleman who he didn't recognise. My grandpa saw him and recognised him immediately! He said if he wanted to see Nikos (the great granddad) and if he wanted he needed to be fast as he was having his last breath. The smile Nikos had was magical and there he took his last breath. After leaving this word the German said in greek words "Καλό ταξίδι αδελφέ μου" which translates to "Have a good trip my dear brother". Humanity is beautiful but hatred destroys it
@@peace-now As a Cretan I feel obliged to tell you, you have a 2nd home here if you ever leave NZ
I am not surprised at all when learning about the pride and bravery of the greek people. After 11 years visiting the country in a row, I admire their resilience and sense of community. I am basque, we had our Gernika too, but this is on another level. Bravo Ellada! S'agapó! Maite zaitut!
The Greeks throughout history and time have given examples of resistance and have set the bar on numerous occasions.They deserve respect and to be remembered
Its a shame that you a veteran have buried the bar of genuine dignity so far in the earth it would take the gods themselves to reach it.
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle TF are you talking about?
THE GREEKS ALSO DID THEIR FAIR SHARE OF INVADING OTHER COUNTRIES IN PREVIOUS CENTURIES!😮
Credit to the RHS Georgios Averof, when ordered to surrender to the German occupiers the crew of the old armored cruiser promptly gave them the finger, sailed out to link up with the Royal Navy and continued the fight. She survived the war and still can be visted in Greece today.
she survived indeed and she's sitting at the port of old phalerum (a municipality in the southern region of athens). i happen to live very close by, in the same municipality, and i typically bike in front of her once a week. the extra benefit of living this close to her is you get to go in the ship on your formative years with your classmates as it's a full-blown floating museum.
most non-disabled (etc) adults pay for tickets BUT there are a bunch of free days every year AND there's another one of those days coming up on the 18TH OF MAY (9 days from writing this, on international museum day!), so i would assume it's a great place to visit if one happens to be there.
@@freedomgoddess Hopefully someday I get a chance to visit her in person. As the last Armored Cruiser in the world and technically still a commissioned warship like the USS Constitution and HMS Victory it would be nice to see the Hellenic Navy's ceremonial flagship up close.
Hellas gaining a superweapon accidentally
@@williamcostigan91 To make it sweeter right next to her is Velos (one of the only four remaining Fletcher class destroyers) and Olympias a reconstruction of an ancient trireme.
It actually gets even more interesting because before the surrender of Greece the greek navy command order the crew of averof to sink it because they thought that the ship was too outdated and slow to safely retreat but the crew couldn't bring themselves to do it so they gave them the finger too , disobeyed their orders and tried to retreat and they succeeded
My family are from Klisoura in northern Greece. The attrocities committed there are still felt today. My grandmother told me some horror stories, stories she never forgot for the entirety of her life. No child should have witnessed what she did.
“Horror stories” of what german forces fighting against resistance movements ? Theres always something, the overused trope of “heartless germans” is about dead at this point like fml bro holy shit Its ironic the allies “liberated” Paris or any other major European city so that they could be swarmed by Ethiopian migrants 🤦♂️😂
@@Basedlocation German soldiers shooting civilians in the street. A baby being suffocated to dead under its dead mum. Soldiers raping women. Stories from people in other villages of civilians being murdered, babies being silenced with bayonets.
Take your shit elsewhere. No child should grow up with the horrors of war and she was a sweet gentle soul her whole life but when she spoke about those times, her eyes would change, it deeply effected her.
@@Basedlocation i dont see how the liberation of paris equals Ethiopian migrants but whatever makes you happy
@@Basedlocation as a Greek person I can assure you that this isn't ironic there were lots of horror stories of germans r***ing women and children and mass gen*cide so there nothing ironic with
Heartless German soldiers
@@greekmanjason449 he probably is a nazi supporter.
Hello, Greek person with relatives from Soufli here. I was so surprised to hear this specific story from my grandmother's hometown being mentioned in your channel because it hits so incredibly close to home, literally. I'm neighbours with an old woman, Miss Marika, whose father was one of the eight victims of the shooting. Thank you for making this video, those people died for a cause and they are not forgotten! i'm in tears, cheers.
History !!!,
Ω ρε φιλε ..
Ευχαριστούμε γι αυτό το βίντεο. My family suffered a lot from the Germans, my grandfather's brother, Christos Zangas, was executed on May 1, 1944 in Kaisariani along with 199 other patriots. Thank you for this video. Greetings from Greece!
My grandfather was a young lawyer, 24 years old, fresh graduate of the Athens Law University with only 1 year as an acting attorney under his belt when the war broke out. Due to his higher education he was instantly put into officer school and in 6 weeks became a Captain of the Hellenic Armed Forces. He fought in the north, repelling the Italian invasion on our borders with Albania. He had 700 men and 6 tanks under his command, that was his battalion.
Whenever I asked him to tell me stories from the war when I was a child, he only told me 1 thing: "You're too young for me to tell you stories of the war. The only thing you need to know is that I lost noone. 700 sons were given to me, 700 sons I returned to their mothers." It was only in my late teenage-early adult life that I understood the gravity of his words. He died at the age of 98, back in 2014. R.I.P grandpa.
My grandmother on the other hand was a whole different story. She was a 12-year old girl when the war broke out, on her home island of Kefalonia (tutorial island from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey if you've played that game). She used to jump in the back of Nazi trucks to steal food. She, unlike my grandfather, had no qualms telling me stories of the war. How her whole family would huddle in the cellar of their home when the carpet-bombing was going on. How her mother (my great-grandmother) had to sell all her fortune, her jewelry and her paintings, in order to buy a sack of potatoes to feed her family. How the family villa was confiscated by the Nazis, used as headquarters while they were there, and then how they promptly bombed it to smithereens when they left so noone could use it again, leaving my great-grandmother and her 6 kids (my grandmother and great-uncles) homeless.
She always used to say the Italians were nice to the kids. They would break out their mandolins during the evening and play music, for the kids. We all know how Italians love their music and their singing. But the nazis? They would kick kids around. Joke about the fact they had nothing to eat. Literally destroy leftovers so the Greeks wouldn't find ANYTHING to eat in the trash. She used to tell me half the Italian soldiers who were there did not even know WHY they were attacking their, quite similar culturally, neighbours. But the nazis? Whole different ball-game.
It's not a good thing to generalize. Not all Germans were bad. Most of them didn't want to attack Greece. My grandma was telling me stories about German soldiers, who were showing photos with their wives and kids to the local Greeks and they immediately started to cry. Many of them could also speak Greek, since they were astonished by the ancient Greek civilization.
During Nazi occupation Greece's population was about 7 million and about 450.000 of those civilians died of intentional starvation because everything was confiscated and sent to the Operation Barbarossa front. That would be winter 1941. Look up "Winter 1941 Athens" and see for yourself what they did as their general practice (e.g. even worse in Ukraine). And frankly I believe they would do it again, because they think of themselves as super humans of some kind. These things go together.
Not gonna lie, that quote from your grandpa about being given 700 sons and returning 700 sons gave me goosebumps.
We lost my grandma this year, on new years even, whenever she had good days and was lucid I would ask her about stories since long-term memory is a lot clearer when you get older, and it helped keep her sharp. A lot of stories from the occupation, I remember one specific anecdote which seemed curious
Whereas most people agree that Italians were, in general, nicer, and Germans crueler, strangely enough, my grandma told me that they had the opposite situation there, The German troops were disciplined and "Gentlemen" while the Italians were *dangerous* around girls and ladies
Also quite a few stories from the civil war later on, in fact, I think that she probably has told me about more villagers and family members killed by partisans and other Greeks compared to the ones due to the Italians and Germans, but we did lose a few in the retaliatory killings after the Gorgopotamos bridge sabotage (my village is in the general area, some 20 km away)
My mother was also told this , the italian soldiers were usually nice people and brought little trouble
@@Filonikisyou are the definition of germanotsolias... Of course in any group not everyone is bad... But what the Germans did in our country must never be forgotten.... A nation with no memory are a nation with no future...
I love Greece. I have been there often. I love the landscapes, the islands, the people, nature, the history, the culture, the cuisine, the climate. This video just adds to my admiration. May 2023 I was on Crete. I visited the German cemetery at Maleme, the Allied cemetery near Souda bay, the grave of Elfterios Venizelos and the small war museum at Theriso. Very impressive. Europe is in forever debt to Greece and the Greeks
❤👍🇬🇷
We Filipinos fought bravely against the Japanese even during occupation, in a similar manner, to the point the Philippines can be considered Japan’s version of the Vietnam War. Of course though, many innocent Filipino civilians were killed (often raped in disgusting ways too) by Japanese brutality,
I had little idea of the Greek resistance against the Nazis prior to watching this video, but once I did…..
Well I can’t really put into words my sympathies, praises, and admiration to the Greeks, though I can say that it also takes me back to the bravery the ancient Spartans showed when the Persians invaded, and I’d like to think it was passed down even to the Greeks of the 1940s :)
To Greeks reading this comment with love and praise from the Philippines, I can’t understate how much we understand very well the pain you all went through during the occupation, and personally I can’t help but give high loving praise to your resistance against the brutality of the Germans! I would’ve given you a comforting hug for that…. Also, may all Greeks who died fighting against the Nazis rest in peace, they have done far too much for Greece today. ❤️
respect brother to all
And after all these we went through, we still have not received the war reparations! On the contrary Germany is getting richer and richer by the austerity measures they imposed on Greece. They even buy lots and lots of weapons...hhmmm...what for?? Bloodshed in Europe III???
It is so sad for you too,to face such brutality.Thank you for everything you said for Greeks❤
in Greece, we have a pretty good knowledge of Japanese brutality in occupied lands (China, Philippines etc) from executions and torture all the way to death marches. Also of Japanese isolated soldiers who took shelter to mountains and forests and never surrendered even after the end of WWII or who committed suicide when they discovered Japan had been defeated.
uwu
The history of Greece in WWII must become a movie.
if you are intrested you can search for a movie called: the last note, by Pantelis Voulgaris. I hope you find subtitles. another famous movie is captain corelli's mandolin, although it's more of a love story.
Commie heros, why does woke Hollywood hate them so much?
There are Greek movies set during that period
Guns of Navarone too was set in Greece and tells some of the Greek story in WW2 ❤
@@paulinaa.5606 sadly The Last Note is NOT available on youtube or similar free sites
Many years back in 1974 I was in Crete for a holiday, we rented a 4x4 and went off the beaten track up into the mountains with another couple of Brits, after some time we came to a small isolated mountain village and decided to stop at the center of the village, there were a few small bars or cafes but although all the doors were wide open there was absolutely nobody in sight. We decided to rest under the shade of a large Olive tree in the middle of the square enjoying the peace and quiet and still wondering what was going on. After a while we began to hear some music in the distance, little by little it grew louder until finally into the square came the village priest followed by the whole village with band of music included. Most of the people had spotted us under the Olive tree and after the ceremony had finished two women approached us and tentatively asked us if we were German, we effusively replied no and that we were English, they both smiled broadly and hurried off towards the bar which was by now full of locals, a few minutes later they came out carrying a large tray loaded with food and drink, quite a number of locals said hello and shook our hands, we were astonished and really felt they were genuinely pleased to see us, we eventually understood from them that it was their liberation day from the Germans and in a true show of Greek hospitality, even though we insisted they wouldn´t accept payment for the food and drink.
We share food and drinks because it fills us with joy! No money involved in these acts make it better!
Filotimo is the word for it!
@@athanasiostsagkadouras383 Greek people are very lovely and warm hearted. I never met a single person in my life who didn't like Greeks!
that's how we Greeks are, we know how to share and money has no place in hospitality. Probably for Northern Europe, this culture is a bit foreign as everything is measured by money.
@@19mangas83 thank you
Know i am curious to know what would have happened if you were Germans?
Thank you for making this video, for telling the hardships and the struggle of the Greek people.
Ironic the greeks used to fight for western civilization until they were fighting against the crusaders FOR western civilization instead of allying themselves with Europes last hope they allied themselves with the jews in London and the jews in Washington, the judeo Bolsheviks in the kremlin and things haven’t changed
The struggle hardships and brave fighting both the Greeks and Yugoslavs had to go through is incredible and extremly underapreciated and forgotten, as a descendant of yugoslav partisans i am very happy Greeks get some screentime on this channel aswell
@@Basedlocation Aren't all christians jews?And of course if you look into it,Hitlers religion was not Christianity at all...
@@baki4341 *Do not forget about the Poles and their so well organized underground National Army (AK), which gave both occupants (Germans & Soviets) so many sleepless nights !!!!*
As a Greek, i feel the need to say "thank you so much for making this video".
The worst thing to do to a Greek, is to directly threaten his beloved ones. Even if he fails, the word "revenge" will always be carved inside him.
WE NEVER FORGET.
I'm not sure if you'll ever get to read this comment, but to answer your last question, about making a video for the following Greek Civil War, i need to advise you that this war was much fiercer than WW2 and it still remains a very sensitive subject for the most of us Greeks.
You re going to read a lot of myths and facts were it will be pretty hard to spot the real events and facts.
My grandfather fought this Civil War and also was the man responsible for the "planning and executing" the last "victorious" battle given against the Greek Communists.
He told me so many stories about this war and, lucky me, i 've recorded him telling each and every one of them.
What i could not record at that time, were his face expressions. He was so sad and devastated about this war that i still remember his voice saying to me:
"My lovely son, i wish you never get to live those days again" ,
"Killing a foreign enemy is so easy and emotionless compared to shooting down your brother, your father, your son.",
"This is such a trauma that cannot be described by words.".
If you do get to make this video, i really hope you mention those who were truly responsible for this war and the reasons behind that, so the upcoming generations learn from the mistakes we made in the past.
Much love, and again, truly thank you for making this video.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
@@DP.496 nice father you got there... a good collaborator he must have been, claiming to be a good greek when the war was over, ha?
@ΠέγκυΜπαρούνη Collaborator ha ha, he was kid at 15 when the war ended. He was also 5'11" and weighed only 90 lbs. His grandfather starved to death. His friends had their fathers taken away and executed by the Greek communists. They did collaborate with the British regarding German positions before the Civil War. He never claimed to be a "good Greek" or anything else he just wanted to move forward in the US.
My grandfather was young man during Serbian army retreat trough Albanian mountains to Greece in WWI . When I was a kid he would take us to Corfu to pilgrimage it’s the place that is largest grave yard of Serbs outside of Serbia. Grandpa told us how ordinary Greeks nurtured starved near death survivors of retreat. There is great love among Serbs towards Greeks.
Yes, Greeks owed some love to Serbia, as medieval Serbian Empire included Greece as well as other lands and nations in the Balkans.
And this sh they were doing to Greeks is the reason Serbs broke the pact and entered ww2.
So since your grandfather as part of Serbian army retreated trough Albanian mountains to Greece during the WWI you should also express gratitude to Albanians at least for allowing passage through their territory.
@@fatonbuza actually Albanians were ambushing and killing people who were weak, leaving their naked corpses in snow. Some Albanian clans were helpful and offered what little they had while others used it as opportunity to rob .
My wife is half Serbian. When we were there for three weeks we were treated like visiting royalty. Unbelievable love still exists between the two countries.
I am a French citizen living in Greece for the last 15 years, when you travel around every 50 km there is a Martyr village besides the organized a famine that killed 150,000 souls was a big % of the population back then. France was Mickey mouse compared to Greece. Respect!
you are fake Hilarious
Philippe I am grateful for your comments. I was born in a town (Arta) which is very close to the martyric village of kommeno (317 dead). The picture that haunts my childhood is that of a 50 year old man (he was a child during the massacre) whose mind "froze" in that day and re-lived the terror everyday. He was coming to town by bus and the bus stop was a few meters from my school. Everyday he started the same routine. Suddenly he was shouting TAT TAT TAT (machine gun sound) and then "he falls down, he falls down, he falls down , describing shot people collapsing. I hope he soon found peace. Death at the massacre day would be the best that could happen to him....
The people of France suffered heavily in WW2. Not sure really what you mean by the Mickey Mouse comment. Hundred's of thousands among the civilian population became victims in the fighting during 1944-45. Thousands were executed in heavy reprisals against resistance activity. Oradour-sur-glane mean anything to you? The people of Greece obviously suffered terribly during the war, but you should not forget your own history. I know for a fact that even today the French casualties of the war are often "forgotten" when war history is the topic, especially all the civilians that died in allied air raids in 1944. They probably had casualty rates close to what the soldiers suffered in the frontline at times. I'm not French btw and still I have a deep respect for the war time history of France.
@@odysseasntalias5950 "coplo di grazia" you meant?
@@moparman1692France had 1.000.000 army when surrdered to Germany. French men worked at the german industry while the German men were in army. It is a shame that France was one of the winners of the war!!!
At my Region in Crete, there was done one of the worst massacres by Nazis. At SE Heraklion, the Viannos region villages, about 10 villages, were grounded, and about 400 to 500 civilians executed, Older, Men, women, children...it was the retaliation after a small battle between partisans and germans in the region
Usually Germans would retaliate against local people 1-100 in Slavic countries, and 1-10 in other occupied country; for each German soldier killed, they would kill 10 local people; regardless of the participation. What Germans were capable of doing, you have to watch, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, USSR... Probably they did not expect Greek partisans to bother their lines... in the end, Germans had sponsored the new Greece in 1800s, even giving Greece a German king, Otto. Germans love Greece, and many Greeks moved to Germany after WW2. There is no general animosity; except for the leftist parties who still today try to blame Merkel for the Greek financial meltdown in 2008. Some blamed Germany for Greek downfall... forgetting how much Germany has contributed to Greece. It is similar with French people not being grateful with the USA, saving their a$$es twice, WW1 and WW2. Many Greeks still love Germany. Wars are bad anyway you see them.
A similar thing happened in Yugoslavia where they killed 2700 civilians in Kragujevac after a rebellion took place
@@jiji8414 Yep, they were ruthless. But the place of Greeks was at a much better position than that of Slavic people in the nazi's hateful list.
@@jiji8414 Don't compare Yugoslavia to Serbia. Kragujevac is in Serbia. Ustasha regime occupied all the Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and created Serbian Genocide. I have relatives killed in Jasenovac only. Not to mention the all things they did in other places. Croatia tries to forget and minimise the Serbian Genocide.
BTW, Serbs in Belgrade in Yugoslavia were offered just neutrality in order Germany attack Greece. UK organised protests and Serbs choose to fight rather to allow Hitler do whatever he wants with Greece.
BTW, Serbs forcing Yugoslavia to WW2 against Hitler resulted in saving the whole outcome of the war with Hitler having to do much stuff in Yugoslavia before invading Soviet Union in winter.
And what did Serbs get? How the Europe treat us? By stealing Kosovo and Metohija.
And what did Greeks get? Northern Epirus back maybe from fascist Albania? Not!
Greeks were very damaged, but so we're Serbs. Tito the dictator was a Croat-Slovene who wanted to put under the carpet everything committed against Serbs and everything Serbs did.
Thank you Europe for not thanking us.🇷🇸🇬🇷
Back in 1995, I motorcycled from Irepetra to Paleohra via the Nida plateau coming across a monument in the middle of nowhere dedicated to the villages of Anogeia and Damasta (I think? may be wrong) raised to the ground in retribution for the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe in WW2.
I had no camera so wrote down the Cyrillic txt in a notebook which i still have. This was in 1995, I always remember it.
I think most Americans, myself included, have always had a great affection for Greece and it's people. Democracy and Western civilization itself can all be traced back to Ancient Greece. 👍
and so did the Germans. Germans from the time they were not even together under one union, loved Greece; Prussia, and other German states supported, agitated and sponsored the Greek War for Independence. Germans even gave Greece a German king after Greece became independent, king Otto. I believe, Germans behaved that way in Greece for two reasons, first they did not imagined that Greeks (partisans) would harass them as much as they did; and the second reason is; the Brits could have taken Greece before the Germans if they were not tough. Greece's king Metaxas allied with the Brits, had expressed his hate for Hitler before he attacked Greece.
@@HK-pp9ig I know that Hitler wasn't happy with Mussolini for invading Greece without telling him. The last thing he wanted to deal with while he was preparing to invade the Soviet Union was having to go and clean up another mess made by the Italians (North Africa being the other). He probably would have liked to have recruited the Greeks into the Axis to help him invade the Soviet Union. I don't know if that was ever a possibility before they aligned with the British, or if the Axis forces had any support in Greece at all. No matter what support Germany may have planned on within Greece for the Axis, it all went out the window as soon as the Italians invaded.
The Americans effectively betrayed their allies when they decided postwar to go soft on the people and business interests behind the Hitler regime who were as guilty of war-crimes (e.g. through slave-labour exploitation) as the murderers on the front line. Read about the exploits of Wall Street's John McCloy, in particular.
The Gerrnans' top men in Greece and Italy (like Kesselring and General Student) should have been executed for all the massacres but they weren't.
And their diners!
The Greeks have a developed a history of resistance against the Persians and Turks.
My grandpa was part of the resistance in the Albanian mountains, I will never forget the horrific stories he told me as a small child of the circumstances and the toll it took on them. Depleted of everything, drinking water next to bodies with frost bites and gangrene and the only thing that kept them fighting was their sheer willpower. We really were one of the smallest countries in the axis's path, but fought as hard as we could resulting in great delays in their arrival to Russia and it's not well known at all.
Greeks have had a long and proud history of standing up to foreign invaders going right back to King Leonidas and the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.
Did you know that all Greeks north of the city of Thebes (included) and the Greeks of Asia Minor were allied to the Persians? Krete and Argos remained nutral.
@@ΔημήτριοςΣκουρτέλης---Yes I knew that Greeks fought for the Persians. But your missing the point. The Greeks that fought the Persians eventually won and it started with Leonidas and his Spartans.
@@brokenbridge6316 It started in Marathon with the Athenians.
@@ΔημήτριοςΣκουρτέλης---Fine it started with them. But I'm not wrong about the Persians losing to the Greeks in the end.
@@ΔημήτριοςΣκουρτέλης It was many Greek states back then... even today, I see many Greeks being sympathizers of Iran...
As a Greek I'm so greatful you made this video! Thank you!!!
As a Greek born and raised in Ioannina I felt all the emotions this video can provide. I don't have many stories to share. Still, one thing that my grandmother made sure I would remember was how adamant my family, my great-grandfather's side especially were in treating the Germans equally. She said that they would burn two of the German stations for every house the soldiers tried to destroy in my village. And that would go on for days until the Germans decided to leave.
My grandparents are all gone now but this memory remains in my mind. Greeks may forgive but they do not forget, as a nation we have endured invasions and slavery to other countries, economic struggles, and ridicule but at the end of the day, we still put a smile on and continue. You could say this way of living is in our blood. Cause it is.
Thank you for this video, for sharing the history, and for shedding some light!
Interessant immer höre ich wie grausam die Deutsche Besatzung war ich habe da nur eine Frage
Warum kamen dann Griechen in den 50er Jahren um in Deutschland zu Arbeiten in den 50er wo
Der Krieg nicht so lange her war .
@@denisk2850 Westdeutschland brauchte Arbeitskräfte für seine expandierende Industrie. In Ostdeutschland kamen griechische Kommunisten bis 1973 als politische Flüchtlinge. Viele griechische Kinder wurden während des griechischen Bürgerkriegs von den kommunistischen Rebellen unfreiwillig in die Deutsche Demokratische Republik umgesiedelt.
At least thats what I know from history classes. You cannot deny how cruel the effects of war were, for both sides, I am only pointing out what my grandmother said about the German occupation in the country based on that specific period she was a part of. I wasnt the one who witnessed the war, her generation was, so what i am doing is relaying information. Same way a German would provide information if you asked them about that period.
@@denisk2850desperation and hunger. The Greek economy was in shambles after the war for a couple of decades.
@@josephj6521 Die Antwort hat aber lange gedauert 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@denisk2850gesegnet seien die Araber, die euer Land auseinander nehmen.
As a Greek from Kalavryta I’m really thankful that this tragedy is finally addressed in a video
I feel lucky to have been born in Sweden, which hasn't been to war since 1814. But my maternal grandparents lived through both WWII and the civil war. They were only 7 and 8 years old respectively when the Germans invaded but they still have clear memories of the horrible occupation. I'm proud of the widespread resistance to the occupiers and I want to thank you for making this video telling the story of the brave men and women of occupied Greece. Ελευθερία ή θάνατος!
1:06 No help by the British against Italian army. Misleading information.
1:43 Greek soldiers did not wear German uniforms.
3:54 Around 800.000 died Greeks died during WW2, not only 300.000
There was some aerial support by the RAF ... As for the deathcount apparently the estimates vary a lot, but 800,000 is close to the highest I've seen(apparently things like the subsequent civil war or the large wave of migration out of the ruined country compound the task of calculating exactly how many were murdered by the Germans), the real number was probably somewhere in the middle between that and what he mentioned.
there was british airforce helping the greeks plus intel on the italians so not misleading and the deaths where 300k-800k smth inbetween
@@mariosmoschis5526 The only help from the brits were to trigger the Germans to invade Greece. In addition their secret services are considered responsible for the death of Ioannis Metaxas by poisoning, because he did not want British troops in Greece in numbers enough only to provoke Germans.
Don't reply to this bastard. He is one of those ultra nationalists who want to believe in "back stabbing" theories. British did help us during the war and also after the war(during our civil war). I am grateful to Britain for helping us defeat the communists and remain a democracy
Still the help was insignificant. General Papagos and Richter both stated that on their books.
My dearly departed grandmother was a young girl when she was brutally kicked down the stairs of her own occupied home near Ioannina by a German officer, breaking her hips and receiving no treatment. The reason was that the food she served him was too cold. I never heard her disparage anyone for the entire blessed time that I knew her, and I therefore never gave much thought to that story , other than the fact that her enduring limp and associated discomfort sometimes made me remember. Until on her deathbed 60 years later, in her delirium, when I visited her she screamed out in terror believing I was "Hans". She never go to see "me" again before the end came. That's an example of how much they took away.
😞 that is horrible .
Who is Hans?
why are the greeks in the european union kissing the germans ass?
@@cumuluscloud3854 obviously the German officer man
@@cumuluscloud3854 I guess it is a typo for "Huns" or maybe the Greeks spell Huns as Hans or "Hans" reserved for Germans?
Being born in Greece , I have to say that this video brought me tears. If it wasn't for these men and women , who put their lives at risk just for the chance that their kids and grandkids could be free, the world today would be a lot different. A massive thank you to all those heroes that remain unnamed, and fought for their human rights! They will always be in our hearts ❤
I visited a village in Crete that was attacked by Nazi retaliation squads and you can still see bullet holes with bullets in them in some of the older buildings that weren't burnt down
My great grandfather , he was living in Rhodes , italian occupied Dodecanese and him along with some special forces placed a big amount of explosives , under around 20 hangars of an axis airfield near the village of Kalathos destroying 17 planes and damaging at least 3 more of them . I never got a chance of meeting him in person since he died in 1964 . But his deeds were recorded in a book and both my father and grandmother (before she passed away) told me of how humble and brave he was .
Recently someone in Rhodes made a documentary about him. There's also a statue in Rhodes to commemorate him. The documentary is shown in local schools, my daughter saw it.
He was a hero. Thank you.
@@helgaioannidis9365 I didn't know they made a documentary about him. I'm gonna search for it now . Thanks for letting me know
@@andreasgiasiranis5206 ruclips.net/video/Q8WWRrjzods/видео.html 😊
Αιωνια η μνημη του ήρωα
6:05 I can't stop crying , because this reminded me the stories of my grandma who passed away in 1999. She was always keen on Italians because they always gave her food for her "bambini" . Without knowing it, they helped her and her two first borns survive, and this is how she gave birth to my mother 10 years after the end of the occupation. Italiano and Bambini were the only foreign words my grandmother knew. This video crashed me , under the heavy burden of the bravery of my ancestors. Thank you. I can verify the stories described in the video as I can recall them from my granmothers experience shared with me. 55 years after the start of the occupation, I could feel the deep impact this occupation had to the soul of my nanna. She had the .. "luck" to be living in a big city like Athens. I can't event think about the stories from the countryside. My granda wasn't called to go to Albanian war at the Greco-Italian war, because he had a problem with his leg and couldn't walk but he went volunteerly. By with own will. Along with all other men, I was described that they were joining the forces no questions asked, filling up the trains to 150% of capacity and singing for freedom and loved ones along their journey to the battlefield. Ouph, my head is bombed with memories of those stories at the moment. I remember one after the other and as I rewind it in my head, I have a new ones come up. Thank you for this video
My grand-grandfather was executed by the Nazis at his way home. The brother of my grandma-at the time a young monk in the Monastery of Mega Spilaion,which is close to Kalavryta- was executed by the Nazis and his body was thrown from a tall rock.They will always be remembered!
my great grandfather was also executed in kalavryta and my grandfather who was 9 at the time with his baby sister and their mother were prisoned in the school of the village which was set in fire with all the other women and children but managed to escape...
Damaskinos of Athens, the Regent of Greece during the occupation published a letter denouncing the Nazi's from taking Greeks 'the Jewish Greeks' stating that "Today we are... deeply concerned with the fate of 60,000 of our fellow citizens who are Jews... we have lived together in both slavery and freedom, and we have come to appreciate their feelings, their brotherly attitude, their economic activity, and most important, their indefectible patriotism"
When the SS commander threatened to have him shot, he responded "According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hanged, not shot. Please respect our traditions!"
Man was a fucking legend.
Badass
SO DID THEY HANG HIM OR NOT?
@@JerryReddy-z5u No it was just a threat. They already were facing the most widespread resistance movement of WW2. They didn't want to fan the flames that hard by giving a huge reason for even more to join the resistance.
Very informative, I was completely unaware of the level of Greek resistance against Nazi occupation. It's amazing how many people suffered at the hands of Germans.
And still do brother, we are just blind i guess... Check WEF and klaus swab... He is a more clever hitler 2.0
Tis true, they are evil scum
Lustig das sie ein Paar Jahren nach dem der Krieg zu Ende war in Deutschland Arbeit suchten .
"The iconic British statesman Winston Churchill, who led the United Kingdom during World War II, reportedly praised the Greek people in a BBC speech during the first days of the Greco-Italian War, stating: “Until now we used to say that the Greeks fight like heroes. Now we shall say: Heroes fight like Greeks”."
True, and before the end of the war; he was forced to concede to Stalin either Romani or Greece; Churchill betrayed the Romanians who he had promised support, and kept Greece with the West.
Jamison Maguire. When he needed the Greeks he was full of flattery and praise,
his lies, treachery and deceit were only revealed later.
@@aesop8694 And for that myopic cynical fraudulent view of the world you get a "whoopie award". LOL
@@HK-pp9ig Britain was a fading world power at the time and the real power that gave away half of Europe to Stalin was Roosevelt. Strangely nobody blames him for any of that. But you are entitled to your opinion regardless.
@@jamisonmaguire4398 Yes, the US emerged as the greatest power after WW2, but England had the aura of the colonial power, and Roosevelt listened to Churchill. Roosevelt died before the war ended, so nobody was interested in him anymore. And, giving parts of Europe to Stalin... he was a madman up to par with the German madman... the West tried to appease Stalin, otherwise he would have taken the entire Germany, and would have not let Austria out, and for sure would have clawed in Greece as well.
Great respect to the Greeks for never giving up the fight for their country's freedom! All the best from Poland. We know what you went through.
and we know also what harsh life you had in Poland in WW2 too, and we respect you for that !!! Thank you!!!
Greece fell so easily from Bulgaria and Italy in 2nd World War it was a walk in the park. But in this video they talk about a great resistance 😂😂
@@salfetkait seems like you learn history from trust-me-bro sources 😅😅😅
@@_Laskas_ 😃😃that is a good reply. Yes so and so told me about history at the pub 😄
@@salfetkaGreeks are your fathers. You were owned again 🤣
My grandfather was at his first day of elementary school when the Nazis invaded. Once he got home, he witnessed my great grandmother dying from a German bombing. He never got over the traumatic experience and there were times in his sleep when he was calling out for her. It must had been a recurring PTSD nightmare. May they both Rest In Peace.
Some Germans who survived the war in Russia said that if they had simply invaded a month or six weeks earlier---as Hitler had originally planned---it would have made all the difference. Hitler had to postpone the invasion of Russia--which Hitler called Operation Barbarossa--to rescue the Italian army from being beaten in Greece. Mussolini invaded Greece without telling Hitler in advance. Mussolini did not like being a "junior partner" and decided to act on his own. @21:12 Stalin was right to say that the tenacity of the Greeks decided the outcome of WWII.
Another crucial and overlooked "might have been" was that after Germany had conquered France, Hitler met with Franco in southern France in order to get permission to have his army peacefully enter Spanish territory in order to attack the British fortress at Gibraltar. Franco refused Hitler's request. Had Hitler taken Gibraltar, he would have controlled the western Mediterranean (and with Mussolini's alliance, the central Mediterranean), and the British would have been cornered at the Suez Canal. The war would probably have taken a very different turn. Hitler pointed out to Franco that German military assistance had helped Franco win the Spanish Civil War, but Franco still would not give in to Hitler's plans. Miles away from the French train station where Hitler was waiting to meet Franco, Franco deliberately had his train stop for about two hours in order to show Hitler that he was not his underling. In the Fest biography of Hitler, Fest claims that Hitler said during his final days in the bunker that he regretted not having supported the anti-Franco Spaniards during their Civil War.
Wow
Mussolini and franco fucked up Hitler's plan.
Fascist vs Fascist
Bunch of losers both of them
What's interesting is that initially, after the fall of France, Franco sent couple of his diplomats to inquire about the prospects of conquering Gibraltar, but AH was too occupied and didn't receive them.
Later Canaris quietly persuaded Franco to oppose the operation, which he did after consulting with the british.
Interestingly, the delay of Operation Barbarossa wasn't mentioned in this video. I was expecting something besides Stalin's comment which wasn't specific at all. I find this crucial delay is often ignored in many WW II documentaries. It's obvious in hindsight and shouldn't be glossed over or overlooked by historians and researchers. The Germans lost the war because of their failed invasion of Russia. They opened a second front too late forcing them to continue the fight when the temperatures eventually plummeted. Expecting a quick defeat, the Germans didn't intend or prepare to fight the Soviets through the winter in their element where they had a solid advantage through attrition. It eventually cost them everything because they had to take care of Greece which put up an unexpectedly high resistance delaying the big offensive.
When you understand how Germany looted Greece, you understand that the treatment of Greece by the EU is totally ludicrous.
The EU is nothing but a legalised bureaucratic mafia.
The germans never really paid the reparations owed to greece. That's why this keeps coming up.
@@2810Mad Correct but Germans have played it well in gaining timeand now it is to late!.
@Speedy Gonzales yes however I don't think it's late. If they really wanted, they could honor their word. The problem is, if they do go ahead ans pay, then more countries would follow.
Exactly. Thank you for this comment.
“Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.” Winston Churchill
Hear, hear!
Bragging is a bad thing 🤡🤣🖕👎
ofc he says that u are their colony since 1945
Then Churchill sent British troops to occupy Athens and massacre the EAM resistance fighters in December 1944. 4,000 people were killed and it sparked a civil war. All because the British refused to disarm the Security Battalions who had cooperated with the occupiers.
@@AndrewCampbell-x5u the real reason is never to give Medirenean ports to the Soviets. Our Guy Tito was aiding communists . British would have killed not 4k but 4 m Greeks for their aim
Thank you for this video. My grandfather's family was executed among other civilians , for hiding english guerillas.. The executed villagers 62.. My grandfather's family 12.. These things cannot be forgotten.. Honor and glory to the victims of german occupation , we would do the same again
As someone who lost two family members at Bergen Belsen, I thank the Greeks for their courage & bravery in the face of overwhelming odds & oppression. Thank you
The 300,000 casualty figure is very low. I think it may have been 3, 4, or 5 times that when accounting for hunger, immigration and the general brutality across the whole country. Every city, town and village was affected, which is why the number given for casualties is a huge underestimate.
Our history books denote 450k- 480k dead during wwii
Modern estimates talk about at least 800k dead
883,000 GREEKS LOST THEIR LIVES IN WW2 DURING THE AXIS OCCUPATION . THATS 13% OF THE POPULATION . THE COMMUNIST DURING THE CIVIL WAR KILLED MORE GREEKS . COMMUNISM IS CANCER . AVVRAM BENEROYA , A JEW FROM BULGARIA THAT FOUNDED THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN GREECE IS BURRIED IN ISRAEL .
Total 800.000 lost there life's in that war!!
Don't believe any figure near 800000 deaths.
…I’m an “educated” American; yet, I’ve NOT known of Greece’s fierce stance against The Germans…! THIA recounting of the Greece struggle against the invading Germans gave me chills; The Greek People are incredibly determined to maintain their identity. I salute YOU GREEKS…. 😳😃👍🏻
My Grandfather was just an infant when the Nazis invaded our beloved Greece. I don't know for sure if he took part in resistance, but the fact he survived three and a half years of occupation from the unholy Axis Alliance proves he is one of my heroes.
He's 84 now, and I find him a recognized war hero of the Greek army. We all live in Pennsylvania, but we will fight for Hellas to our final breath.
So did mine, he fought in Albania.
Εμένα ο προπαπούς μ σκότωσε 5 Γερμανούς με τα χέρια τ αφού πείραξαν την γυναίκα τ
I'm moved by your comment. I think it is quite difficult to keep up loving your fatherland and nationality while living abroad. Your pappous did an excellent job. I hope you can visit Greece, see its colours and forms, smell its scents, listen to and try to speak its language, get to know your people, live among them the more you can, make memories. That's for sure the best way you'll never forget your own identity.
I wish you and your family all the best from Greece.
Quote from Churchill, " From know we don't tell Greeks fight like heroes, heroes fight like Greeks....
Was it before or after the Greek ockupation? And was the greek communist guerilla the ELAS also heroes? (they fought against the british forces)
Churchill...look up what happened on Churchill's orders in December 1944. 28 civilians were murdered in Athens...by the British troops. It's called "Britains Dirty Secret".
@@reinereine1896 that quote is from Greek Italian war during their attempt to invade Greece.
The same way we fought with Italians, we fought with Germans in the line of Metaxa, the fortified place in the Greek Bulgarian borders (they bypass them after days to go to Thessaloniki for the general command), the same way we fought them in resistance during the occupation.
Well, some of them yes, others was, until the chief head give them orders from USSR do fight the Greeks so Greece will be communist....
And that was something terrible...
Churchill - one of the greatest war criminals of all times.
@@bertrecht913 You may not like his methods , but in war you do whatever it takes to defeat the enemy .
Look at the outcome of WW2 .
If the British and their Empire countries had not stood up to the Axis aggression , and also succeeded in manipulating the USA and the USSR into joining them , we would not be here now .
Those Arctic convoys were expensive but they kept the Soviets going and gave them hope .
The USA with its large German heritage and fifth column and isolationist policy was wooed by Churchill and drawn into the British side by every means possible .
Britain was not nearly as ready for war as Germany and Chamberlains “Peace in our time “ accord with Hitler delayed the war by a year which gave the British aircraft industry vital time to build fighters for the all important BOB .
It was Churchill who overcame the defeatists in the British Establishment and pro Nazi Royalty , to declare a united British stance against Hitler ,and rallied the populations morale with his inspiring speeches .
I honestly think that without Churchill , the war would have been lost to the murderers .
Hard decisions had to be made and mistakes were made too , but we can thank Almighty God that He had Winston Churchill exactly where he was needed at the perfect time .
I hate bullies .
1) there is no Greek family where the younger generations have not heard horror stories about WWII. I remember one from my father, who back in 1942 was just 11 yrs old. He was along with other kids of his age stealing stored food from the occupying forces in the port of Piraeus. Once he was caught red-handed and given such a hard spank by the German guard that he could not sit on his bum for days. But the story I wish to share with you, for the memory of my late father (may his gentle soul rest wherever it is) is this: he and his bro managed to sneak in their house two stolen cartons of German milk cans which were placed under the table in the dining room for lack of other space. Table with table cloth running half the height of the table. Hardly the boxes put in place, heavy knocks at the door - German patrol of 3-4 soldiers storm in the house to inspect (God knows for who or what). Family of 6 and my grandfather's old mother who has laying in bed, weak, 7 persons in total. As the soldiers were going from room to room, they spotted the old lady, said sth like ''mutter? mutter?'' to my grandfather, and eventually left. They never noticed the cartons!! My father thought it was some miracle from heaven. Every time he told me the story, he would end it with the phrase ''if they had found we would have been all executed on the spot''. Another tragic vignette: a young lad had been caught stealing, fell in the street while trying to run away. German car run on him, he died under the wheels, in front of the eyes of my father.
When Germans occupied Greece, they took a ...loan from the Gr national treasury; ever since Greece has tried to recuperate this amount + interest rate. I have heard of present day calculations, anything between 50 to 250 billion euros, depending on how you calculate it (I have no clue which calculation is correct or what would be a realistic amount). Germans will never pay this back. They have tried various arguments over the years, from an alleged ORAL agreement between Adenauer and Karamanlis back in the '50s to ''you got Marshall Plan aid, and it was more than your fair share of post war compensation''. Germany will never pay this back.
2) about starvation: Greece had the 2nd highest percentage of civilian deaths during WWII, due to starvation with 2.6% (Russia had 2.9%). Unlike Russia however, Greece would never scorch crops to stall invading forces and there is no such thing in Greece as ''Russian winter'' :) To deal with starvation, black market flourished as always during war situations, and people would sell an apartment for 25lt of olive oil. It became so rampant and properties switched so many hands that after the war, courts would decide thus: either the black market hawk would pay for the true value of the apartment and keep it, or the (ex-)owner of it could get his apt back by paying the going price of the 15lt of olive oil.
3) about stealing ordinary citizens' (slim) savings: German soldiers were upon arrival to Greece all equipped with a Greek ''version'' of Deutchmarks. It was simply massively produced paper cut to look like currency. Soldiers would walk in a bakery (for example), pay with this fake money and get shortchange in drachmas which was not fake money. So, cunningly, they would buy bread and receive extra money before walking out of the shop!
4) the most ferocious resistance Germans faced was on the island of Crete. It probably and partially explains why so many younger Germans visit the island. Cretans fought even with rakes against Wehrmacht paratroopers.
Apologies for the long message and greetings from Athens/Gr.
👍👍👍🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
our neighbour- Harold Addis was on Crete in 1941.- escaped too Sweden and made it back too new zealand in 1946 aged 57 as he had lied about his age in 1940 makeing out he was 35 too new zealand army too get in.''
Thank you for this beautiful video. As a Greek person, I have to say, we really need a morale boost. Our country has been suffering from a disastrous economic crisis since 2008, and the unfair and brutal austerity measures imposed by EU.
Tens of thousands have left Greece in search of a better life (myself included), others stayed back, struggling to survive, with constantly lower wages and rising prices. Governments of the past 15 years, in tandem with the EU, have been selling off our land and infrastructure to multinational companies, kicking people out of their houses, privatizing everything. What the nazis started, the German-spearheaded EU and our traitor governments are trying to finish.
But we will not be subdued. Like our grandfathers, we will survive. Hail to the Greek people and to the community spirit that has kept us alive for so long.
❤❤❤👍👍👍🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
As a Greek, im deeply thankful for this historical walkthrough through your eyes ~ thank you, thank you again!
Thank you for this long overdue celebration of Greek courage and resistance and, yes, please do consider a deeper dive. If I may share a distant personal connection to these valiant men, women and children. In early 1990s my parents visited Chania in Crete from where my grandfather emigrated as a young boy. They were sitting in the cafe when in walked an old man, almost seven feet tall, with a long white beard, vest, walking staff and large billowy pants tucked into knee-length kid boots. As he walked in, everyone in the cafe (men and women) stood silently. The man saw my folks were visitors and bowed slightly to them. When my mother asked her cousin who he was, he said he is one of the few remaining partisans who took to the hills and fought the Nazi invaders with little more than a few hunting rifles and knives. Only they are accorded the singular honor of wearing that particular local dress. Sadly, he like the other remaining partisans, are probably gone. So, yes, please continue to tell the stories in honor of these unsung warriors.
My grandfather was born in 1935 in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. As a young teenager I would ask him to tell me the stories of growing up during the German occupation, although he was just a young boy, not even 10 years of age. The things mentioned in this video are extremely accurate with how he described it to me.
The Germans came and took away all of their food, and they would go hungry, he used to slam the cupboard doors at home in his village and cry to his mother (my great-grandmother) about how he wanted bread to eat. She could only tell him in response that there was no bread to eat. During the Italian invasion through Albania, his father (my great-grandfather) was sent to fight for his country against the Italians. Luckily, he returned home with his life. My great-grandfather had already been living a rough life, as he was a migrant from Asia Minor, being kicked out of his village during the population exchange, himself and his sibling being sent to various places in Greece. My great-grandfather would stand atop his hilltop village of Afalonas where he would later watch Axis ships come and go from the Gulf of Geras.
My grandfather would tell me about how they, as children, used to jump on, cling to, and ride on the back of the Nazi vehicles when they came through the country roads to take their local produce such as olive oil. Then my grandfather would tell me about the most darkest stories. In the town of his birth, Mytilene, the Nazis had rounded up men who had defied them. They took them to a nearby forest and tied them up to the trees. They shot the men dead, and then cut the trees down according to each man's height. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Greece, he had later heard of a story of a father and son who were being put to work by the Germans. This particular task included digging, and when the son fell and collapsed to the ground, his father had gone to help him back up, but before he could, a Nazi had shot his son and killed him.
After the war, my grandfather would go on to work in the Greek air force as a mechanic. Then, after being introduced to my grandmother, he flew to Australia to live. My grandmother later meet up with him in Australia when she arrived by boat and they would get married. In the 70's my great-grandfather, who had come a long way from being expelled from Asia Minor by the Turkish, and fighting the Italians in Albania, ended up moving to Melbourne, Australia to live with his son and his household, dying in 1995 at the age of 89. My grandfather has now since passed away in 2018 at the age of 82.
I wish he were still here to retell these stories, but I realise that this is now my duty.
Geia sou Patrida! 💙
History !!!!
May god rest their souls. Sorry about your loses and the terrible things they had to endure in their lives due to wars. All the best!!
"I wish he were still here to retell these stories, but I realise that this is now my duty."
I don't know why, but this sentence got me...
Respect to you and your family for your contributions and for keeping the memories alive.
@@SpartanLeonidas1821 Geia sou!
Είμαι από Πελοπόννησο. Οι Γερμανοί, για αντίποινα, έκαψαν το χωριό της μητέρας μου. Δυστυχώς πληρώσαμε με πολύ πόνο και αίμα ως Έλληνες. Το χειρότερο όμως είναι ότι ελάχιστοι δοσίλογοιτιμωρήθηκαν, η Γερμανία δεν μας πληρώνει για το κατοχικό δάνειο που πήρε ούτε για τις καταστροφές που προκάλεσε! Δυστυχώς αυτοί που μας κυβερνουν εδώ και πολλά χρόνια είναι απόγονοι των συνεργατών των Γερμανών!
Rotten traitorous politicians!!😡😡
Sooooo... the descendants of the collaborators are ruling you? Ummmmmm..... who elected them?
Ποτε θα κανει ξαστερια αδερφε.....
@@williampawson5476
The 41% of people voted for them. The 59% didn’t vote for them. Giving the fact that 50% didn’t vote in the last 5 years and last month elections for EU parliament 62% didn’t vote because they are disgusted with politicians!
@@williampawson5476it's actually communists that rule Greece since 1974
Win or Lose, I guess we could say that the Greeks always provide a good match for all enemies
well, excepting when they totally failed to conquer Turkey in the early 1920s.
@@zimriel no matter, next time :)
@@zimriel You know the one side of the story.
@@zimriel yes they failed because Soviets backed up turkey.Soviet union was the super power of that time
@@heroduelist9242 Our allies betrayed us then too. When the Greeks were tortured and executed in Smyrna, their ships were a bit further away watching and enjoying the 'show'. Then the bones of Greeks were taken to factories in Europe to make fertiliser!
By the way, resistance shouldn't be turned into a pissing match, ESPECIALLY by people who've never picked up a rifle to hold a post. All resistance deserves honour.
Well said.
Exactly. And not every act of resistance required a gun. In France a car factory foreman worked out how to assemble vehicles in such a way they would pass inspections but would blow either the transmission or gearbox after about 5 hours use. The run up to D day a special code was transmitted across Europe leading to every postal service accidentally miss directing every piece of official mail. All those acts took incredible bravery and could lead just as easily to execution
I resist your stupidity
My late grandfather grew up an orphan because the Germans massacred his village of Kleisoura as retaliation. 280 people died that night including both his parents (my great grandparents).
My grandmother fought with the resistance in Greece. She was wounded in action.
Oh, yeah... my Grossfather told me he got one of them...
your grandmother fought with who ?which was the name of resistance party?
@@apollon755 will find out
@@apollon755Γιατί ρε μεγάλε ρωτάς; Πολέμησε κάποιος άλλος την Γερμανοιταλοβουλγαρική κατοχή εκτός από το ΕΑΜ και τον ΕΛΑΣ?
@@jimmythemonk673 για να παίρνω απαντήσεις σαν την δικιά σου...ο εθνικός στρατός πολέμησε ο ελληνικός...αυτοί που αναφέρεις αποδείχθηκαν..αδελφοκτόνοι...ο Ζέρβας δλδ δεν πολέμησε??
We still harbour resent towards the Germans about WW2 (and the 2009 crisis didn't help), my grandma told me that the italians that were occupying her village never mistreated anyone and when they were relieved by their Germans counterparts some were mistreated because they refused to hurt people and an Italian officer stayed for a year in hiding from the Germans.
My own maternal grandmother used to say the same thing, that they didn't despise the Italians the same way they despised the Germans in her village. Her being born in Cephalonia played a part at that in my opinion tho, because those islands are close to Italy and have similarities in their cultures. When Italy surrendered to the Germans, Italian soldiers (who were then enemies of the Germans and not allies) would sometimes beg for food and water and the locals would help them. Don't know if any Italian was spared the execution in Cephalonia thanks to the locals, but I'd like to find out.
(P.S. If my grandmother had any thing to dislike the Italians for, that was for stealing away her horse, so that they could eat it. But he was a smart horse, ran away and found his way back 😌)
Yes because Italy had no big stake in this war, while Germany had a big stake, and if they lose, they believed (their leadership apparently believed) that they would lose everything (they believed that if they lost that war, there would be no german people in the future) , and so they were desperate to win the war. And after 1941, when the invasion of Russia started they were increasingly desperate for food and labor resources, because all men were fighting on the (eastern) front in Russia. And this is why they started confiscating food from occupied lands (such as Greece).
The Italians never needed to confiscate food, because there was no need for extra food in Italy, because the italian army was much smaller than the german army, and most of it was still in Italy, and not in another place (from which they would then need to be provided with food).
And also, for the same reasons, the Italians would never care much if partisans killed italian soldiers (because they did not care about the war very much because they had little to lose - they lost only the greek inhabited Dodekanese) , while Germans could not afford to lose soldiers for as silly reasons as this in Greece, and so they needed to come up with something to give the partisans the anti-motivation to kill german soldiers.
What would you do in their position? Let the partisans start killing more and more of your soldiers?
Do not understand me wrong: I do not justify all actions they did. But I do not know what I would have done myself in their position.
It's the reason there's no resentment against the Italian people. They also suffered under fascism, and their soldiers were forced to fight against their will. It's one if the reasons they didn't act in cruelty. In complete antithesis to the German soldiers who arrived later, and acted in a very cruel and vindictive way. It's important to remember they raped, murdered and destroyed, even when they retreated. That's what the Greeks will never forget.
@@anastasiakallinic Italy has the insane problem of division. The rich north ruled and still rules. They sent starved and poor Southern soldiers around to fight for their stupid colonial desires. My own great-grandfather was sent to the North of the country, he managed to escape and walked for a month on feet, and It wasn't even enough, he had to sold his watch to be able to buy a ticket for a ship that took him back home to Sicily. It was a complete disaster. Despite the partisans in the North fighting the Nazis, You can still find Northern Italians who are SO proud of the fact that they never betrayed the Germans. It must be the longbards blood that makes them so stupid. They love the Germans because they are descendants of germanic barbarians invaders. They always talk about Germans as "superiors" etc.
If only the Romans could see those people calling themselves "Italians"... they don't know the Romans would have called them barbarians. As much hateful as they are, calling us Arabs, to be quite honest, I definitely prefer to be related to the Arabs than a bunch of germanic barbarians. Unlike barbarians, Arabs used to be scientists, mathematicians etc.
p.s. I truly wish the best to the people of Greece. Ancient country with a very ancient history. God bless you ❤
My father was in the Dodecanesian Regiment of the Greek Army and fought at the Albanian front holding the line. He is one of the heroes Churchill refers to. My mother's house was taken at gunpoint by the Nazis. She was given her three youngest siblings and had to hide further up the mountain in their summer cabin, until the Germans left the area, nine months later. Both of my parents homes were pillaged. My father's was stripped of all marble. My mother's home had all the livestock, goats, chickens, rabbits, basically anything edible, had been taken. There was nothing left to eat when they returned. They both immigrated to the U.S. in 1947. My mother died two years ago at 103 years old. A week never went by when she did not remember the war and wanted to discuss some aspect. My father died in 1990. He refused to speak about the war. Not only did these atrocities stay with them for the rest of their lives, but they have been passed on to the next generation. I visited the Holocaust Museum in Kalavryta last year and stood on the hill where the town's men were murdered. Sadly, we learn nothing from history, because we continue to repeat the past. May their memories be eternal.
You should have stayed in Greece, or move back!
And you know now , how miserable was situation , in this South Balcan part of Europe ! Being Colony for 2000 years because we were poor !
And you must know the situation of Cold War after 1960 ties , when we were divided on Socialistic and Kapitalistic sides !
You were closed country up to 1974 being under Junta , (always "happy" you were not under communist) ,
ha ha ha ha !
Today we are free of that "evil" communism and Junta , but Wars are still active between us ........
My heart is broken we are having War in Ukraine and in Palestine ?
Communism have gone but you still hate Tito who made abracadabra and
"have changed" Macedonian Bulgar into Slav Macedonian .
You dont have in your history books proper history about process of Slavianisation and how Bulgarian and Slav Macedonian are not the same !
The RUclips is full of offending words about Republic Macedonia .
Now we are with that "North" preposition but you are still unsatisfied keeping commenting how there isn't country Macedonia in this World .
Playing the most democratic ancient Greeks still after 3000 years !
Memory eternal.
My grand grandfather fought in the mountains of Albania against Italians ,Albanians(chams) and after Germans. He was telling me stories. Crazy stuff...
he was north epirote?
My grandpa fought in Albania as well:)
Passed away early 2000s . I'll never forget my grandparents stories about the nazi occupation.
How my great grandma would put dirt purposely on my grandma's face as a young girl to make her look less appealing to Italian/German soldiers.
As a 23 year old Greek guy, i fully understand why Germany is still a very hated country around here. Personally, i hold nothing against any country or race but the atrocities the Germans committed against us can not and should not be forgotten. Especially considering that everything described in this video happened just 80 years ago, which is scarily close to present day. Plus the fact that Germany has NEVER repaid us in any way for what they did is a key reason for the hate they still receive from us.
Οι Γερμανοι ποτε δεν πληρωσαν για τα εγκληματα πολεμου,απ'οσα μου ειπε η μητερα μου ο Καραμανλης ο γερος διεγραψε τα χρεη τους...για να τους χρωσταμε εμεις τωρα...
"never repaid us in any way"
In 1960, Germany concluded a treaty with the Greek government to compensate Greek victims of Nazi German terror which amounted to 115 Million German mark. These payments were explicitly marked as payments to the victims and were not supposed to be a general reparation treaty.
I might be wrong but according to currency conversion and inflation calculator 115M german mark in 1960 is around 282 million USD today.
It's obviously not a lot but it is more than you purported.
The GDP per year is 200 billion USD. That is literally 1% of that, its nothing. Not to mention stolen artifacts. The Problem isn't the German people as a whole though but the governments.
@@skillfuldabest ☝️
@@skillfuldabestthis a drop in the ocean compared to what Germany has done to Greece during the four years of occupation.
The number of casualties due to hunger and retaliations was over a million people. And yet even in 2023, Germany REFUSES to pay war reimbursements to Greece and Poland .
I guess if Silesia East Prussia and Pomerania are returned and ditto for Polish Eastern territories are returned to Poland 🇵🇱, I am German Silesian East Prussian and Brandenburg, also with Polish blood
A leopard never changes its spots. The German soul hasn't changed a bit. They still only see the rest of europe as exisiting merely to service them (financially this time). A horrible race of people.
@@tomkutz2830 Greece hasnt got any part of Silesia tho. At least as far as i know.
Brother you getting shit ton of money from eu(literally german economy) already and do worse compared to turkey.
Germany should never pay war reimbursements. History has shown us that this causes even more unrest in a nation. Didn't you understand why WWII occur in the first place
Greece's Debt:
My grandfather was a fighter pilot, fresh out of the Airforce Academy when the war broke out. After the Germans occupied Greece, he was left stranded along with many of his co fighters. They were "smuggled" to Egypt with the help of civilian fishermen in fishing boats who for months were risking their lives to help them. IN Egypt they re-formed the Hellenic Airforce under the commands of the RAF
Proud to say that Greeks have always been on the correct side of history, from the Battle of Thermopylae, WWII, and even the Korean War. We must never forget what we have given the world. (Medicine, theory, mathematics, the list goes on)❤
One method of open resistance that the Greeks used was that they would return the Nazi raised arm salute - but they did it with spread fingers. Whilst the Germans were under the impression that the Greeks were returning an incorrect Sieg Heil, in fact to the Greeks this is the equivalent of the British two finger salute. It dates back to ancient times when watching Greeks pushed mud into the faces of the lines of captured prisoners after successful campaigns.
In Greece we celebrate the start of the war, not the end.
κακως
My grandmother was a child when nazis occupied Greece. They where a family of 7 . In the house they had a cow from where they where able to eat. One night the nazis took the cow from the family dispite my great grandmother begging to not do so because she wouldn't have to feed her children. Days passed and the children where hungry but they where all surviving, except my grandmother who was very very sick, she had kwashiorkor ( like the hungry children in Africa). A german soldier show my grandma and gave her food and medicine which saved her .
Very good video, and I was surprised to hear a big truth that is hardly ever mentioned today:
That after the liberation, the heroes of the greek resistance were treated like criminals.
It's true, and even worse, the collaborators of the nazis manned all the state positions.
This unjustice was the main cause of the civilian war.
"...the collaborators of the nazis manned all the state positions..." Unfortunately they still do, with the blessings of our "allies"....
This is all very well done! I know there's a lot regarding the german occupation of Greece during ww2, and hopefully it can be a good introduction to those who want to learn more and look for themselves.
One of my grandparents was from one of the villages neighbouring Chortiatis, one of the villages that the Nazis burned down. I remember listening to my grandmother tell me stories, (she was a child at the time), about the people from the neighbouring villages that sought shelter elsewhere, how her thoughts back then were that "they reeked of death", of the burned houses and burned corpses. One of countless villages razed by the Nazis, which left many Greeks to have a deep rooted hatred towards Germans, even to this day.
My grandfather fought Germans at Rupel. When the Germans occupied Thessaloniki, one German officer shout at Greek soldiers to get out and be free. While the men were getting out of the Rupel German soldiers were saluting them with honour. Even them knew that day that it wouldn't be an easy task to occupy Greece. Nice work. Thank you for this video.
@@user-fx7kg2dg2x No. They left them to go back to their families and villages
@@antartis73 I really don't know
My grandfathers used to tell me stories about the German occupation. They were around 10 and 15 years old at the time. The one grandfather was from a family of farmers and the other one from a family of fishermen, so they managed to survive the hunger. They used to tell me about how brutal the nazis were with people even children. They hung retaliatiors on the central square.
One story that the older grandfather used to tell me is this. An uncle of his had arrived to the island (I am from the island salamina, near Athens) and he brought them some raisins. In the meanwhile the germans were building an emplacement on a mountain and were recruiting citizens to help. My grandfather (around 15 years old at the time) was one of them. He was assigned the difficult task of carrying materials on the mountain. A friend of the family was one af the builders, a far less tiring job and when he llearnt about the raisins he made a deal with my grandfather. He told him that he would convince the germans that he was also a builder in exchange for some of the raisins. And so he did. The problem was tha my grandad didn't know how to build., so the wall ended up crooked. The germans were obviously not very pleased. I believe that thiw wall is standing on that mountain.
My grandfather was 17 when the German paratroopers started falling on Heraklion, I’m told he fought as a civilian until his leg got messed up by an explosion and spent the rest of the occupation helping around in the clinic he was sent to and supplying the resistance with medicine
My father's village on Mount Olympus was a centre of resistance in Thessaly. The Germans burned it to the ground and left one out of thirteen churches standing. Buildings since the time of the Eastern Roman Empire just gone and this event caused his family to live a life of poverty.
For historical accuracy, Metaxas didn't declare 'no', to the Italian ambassador after the insulting demands for surrender. He replied in French: 'So, it's war '.
That is a thousand times more badass
He actualy said
Greeks had the support of the British, who owned some Greek islands, including Cyprus... and wanted Greece on their side... Greece could have gone on the German's side if it wasn't for the king; Germany had given the newly formed modern Greek state their very first king in 1832, Otto. Churchill wanted Greece more than the Germans...and the rest is history.
@@HK-pp9ig The British had the support of the US, who owned half the planet. Without their support, the UK would have folded and surrendered, or would have joined them(the Germans), given the fact they had been ruled by a partly German family tree for the past 300 years. But they didn't. And the rest, as they say, is history.
@@HK-pp9ig Metaxas had very mixed feelings about the Austrian painter. On one hand he really respected him for the way he apparently put the German economy back together. On the other the absolutely detest him and his ideology to the point that he wrote in his diary that he rather die than cooperate with him
My grandparents are from Greece. My grandma lived near Kalamta, life was terrible, but it was better than in the cities. Many people moved from the cities to the villages. My grandfather lived in Athens and saw many people starv to death. He was looked after by his 2 older sisters and sent to a village so be would be ok.
The saying during the Axis occupation of Greece was,
When the Italians come, hide the women. When the Germans come, hide the men.
Something something anal sex
Turks were not affected by the Germans, as Turkey was neutral in WW2 after it had crumbled during WW1, but it was really friendly with the Germans nonetheless. It took to much persuasion from the Brits to keep Turks on the Allied side after WW2... because Turks knew they could be in trouble from communist Russians.
And then the civil war came which was 10 times worse than the Germans. I guess you know the story of communists descending on Kalamata and decapitating civilians with rusted food cans?
@@aris9560 OK Aris, thanks for bringing that up... I agree, I believe the civil war was much worse than the Germans... Germans did not hate Greece; how could they? Germans/Prussians helped Greece War of Independence, and gave the new Greek state a German king to help alliances with the west... but Greek partisans harassing the German lines, and the threat from the Brits in the Aegean Sea made them be anxious; Germans could not afford not to have Greece; plus Metaxas had "badmouthed" Hitler to the Brits before Germans attacked Greece. I think, without the partisans, Germans would have behaved similarly to Denmark with Greece. Also, Greece had troubles in the northeast, with Bulgaria taking Thrace and probably more... Macedonia?... not sure, but I know, Bulgarians entered Greece, and Germans could not convince them not to invade Greece... Bulgarian troops behaved worse than the Germans... but the northeast is agrarian plain, so people did not die from hunger as in Athens, where there was no agriculture, no food production... many factors made the Greek situation really bad.
@@aris9560 Distorting you own country's history, my dear friend, is really outrageous..
Conclusion. Don't mess with the Greeks.
Tell that to the Turks who take every opportunity to do so!
Facts @@jamesaron1967
@@jamesaron1967lol
My friend's parents who lived through WWII in rural Greece always referred to that time as the occupation. They rarely called it the world war. I discovered that the word occupation defined many things, namely hunger, fear, poverty and loss of liberty.
The most relevant part of WII for us was and is the Occupation, that is why.
Thank you for this very informative video.
I visited Crete twice in the early 1980's, first the East, then the West and toured extensively.
I soon found the Cretans are wonderful people, very helpful and kind.
I found German tourists were tolerated for the money but otherwise very disliked, not forgiven for their Farther's sins.
Example, one evening I saw Germans told "there is no vacant accommodation in this village". They were turned away despite the late hour, when I knew well there was accommodation.
In those days I was a blue eyed blonde.
It helped to wear a Union Flag T shirt.
That was until the villagers discovered one of my uncles fought and was captured at Souda Bay; then I was treated as family by the entire village.
The dislike for Germans is also how they treated greeks during the economic crisis not just because of world war 2
@@sakisgr1396 Why, though? I wonder what Germany should have done instead during the economic crisis. From an outside perspective, Greece manouvered itself in a very bad position and then tried the easy way out by denying all responsibility and blaming someone else. I find it hard to blame the Germans for not wanting to sink an unlimited amount of money into an obviously failed system. So they demanded changes in exchange for a still ungodly amount of money. Not saing that this was the perfect solution, but Greeces approach was for sure not a good one either.
@@hmpeter they didn't pay the loan we gave them, nor reparations. But we must?
@@skywindow6764 How has what you wrote anything to do with what I wrote?
When greece was free again, a British newspaper wrote:
"From now on, we won't say that Greeks fought like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks"...
The power of the indomitable human spirit up against seemingly impossible odds is beautiful. I nearly shed a tear watching this video.
"Surrendering to Lt. Webers dog would be preferable to any Italian."
😂😂 classic reference
Thank you for this. It was well made and very moving. I hope to travel around Crete this autumn and I will pay my respects to those who resisted, wherever I can. (A UK veteran)
Even when WW2 ended, the Civil War that followed in Greece was absolutely brutal. It was as if the Germans never left, but this time it was our own people dealing the damage.
It was for a very different cause WW2 Greece fought and bled for her liberty the Civil War was a fight for her very soul
How come the Greek resistance wich was the longest never got the appreciation?
I can see why Greek people have the feeling that people envy them.
There are some morons which say Alexander the Great wasn’t Greek
Cleopatra wasn’t Greek
King leonidas wasn’t Greek
Achileas wasn’t Greek
The list goes on and on i am Dutch and i have read a lot about Greece. People should be very respectful to Greeks and enjoy Greece
I'll tell you why. It's the hebrews behind this hate. When the Hebrew usa leaders divided Yugoslavia they made new made small counties with fake history ,which was ruled by communist leaders ,like Albania, Skopje the fake Makedonia and Bulgaria. They teach them propaganda since young children and here you go. They are brainwashed with lies .
Because some people are simply antihellenic for whatever reasons and will never change. Many people don't understand that Greece has *many* enemies. Germans look down on Greece as backward if not in pure contempt. None of the southern Balkan countries like Greece except the Serbs. The Turks want to annihilate the country and that's over 80,000,000 people from that country alone! The British elites have had recurring political issues with Greece going on for two centuries. The Americans consider Greece a giant military base and treat it in exactly that way. When you have the world's most powerful countries that don't have your best interests at heart you will experience all kinds of setbacks and never progress. Besides, the current geopolitical climate strongly opposes nationalism for any country, especially European nationalism. Even the recent governments in Greece have been pushing to deter nationalism from taking hold as much as they can up to the point of imprisoning nationalist politicians! So, key facts of WW II and other historical periods are not going to be widely taught or disseminated.
Wait, ARE THERE PEOPLE SAYING THAT LEONIDAS WASN'T GREEK?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEIR MINDS?!
@@_Doctor_14 envy jealousy
Alexander was Macedonian
The Orthodox Bishop of Thessaloniki was ordered to prepare a list of all Jewish citizens of the city ! He delivered …. One Name !!! His own !!!
@@Taleton true. But streets of Salonica are still paved with Jewish tonbstones. Karamanlis and cop collaborated with holocaust to steal Jewish property
That was about the Jews in Zakinthos, not in Thessalomiki I am afraid.
😂
@@mariamakraki8501 and it is possible it is just propaganda all together
@@chrpap7042no zakinthos was the only place that didnt give their jews
I'm sure Poland hated German occupation just as much as the Greeks
Yeah honestly, saying that "this" country hated it more than any other is really dumb, I don't think any country liked the occupation (Not counting Austria of course)
But who hates them more to this day? 🤔
In terms of how much countries have suffered under Nazi occupation, I'd say Poland and Greece suffered the most.
@@codybauer4343 I do. Does that count? In fact, I hate them with a passion
Most of Yugoslavia as well
Ps in Greece we had many more collaborators than in Poland for example
My granddaddy came to America from the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian sea, below Corfu.(during the first world war) During the war, WWII his siblings and their families were on the island. Other relatives were also on the island. He had a brother who was a ship captain in the merchant marines, and a brother-in-law also a ship captain in the merchant marine. They stayed at sea and helped that way. My great aunt said the Italians were very vicious to them, but the Germans would take things from them, but mark their houses so as not to loot them more than once. The Germans marched a bunch of Italian troops off a cliff into the sea in the northern part of our island. Oh, my great aunt buried her olive oil and coffee and other food in her garden, to hide things from the Germans
My aunt and my mother went to Greece in 1950 to spend the summer. When my mother landed in Peraius that was the day the Korean war broke out. She always told me the stories of seeing grown men crying. They all lived through horrible times during the civil war and saw much brutal killing. I would like to watch anything you would like to do on Greece. I am very proud of my heritage and culture and know from things I have read over the years, they fought so hard for Greece. I am so proud of all they did to fight the Germans and Italians
Go to Greece and spend time
I have always loved the Greek people intensely. They are brave, kind, generous, and sweet people. The man who holds my heart us Greek.
My grandfather in greece was one of the people who blew up that railroad. Bridge .im 51 he died before i was born but heard the stories before
Thank you for the video. You forgot to mention the "forced loan" that paid the "cost of occupation". A thorn up to this day.
During the late 60's two friends of mine from England visited Chalkidiki in Northern Greece. They told me that every time they met with the locals, they have been asked if they were Germans. When they replied back that they were English, people smiled and were extremely hospitable towards them.
Some Greek areas suffered more than others. Among those is Crete, eastern Macedonia and Chalkidiki. In a village in Chalkidiki the Germans put all the villagers, including women and children, inside the church and burned them alive.
I'm from eastern Macedonia, in my village was a Bulgarian -german occupation and things were way worse
Very "smart" these people in Chalkidiki: so if the visitors had been actually Germans, they would not have been as hospitable to them, even though they would have done nothing bad to them themselves.
@@tomorrowneverdies567 it's Trauma. Not anymore, but back then it was too recent.
@@tomorrowneverdies567''These people in Chalkidiki'' were the few survivors. ''These people in Chalkidiki'' had seen most of their relatives dying a horrible death. You think 15 years or so is enough to forget? Think again.
@@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt and because they had not yet forgotten, this means that they can be impolite, or inhospitable to people who had nothing to do with these events, and just because their nationality was German? Think again.
These videos are for those who say that Greece is a country that has not given anything to humanity in the last 1000 years. I will remind my European friends that Greece has given much more than most European countries. And I'm not only talking about ancient Greece, but also about modern Greece. Resistance to the Nazis, Pap tests for women, several Nobel prizes, Olympic games,...
And for those Germans who talk about Greece's debt, let me remind them that their ancestors killed 15% of the Greek population, every Greek house has 1-2 dead because of the German Nazis, let me remind them that they never paid morally, criminally or financially for their crimes in Greece, and also to remind them of the loan they took from Greece by force and never returned to the Greeks.
As for the loans the Greeks have taken from EU, the Greeks pay them back and with high interest. Nobody does us a favour.
Let them stop pointing fingers at us and better sit and study some history before they blame.
Very well said! I am the son of a Polish soldier who fought the Germans in Warsaw in 1939 and later Northern France in 1940. He and the rest of his family knew and still remember how terrible the Germans were, my father told me some of the things he experienced fighting the Germans and how they were to not only Polish POWs but regular citizens. My mother was a Jewish refugee from Vienna who escaped to London in March of 1939. . Everyone else of the family who couldn’t get out of Austria were all murdered by the Germans. 24 family members including my mothers mother and the youngest family member being a little girl who was only 2 or 3 years old. My mother use to say …never forget and never forgive!
God bless Greece!
Greetings from New York.
@@philipnestor5034 My dear Polish friend, what I hate in the world is hypocrisy. They blame a country for its mistakes when they themselves have committed much more.
I am also bothered by their selective memory. They blame a country for 3 bad elements from morning till night, but they never praise it for the good it has offered. This is called prejudice and toxicity.
Greetings from Greece to beautiful Poland and beautiful New York
Greek Greetings and Greek loves. 💙🤍
@@Ελλάδα-ω3θ Thanks for writing back. I agree with what you said,all true. Recently when I was at the post office the man working at the desk told me how he went to visit Greece to visit family and they took him to a mass grave when Greek citizens were machine gunned by German soldiers and he told me his Grandfather was in the grave. I remember going to Minsk in Belarus back in 2010 with my daughter and we visited a few mass graves ( they are all over in Eastern Europe) and I told my daughter your great grandmother ( my mother’s mother) is in one of these graves.
Never forget and Never forgive!
@@philipnestor5034 I totally understand what you are saying and I agree. Great crimes were committed and went unpunished. In Greece there is not a single house that does not have 1 or 2 or even 3 victims from that time. All Greeks have bad stories to tell you from that time. The majority of Greeks have forgiven the Germans for what happened. It bothers us, however, that many of them mock us, insult us, belittle us, while we have forgiven them for the evils they did to Greece.
At the time when Greece was experiencing the economic crisis, I was afraid to enter pages that talked about Greece, because I could not stand the comments of many Germans. They spoke very disparagingly and badly about us. The Greeks in that tragic period 2010-2018, had to deal with austerity, unemployment, 17,000 suicides throughout the country, uncertainty, hunger for many families. At the same time, we had to deal with the malicious comments of the Germans and their friends.
@@philipnestor5034 I remember my grandmothers (who died in 2008 and 2018 respectively) when I was a child telling me stories from the Italian and German invasions. I will not forget the fear on their faces, how they trembled or moved their hands during the descriptions... From there I understood that they had experienced bad situations. Anyway, I wish that peoples would acquire humanity over the years, recognize the mistakes of their ancestors and try to correct them and not repeat.
At least the Greeks made mistakes that hurt our own country and hurt ourselves, but we didn't invade other countries and hurt no one. We didn't steal or kill anyone.
all over the world they celebrate the end of the war in Greece they celebrate the beginning. That says it all