The Holocaust in Greece

Description

For the sizeable Jewish community living in Greece during the 1940s, German occupation of Greece posed a distinct threat. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered around ninety percent of the Jewish population through the course of the war. This new account presents cutting edge research on four elements of the Holocaust in Greece: the level of antisemitism and question of collaboration; the fate of Jewish property before, during, and after their deportation; how the few surviving Jews were treated following their return to Greece, especially in terms of justice and restitution; and the ways in which Jewish communities rebuilt themselves both in Greece and abroad. Taken together, these elements point to who was to blame for the disaster that befell Jewish communities in Greece, and show that the occupation authorities alone could not have carried out these actions to such magnitude without the active participation of Greek Christians.

Giorgos Antoniou is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has been a Research Fellow of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah in Paris (2005-07) and a visiting lecturer at Yale University (2007-08). His research interests include the legacy and memory of conflicts in post-conflict societies; the Holocaust in Greece; the study of collective memory and wars; and public history. A. Dirk Moses is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney. Between 2011 and 2016, he was Professor of Global and Colonial History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has authored many publications on intellectual history, memory, and genocide, including the prize-winning German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past (Cambridge, 2007). He is senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research.

'This important book is a reminder of the need to continue to re-assess our historical knowledge and awareness in the light of new evidence and insights. For some, history is a fixed and unarguable stone, comprising an all too comfortable rendition of national stereotypes. New historical research, based on an assessment of primary sources, can upset these views, with some feeling that agreed identities are under challenge.' Jim Claven, Author of Lemnos and Gallipoli Revealed and Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee