The "Holocausts" in Greece: Victim Competition in the Context of Postwar Compensation for Nazi Persecution
Abstract
In postwar Greece, reflections on the country's reconstruction and German compensation for Nazi persecution have been largely overshadowed by the memory of the Greek Civil War (1946-49) followed by strong nationalist and anti-communist policies. In public discourse, however, memories of the Holocaust were recently linked to mass atrocities on the Greek non-Jewish population.
Even before the book Ellinika Olokautomata, 1940-1945 [Greek Holocausts, 1940-1945] was published in 2010, the term "Holocausts" was used in connection with the retaliatory actions taken by Germans against the communist resistance in Greece under the Nazi occupation. In this way, Shoah survivors were seen as competitors for compensation payments in general and from Germany in particular.
Drawing on rich primary sources particularly from German archives, I aim to examine the connection between humanitarian aid, moral obligations of political elites, and political realism in Greek-German relations. I argue that in the climate of the Cold War, individual attempts to secure compensation were especially hampered by bureaucratic obstacles and political power games of both the West German and Greek policymakers.
Both these factors still remain noticeable. This article was submitted as part of a grant project, "We had to live, we had to survive somehow..." Jews in Greece, 1944-2012 [grant number 16-16009S].