Griechenland unter Hitler: Das Leben während der deutschen Besatzung 1941-1944

by Mark Mazower

Die große Gesamtdarstellung Griechenlands im Zweiten Weltkrieg und der politischen und gesellschaftlichen Folgen der brutalen deutschen Besatzung. Von dem bekannten und vielfach ausgezeichneten Historiker Mark Mazower, Autor des Bestsellers ›Hitlers Imperium. Europa unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus‹.1941 marschierte die deutsche Wehrmacht in Griechenland ein und führte bis 1944 ein brutales Besatzungsregime. Mark Mazower schildert diese Tragödie mit großer Intensität und in all ihren Aspekten. Er erzählt von den kämpfenden griechischen Partisanen, den deportierten Juden, den Opfern der durch die deutsche Besatzung ausgelösten Hungerkatastrophe und den von Deutschen verübten Massakern. Er schildert die Sicht der deutschen Soldaten und Gestapo-Offiziere und blickt ins Innerste des alltäglichen Wahnsinns. Ob Deutschland verpflichtet ist, eine Entschädigung an Griechenland zu leisten, ist noch ungeklärt. Mark Mazower liefert mit seinem grundlegenden Buch ›Griechenland unter Hitler. Das Leben während der deutschen Besatzung 1941-1944‹ und einem eigens für die deutsche Ausgabe verfassten Vorwort den nötigen Hintergrund.

Genres: History, Greece, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Germany, Military History

528 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Mark Mazower is a historian and writer, specializing in modern Greece, twentieth-century Europe, and international history. His books include Salonica City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950, winner of the Duff Cooper Prize; Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe, winner of the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History; and Governing the World: The History of an Idea. He is currently the Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University, and his articles and reviews on history and current affairs appear regularly in the Financial Times, the Guardian, London Review of Books, The Nation, and New Republic.

Reviews

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book, irrespective of your political beliefs or nationality. If nothing else, it's one of the most realistic accounts of suffering and wartime I have ever come across (yes, I found myself in tears many times while reading). The research is exhaustive, the writing style makes it a page-turner, and no matter how much you think you know about the times or Greek politics, this will surely teach you something new or at the very least make you look at Greece today in a new light. Highly recommended.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Наконец уже надо изучить пристальнее эту страницу истории приютившей нас страны. Мэзауэр, конечно, лучший, он пишет, как мало кто в рощах акадэма умеет, - про людей и для людей.

Занимательных фактов и фактоидов масса. Например, становится понятно, что практика граффити на стенах - не нынешнее изобретение. Всплеск пришелся на 2ю мировую и нацистскую оккупацию, когда граффити были единственым средством массовой информации, и с тех пор не сходил.

Вообще, конечно, книга очень полезная и для нынешних времен: например, соображения об "эвфимистическом" языке третьего райха (хотя на самом деле языке вранья) и любви к аббревиатурам (Lingva Tertii Imperii, по Виктору Клемпереру) 1:1 совпадают с наблюдаемым ныне в россии с русским языком. Мэзауэр, правда, задается вопросом, отчего так, но мы-то, жившие при совке и живущие при нынешней хуйне, в общем, понимаем, что' эта тоталитарная хуйня так маскирует, как она это делает и зачем.

Все вот эти "при нашем мирном окружении деревни 65 подозрительных субъектов убиты при попытке к бегству" - это язык нынешних российских судей, которые прекрасно выучились у совков и нацистов. Скорее всего смутное понимание того, что они прислуживают злу и творят зло, "создают преступную реальность", у них есть, как оно было у некоторых советских садистов <зчркнт> чекистов, не все ж там с полностью отбитыми мозгами (и у них есть потребность нормализовать абсурд и ужас).

But euphemism also helped resolve the ultimate paradox which lay at the heart of Nazi ideology, between the regime's self-image as a guarantor of legality, and its desire to wipe out any opposition through untrammelled violence.

Что ж, тем приятнее им будет потом отбывать свои заслуженные наказания. ...Ну и "политико-воспитательная работа" в рядах совецкой армии <зчркнт> вермахта ничем не отличается. Разве что сейчас в россии армия разложилась, судя по всему, окончательно (туда ей и дорога, впрочем), хотя риторика и фразеология не изменились ни на йоту.

Также познавательно для нынешнеготвремени читать об устройстве аппарата устрашения СС: садистами в греческих лагерях были, как правило, мобилизованные фольксдёйчи и деклассированные элементы, которые вряд ли прошли бы расовую проверку. Вот они и выслуживались. Криминальная иерархия же выстраивалась сверху, и целью ее было свести все в попавших к ним жертвах к страху за собственную жизнь. Сейчас мы наблюдаем в россии то же самое - там товарищи идут верной дорогой нацизма.

Но вообще, конечно, оккупация здесь проходила вполне если не бархатно, то ванильно, невзирая на все жертвы. А книга эта - превосходная база данных для тех, кто, как я, хотел бы лучше понимать, что именно происходит, например, в романе Стратиса Циркаса "Города без руля и без ветрил". Хотя там, конечно, сам черт ногу сломит, если в 1943 году неофициальный представитель британской разведки вел в Афинах сепаратные переговоры с тайной полевой полицией нацистов насчет возможных совместных действий против русских.

Ну и то, как вертикальная поляризация страны (в горах непримиримые левые п/у коммунистов, в городах коллаборационисты правые и роялисты) привела к гражданской войне, в которую плавно перетекла вторая мировая, - это, конечно, страх и ужас, особенно если учесть, что Сталин втайне сдал Грецию Черчиллю после распада Коминтерна (только партизанам в горах об этом забыли сообщить, и они надеются на россию до сих пор).

Коммунисты, впрочем, сами постарались, несмотря на принесшие народу определенную пользу "временные автономные зоны" (натурально альтернативное государство) "в сопках" под названием "Свободная Греция", с их продразверстками, колхозной справедливостью, раскулачиванием и даже прямыми и тайными выборами (которые устраивались для в подавляющем большинстве своем безграмотных очень мелких хозяев) - т.е. у совка они взяли едва ли не худшее. Ну и своеобразно понимаемый национализм свою драхму внес, куда ж без него.

Ну и "Каменные годы" Паделиса Вулгариса, конечно, прекрасная киноиллюстрация к эпилогу, где они поминаются, и следующей книжке Мэзауэра.

[Michael Kotsarinis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Brilliant! If you are really interested in Greek history this book will offer invaluable insight not into what was like during that dark period but also to many of the hows and whys of modern Greek history.

Needless to say that every Greek claiming to have an interest in politics should read it.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

In October 2012, German chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Athens for a day-long state visit. On her arrival she was greeted by tens of thousands of protestors angry with the hardships caused by the austerity measures imposed on Greece by the European Union in response to the country’s debt crisis. Many of the protestors in Syntagma Square denounced Merkel for her support of those measures, which were blamed for contributing to the drop in the nation’s GDP and the consequent decline in wages and living standards. While several carried banners criticizing Merkel directly, others waved ones denouncing German imperialism in Greece, burned effigies of Merkel in Nazi gear, and even dressed up in Nazi uniforms in a direct effort to tie Merkel’s policies to the brutal treatment the Germans imposed on Europe during the Second World War.

For many Greeks, the use of this imagery was a particularly pointed hearkening to one of the most traumatic eras in their country’s modern history. Between April 1941 and October 1944, Greece was occupied by the armies of three Axis powers. Triggered by Italy’s invasion of Greece in October 1940, the subsequent conquest by Axis forces brought untold misery to the Greek population, and set the stage for a devastating political war that plagued Greece for the rest of the decade. For English-language readers unfamiliar with Greece’s Second World War experience, Mark Mazower offers a powerful introduction to it, one that details the brutality of the occupation, how Greeks responded, and how these responses shaped the nation that emerged from the war.

As Mazower explains, the experience of occupation began with the shock of defeat. Greece’s entry into the war was precipitated by Italy’s invasion of their country in October 1940, an event that united the nation in opposition to it. Their success in humiliating the Italians and driving them out of their country with British support led Adolf Hitler to authorize a second invasion that was spearheaded by German forces. Outnumbered and inadequately reinforced by British units, the Greek armies capitulated rapidly to the Axis, leaving the country to be divided between Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria into zones of occupation.

Despite having conquered Greece, none of the participating Axis powers were satisfied with the conquest. For the Italians, achieving their victory on Germany coattails proved humiliating, and won them only further contempt from a Greek populace that had defeated them the year before. While the Bulgarians enjoyed a cheap victory, their gratification was tempered by the temporary nature of their occupation of northeastern Greece, with the territorial annexation they desired prohibited to them. Yet it was the Germans who were most frustrated, as their occupation of Greece was an annoying distraction from their impending assault on the Soviet Union. Having been dragged into it by the military failures of their Italian allies, they had little interest in supporting the conquered territories and plundered whatever agricultural resources that interested them. As a result, Greece soon found itself in the throes of a devastating famine that killed hundreds of thousands of Greeks, which was only alleviated when the British agreed to ease their blockade of the country by permitting international food aid.

While the aid eased the misery experienced by ordinary Greeks, Mazower makes it clear that it did not end their deprivation under the occupation. Most Greeks struggled to survive the demands imposed on them by the occupying powers, with rampant inflation eroding their ability to purchase even the most basic necessities. Persistently high unemployment made matters worse, yet not even their immiseration under the occupation was enough to compel Greek workers to take up German offers of employment in the Reich. German hopes of integrating Greece into their new order in Europe were thus frustrated by their own callousness and self-centered policies, which only fueled opposition to their efforts.

This resistance grew as the tide of the war turned against the Axis powers. With the fall of Stalingrad in February 1943 the defeat of the Axis seemed inevitable, while the surrender of German and Italian forces in North Africa in May led many Greeks to hope that the Allies might soon liberate their country. Though resistance took many forms, the dominant group was the National Liberation Front, known by its Greek initials as EAM. Mazower’s description of the EAM’s formation is one of the best parts of the book, as he follows its formation from a coalition of left-wing prewar groups into a formidable “popular front” that drew a surprisingly wide range of Greeks into its ranks.

Upon Italy’s surrender to the Allies in September 1943, the Germans swiftly took over the Italian occupation zone in Greece. This subjected nearly all of Greece to Germany’s increasingly brutal management and indifference to Greek suffering. Mazower recounts many of the massacres that took place in the German-controlled areas, which reflected their approach to pacification through terror. Yet the greatest amount of brutality was reserved for Greece’s Jewish population, which found itself at the mercy of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Mazower is unsparing in his description of the Holocaust in Greece, which as he notes killed a greater percentage of the prewar Jewish population of the country than anywhere else in Europe. He particularly singles out the Wehrmacht for their role in it, as the refusal of the Greek state to support deportation meant that the German army’s assistance was indispensable.

Many of the Jews who survived did so by fleeing to the countryside, where they joined the thriving resistance movement. By 1944 German control was limited to the towns, with the countryside governed by EAM and their military arm, the Greek People’s Liberation Army or ELAS. From this emerged a remarkable exercise in self-government that Mazower recounts in considerable detail. Whereas politics in prewar Greece was dominated by the local notables who controlled the government, a considerable degree of grassroots participation now existed through the creation of village committees, which managed affairs and arbitrated disputes. This was accompanied by a greater degree of social freedom, with women in particular enjoying an unprecedented degree of practical independence in their daily lives. This may have helped contribute to the backlash against the political left among Greeks that emerged by 1944, one that the Germans sought to exploit by supporting the formation of indigenous volunteer armed militias, the Security Battalions, which they used to supplement their counter-insurgency operations in the country.

It is here that Mazower sites the beginning of the civil war to come. When the British filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of German forces from Greece in October 1944, they treated the EAM/ELAS as suspect and favored the swift rehabilitation of many who had fought against them. By December, British soldiers fought with EAM forces in Athens, and RAF planes strafed and bombed their strongholds in the city. The fighting marked an especially tragic end for a people whose suffering is so ably chronicled in Mazower’s book. Drawing as he does on a wealth of German and Greek sources, as well as the available British and American records from the conflict, he constructs an impressive account of how Greeks suffered through the horrors of occupation. Though some may regard his book as overly sympathetic to EAM/ELAS, the weight of his research makes his judgments difficult to dismiss. For anyone seeking to understand Greece’s experience during the Second World War and how it continues to reverberate down to the present day, this is the book to read.

[Christos · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4.5*]
Το βιβλίο του Mark Mazower καλύπτει συμπυκνωμένα όλες τις πτυχές της Γερμανικής κατοχής στην Ελλάδα προσπαθώντας να παρουσιάσει την οπτική κάθε πλευράς, καλύπτοντας θέματα όπως τις οικονομικές και κοινωνικές επιπτώσεις της κατοχής, την αντίσταση, τις γερμανικές θηριωδίες σε πόλεις και χωριά, τη δολοφονία των Ελλήνων Εβραίων, το προεμφυλιακό κλίμα και το χάος που επικρατούσε προς το τέλος του πολέμου. Παρά το μέγεθος και το βαρύ του θέμα, η γραφή και η δομή του βοηθάει στο να διαβαστεί εύκολα.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent account and from what I could deduce a fair one - which is important in the politicised climate around this -of wartime Greece from just before the Axis invasion by Mussolini and post liberation by the Allies.

The story of rival resistance groups from Left and Right as well as the collaborative Greek government is complex but Mazower does an admirable job of imparting the personalities' involved as well as the motives behind such murderous rivalry.

Of note is the account of the truly barbaric concentration camp outside Athens; and the deportation of the ancient Jewish population of Greece post-Italian surrender in 1943 which is truly shocking in its ruthlessness as is the terror meted out to Greek villages and civilians.

The overall sense given by the book is the utter helplessness of Greece under occupation by two rival and very different powers. The Italians were deservedly hated by all Greeks having first suffered invasion, defeating it before the Italian's insistence on the spoils of a German invasion to save them. Greece was subsequently divided into occupation zones and the Italian occupation was far less severe than the Germans' especially as they did not share the Nazis' racist doctrines or its attitudes towards Jews. Italian diplomats and soldiers courageously helped Jews flee to the Italian zones. When Italy exited the war in 1943, the Germans did not tolerate any resistance and turned on their former allies, brutally carrying out infamous massacres in KEFALONIA and CORFU.

Greek resistance to occupation was also stuck between the paralysing politics of left and right, republican and monarchist, pro-British and anti-British and others besides. A bitter and terrible civil war between left and right wing guerrillas was cynically encouraged by the Nazis as part of an anti-communist front against the approaching Red Army. Mazower deals with this fairly but he is also quite clear that the communists who started and dominated large parts of the resistance were made to be feared and this subsequently prevented a left-wing populist patriotic revolution in Greece after the war. This is an historical account that was white-washed after the War's end according to Mazower. He shows the terrible irony that the subsequent right wing dictatorships of Greece involving collaborators and war criminals was a direct result of Nazi policy to sow this division. It is shocking to discover that left wing guerrillas were still in exile or in jail up until the 1960s whilst the architects of a brutal German occupation and the Holocaust were either ignored or let off with light sentences or even holidaying in Greece! Mazower speculates that a number likely had incriminating evidence about members of the Greek government of the day. Equally remarkable is that Greece still lives with the scars of occupation today in its politics. No wonder the Euro monetary crisis has opened up old wounds about Germany.

My one quibble; it's very light on the actual fighting of the resistance against the occupiers as well as the role of the Allies' SOE and OSS operators who planned and fought alongside them.

This book has certainly changed my view of Greece which until now I had always associated with its glorious ancient past. I won't think the same way when I next visit which if a book can do that is testament to its author's ability as an historian.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Mazower's Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation looks at one of World War II's more forgotten experiences: for all the literature about occupied France and the nightmare of the Eastern Front, this is the first book I'd read exploring how Greeks endured Axis occupation and it's quite enlightening. Mazower shows how much propaganda value Germany put into conquering "the cradle of Western Civilization" against how they actually treated the country with neglect until it burst into armed rebellion. Mazower carefully weighs numerous currents that affected the occupation: Hitler's preoccupation with Barbarossa and other theaters; Greek starvation and destitution which the Nazis did little to address; the attempts of the Greek Right to exploit Nazi rule for their own benefit; the fragmented but largely effective partisans of both left and right (whose ideological differences inadvertently laid the groundwork for the first major clash of the Cold War); the near-annihilation of Greece's Jewish population, killed in higher proportion than almost anywhere else in Europe. The worst I can say is that Mazower, like his other books, occasionally veers towards academic prose and detachment which can make certain passages dry; in this work, at least, specific events and personages receive sufficient attention to countermand that. A good, readable and often-harrowing companion piece to Mazower's Hitler's Empire.

[FellowBibliophile KvK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superbly researched and profound study of Greece from 1941 to 1945.

Professor Mazower, unlike Douglas Porch, Gian Gentile, Andrew Bacevich and Alexander Vindman, is a professional and conscientious historian. His endnotes are voluminous and include several archives, for a four year period in one country, whereas Porch, Gentile and Bacevich produce scanty endnotes, very few of which are archivally based, for decades of history, and where Vindman does this for centuries of history.

This is not merely a matter of density and nature of endnotes. Professor Mazower profoundly examines Greece before and after the war, clearly elucidating pre-existing morbidity and highlighting conflicts that went on ever after October 1944, whereas Porch, Gentile, Bacevich and Vindman give only handfuls of sentences to what went on before and after the elements they deign to discuss. Specifically, Professor Mazower points out how prewar Greece was riven between mainland Greeks and Greeks from the former Asia Minor, and how the succession of unstable governments failed to improve Greece's infrastructure.

Whereas Porch, Gentile, and Bacevich simplistically denounce "imperialism" as the root of all evil, and whereas Vindman simplistically denounces Russia as the root of all evil, Professor Mazower points out how the famine of 1941-1942 was the result of a) rural Greeks refusing to cooperate with the central government, b) the partition of the country between the rival and feuding German and Italian occupiers, and c) Axis plundering. Likewise, he honestly points out that the Germans did, successfully, negotiate covertly with the British to end the famine, and that these negotiations led to grain deliveries under Swedish supervision.

As well, Professor Mazower points out that the Nazis never intended to do unto Greece as they did unto Poland, something Timothy Snyder and Peter Hayes chose to deliberately ignore when they misrepresented Professor Mazower's study in their publications. Likewise, Philip Blood also selectively cites from this book, completely ignoring that, unlike in the USSR and Poland, Hermann Neubacher in Greece successfully countermanded idiot Pete-Navarro-style ideologues Jürgen Stroop and Walter Blume and successfully built up a local UDR, the Security Battalions, who became the nucleus of the highly successful anti-Communist National Guard. This is something the doctrinaire Blood, although he cites Professor Mazower's book twice, chooses to completely ignore.

As well, Professor Mazower is fair and honest, pointing out how some ELAS units engaged in plundering and murdering innocent Greeks for refusing to cite their mantras, and he points out that it was ELAS' 1945 massacres and kidnappings--long after the last German soldier had left Greece, that were responsible for the organisation's downfall.

There are some limitations, however. This book was written before Professor Mazower started his book on Salonika, which is why he uses the ahistorical term "Byzantine Empire" instead of Eastern Roman Empire. He asserts that the rise of the KKE/ELAS was a response to the previous administration's failure to feed the Greek people, when, in reality, such disasters were recurrent throughout the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, which makes KKE/ELAS versus EDES simply the latest iteration of Blues versus Greens, Monophysites versus Diphysites and Iconophiles versus Iconoclasts.

As well, he refers to the Ordnugspolizei as "paramilitary police," when, in reality, the Ordnungspolizei were no more "militarised" than France's Gendarmes Mobiles, and certainly nowhere near the level of GSG9, GIGN or Koevoet.

All in all, this is a rich exploration and a thoroughly refreshing reads after the barely endnoted ideological garbage of Douglas Porch, Gian Gentile, Andrew Bacevich and Alexander Vindman.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Mazower's 1995 history of the German occupation of Greece is still considered one of the best books on this topic. The Nazis occupied part of Greece in 1941 and 1942; they occupied all of it after the Italian surrender in 1943, and only after the Allies took Paris in August 1944 did they withdraw. During their brutal presence in country, the Germans robbed Greece of natural resources and treasure and killed hundreds of thousands of Greeks. Over 90 percent of all Greek Jews were sent to Auschwitz.

But Mazower accomplishes something wonderful by telling us the history intermingled with the fascinating stories of the people who were there: on every page we learn about the Greeks, the Germans, the Italians and even a few of the British spies who were involved in the struggle for Greek independence. It is a complex story: Greek politics alone is a tangled mess; add to it the labyrinthine puzzle of Nazi bureaucracy, the confusion of the Italian military, and the new world of the Greek resistance groups, mainly EAM/ELAS and EDES. The story is populated with martyrs and villains, acts of valor and brutal atrocities. Mazower's description of the Greek famine of 1941-42 is also deeply moving.

Much of this history comes from original sources, some of them uncovered for the first time by Mazower himself. He draws from diaries, memoirs, letters, court records, military reports, and secret correspondence locked away for decades after the war. The overall effect is of opening a window into the past. I came away from the book with a new appreciation for the horrors and the heroes of the Second World War.

[Arhondi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched and well written account of the many aspects and politics of the Occupation and the Civil War in Greece. It can help shed some light or even perhaps answer a few questions that a baffled Greek citizen might have at this time in history. An enlightening read. (Could have done a bit better in transcribing Greek names/ areas/ cities, etc, but it's no harm done).

[Linda FK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well researched and has much detail. It's not an easy quick read but it's a good one. For a more in-depth review:
http://truestorythenifi.blogspot.com/...

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible history. Powerful and haunting.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I skimmed the last three chapters, but devotedly read every other word in this book, which was fabulous. A real eye-opener onto a deeply traumatic period of Greece's history, which ultimately contributed to the formation of identity so intrinsic to traumatic re-evaluations.
And, of course, I always enjoy mentions of Nikos Kazantzakis and Άγγελος Σικελιανός.

[Panicos Demetriades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable detail and very well researched, a must read for anyone interested in Greek history.

[Grant Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and well written. A harrowing read at times about a period of Greek history that I knew little. We don't get taught about this at school.

[Costas Kabamaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. Firstly, the bravery of the Greeks during WW II, who without them Second World War would have never ended. Twas, after all, due to the bravery and courage that the Greek people showed in WWII, that they delayed both the German Wehrmacht and Fascist Italy troops, until the Russians came to the rescue. It is in this very bravery that "Everyone can recall the sentiments of admiration which the heroic defense of Greece, first against the Italians and then against the German invader, aroused throughout the civilized world."[1] Even further, the, then, British Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, rejected the critics, argued that the UK's decision was unanimous, and asserted that the Battle of Greece delayed the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.[2] Historians, such as John Keegan, a British military historian, lecturer and journalist, has also sustained this firm belief, in order to prove that Greek resistance WAS INDEED a turning point in World War II.[3] According to Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler said that "if the Italians hadn't attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course. We could have anticipated the Russian cold by weeks and conquered Leningrad and Moscow. There would have been no Stalingrad".[4]

"Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44", offers a detailed account on Hitler's emotional psyche after taking over the country that he so much dreamt of of visiting as a child. Indeed, he admired the Greeks, ancient Greece as such and the antiquities of the time that even during occupation, in a speech made at the Reichstag in 1941, Hitler expressed his admiration for the Greek resistance, saying of the campaign: "Historical justice obliges me to state that of the enemies who took up positions against us, the Greek soldier particularly fought with the highest courage. He capitulated only when further resistance had become impossible and useless." [5]
Inspired by the Greek resistance during the Italian and German invasions, Churchill said, "Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks".[6] Finally, the greatest kudos, were given by Stalin who congratulated the Greeks for delaying both the Italians and the Germans in the Balkan Peninsula, which as a result had the ending of WW II: “I am sorry because I am getting old, and I shall not live long to thank the Greek people, WHOSE RESISTANCE DECIDED WW II.” [7]

This is a great book, indeed. Go out and purchase it right now. If you haven't got any money to do so, I will lend you some that you can read it through. It is also available on Amazon.
---------------------------------
Citations
(1) Winston Churchill (1974), 6891
(2) Richter (1998), pp.:638–639.
(3) Greece (World War II)". An Encyclopedia of Battles.
* Keegan (2005), 144.
[4] Riefenstahl (1987), 295
[5] Joseph Goebbels, who was an admirer of Greek antiquity (in his diaries describes how the dream of his youth came true, when he first visited Greece, and believed that Metaxas intended to keep Greece on a neutral course, corroborates in his diaries the fact that Hitler was well disposed towards Greece and its people. Nevertheless, the wider Axis strategy made the invasion of Greece inevitable.
Read also: Goebbels (1982)
*Jerasimof Vatikiotis (1998), 156–157.
* Keitel (1965), 165–166. According to Keitel, during the autumn of 1940, when the Germans were preparing for a war against Greece, Hitler had repeatedly said to his closest associates that he deeply regretted this campaign. Keitel (1965), 150, 165–166.
[6] Celebration of Greek Armed Forces in Washington, Press Office of the Embassy of Greece * “Greece, History of". Encyclopaedia "The Helios”.
[7] Joseph Stalin, from a speech he delivered addressing to the Greek nation, live broadcast transmitted by the Moscow Radio station on 31st Jan. 1943 after the victory of Stalingrad.

[Brad Felix · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting account of Greece occupation by Germany and Italy during WWII. This is an event I probably glanced over in history class, but it interested me because of the financial ramifications endured by Greece during this time period. Essentially, the Germans and Italians looted all the country's resources and printed as many drachmas as they could to finance the German war effort. This lead to a hyperinflation and famine in Greece, where many people died and starved to death. Consistent with other books I have read, it wasn't a bad time for everyone. Farmers became rich overnight as doctors, lawyers, and others on a fixed currency-based income sold their possessions to try and survive. Of course there were also corrupt officials who cashed in at the expense of their starving countrymen. At the end of the day, humanity fails in the face of starvation. I wish I could say this wouldn't be true for our country or others forced to go through hyperinflation.

The book is very long; I did not finish because it is more detail than I care to know.

[Filip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mazower has clearly had access to a lot of research on this topic. He provides clear directions where Left and Right became hard-to-define entities, and usefully adds information on what happened to the principal Germans who were involved in the occupation of Greece. The book might have benefited from checks by native speakers of Greek, German and Italian, and from more and clearer maps. Sometimes it seems like the author repeats dry lists of events, village after village, without locating these. As a historian, Mazower is attempting to maintain some objectivity, but sometimes the lack of empathy for people's motives leaves the reader wanting more. Good history book, but not of the same level as his other Balkan books.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book can come off as kind of text-booky, but it really is awesome. it goes into lots of detail about everything that was going on in greece during WWII. it has a lot of firsthand accounts, pictures, and really amazing details about hitler's and mussolini's dealings in greece. my favorite (although very hard to read) part discusses the jewish community in salonika, which was completely wiped out by the facist regimes in greece.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of these dark years, the most exciting quality about it being that it provided historical documentation for several oral stories I 've heard from my parents and grandparents who experienced the Italian and German occupation of Crete. I particularly appreciated Mazower's balanced view on the civil conflicts during the Occupation.

[Benemint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very systematic presentation of the chaotic German and Italian occupation of Greece. Very smooth, easy reading throughout. I should go back to the last few chapters in order to compare the chaos in Korea and Taiwan in 1945.

[Gordon Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, somber book about the German occupation of Greece 1941-1944. It's a less well-known chapter of the overall World War II saga. Lot's of pictures interspersed throughout are interesting too.

[Ioannis Neris · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Greek its a well told story from a "third" eye. Good insight on what happened during the occupation by the Nazis plus a clear understanding of the mentality of the people back then as well as the causes for the civil war.

[Themistocles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really well researched and presented account of the German occupation of Greece. Really helps you put some things in perspective...

[Ruth Siddall · Rating 4 out of 5]

As many other reviewers have commented here, even if you think you know about the history of Greece under the Axis occupation, you will learn things you never knew from this book. This is a detailed account of several aspects of Greek life during 1941-1944 predominantly in the mainland. It covers the famine, the growth of the resistance movement and the appalling reprisals and massacres carried out by both the German occupying army and by the resistance army, ELAS, themselves. It provides an understanding as to why the country descended into civil war after liberation. There was fighting between the British and the Resistance in 1944, with Spitfires strafing Athens’s suburbs in ‘44. This was the only incidence of the British fighting resistance militia during WW2 and something I did not know. Indeed much of what is written here is deeply shocking and it has made me think a lot of the modern Greek state, a country I have lived and worked in over the last 30 years. A highly recommended read.

[Martinocorre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ottima Lettura.
La Grecia nella seconda guerra mondiale è stata un'amarissima eccezione, è stato l'unico Paese europeo in cui gli Alleati hanno combattuto la Resistenza dopo il ritiro delle truppe tedesche, in cui hanno sparato sulla folla, bombardando interi quartieri (prodromi di quella che sarà poi una vera e propria guerra civile tra i movimenti di sinistra e quelli più conservatori).
Nel raccontare tutto questo, oltre che tutte le sofferenze del popolo greco per mano nazista (e non solo) è molto bravo come sempre il professor Mazower, Storico con la S maiuscola: ampio uso di fonti primarie, fonti quasi tutte di più e più archivi e non di articoli di giornale, scrittura dalla mano felice (è sempre un piacere leggere Mazower) e soprattutto capacità di mantenere un atteggiamento imparziale, cercando di far capire come si siano sviluppati certi fenomeni senza tentare di dare patenti di colpevolezza a destra o a sinistra.

[Austin Barselau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside Hitler’s Greece meticulously examines the tumultuous political, economic, and social conditions that arose from the Axis occupation between 1941 and 1944. Historian Mark Mazower, a British scholar at Columbia University, draws upon a rich array of archival sources—primarily captured German and Italian documents—to illuminate how the ravages of expropriation and plunder triggered economic crises that paralyzed the Greek state and inadvertently fostered a left-wing underground resistance movement. Combining authoritative historical analysis with vivid human narratives, Mazower’s command of his sources casts a stark light on the depravities of Axis rule. In exploring the politics of occupation, the delicate spectrum between resistance and collaboration, and the widespread human suffering experienced across all levels of society, Inside Hitler’s Greece is authoritative scholarship on one of the darkest chapters in modern Greek history.

[Anna Coopey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is certainly a goodun. A fantastic deep-dive into the experience of Nazi-Occupied Greece, and the history that precedes and succeeds those years. A key examination of the very period I work on - and it mentions both Sikelianos and Kazantzakis, to boot.
Particularly interesting chapters for me were: "Chapter Two - The Occupation Begins"; "Chapter Three - The Famine"; "Chapter Eight - The Resistance of Daily Life"; "Chapter Eleven - Urban Protest"; "Chapter Fifteen - The Logic of Violence"; "Chapter Eighteen - The SS and the Terror System"; "Chapter Twenty-One - ELAS: The People's Liberation Army"; "Chapter Twenty-Three - 'Tired Out by History': Athens '44"; and "Epilogue - 'No Peace Without Victory'".

[Γιώργος Χαζίρης · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is always a pleasure to read Mazower's books. This particular one had a deep emotional impact on me despite not being written in emotional proze. Mazower chronicles in uncompromising terns the scale of mid-war atrocities commited by the German forces in Greece and most importantly the fact that such attrocities were orchstrated and directed top-down the leadership scale. The end of the book is heartbraking, wrapping up Greece's ethnic tragedy. A tragedy without Catharsis.

[Alexios Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct yet deep, focused yet broad, this is the perfect book for an interested reader and enriched my understanding of twentieth century Greek history quite a bit. Mazower's in-depth primary research on a couple specific events was a valuable addition to the historical record that elevated the book further in my regard.