Axis occupation of Greece

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Axis occupation of Greece
The three occupation zones   Italian   German   Bulgaria The Italian zone was taken over by Nazi Germans in September 1943
1941. German soldiers raising the German War Flag over the Acropolis. It would be taken down by Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas in one of the first acts of resistance.
1944. Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and others on the Acropolis after the liberation from the Nazis

The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers (Greek: Η Κατοχή, romanized: I Katochi, lit. 'the occupation') began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded the Kingdom of Greece in order to assist its ally, Italy, in their ongoing war that was initiated in October 1940, having encountered major strategical difficulties. Following the conquest of Crete, the entirety of Greece was occupied starting in June 1941. The occupation of the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria withdrew under Allied pressure in early October 1944, with Crete and some other Aegean Islands being surrendered to the Allies by German garrisons in May and June 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe.

Fascist Italy had initially declared war and invaded Greece in October 1940, but had been pushed back by the Hellenic Army into neighbouring Albania, which at the time was an Italian protectorate. Nazi Germany intervened on its ally's behalf in southern Europe. While most of the Hellenic Army was located on the Albanian front lines to defend against Italian counter-attacks, a rapid German Blitzkrieg campaign took place from April to June 1941, resulting in Greece being defeated and occupied. The Greek government went into exile, and an Axis collaborationist government was established in its place. Greece's territory was divided into occupation zones run by the Axis powers, with the Nazi Germans administering the most important regions of the country themselves, including Athens, Thessaloniki and strategic Aegean Islands. Other regions of the country were run by Nazi Germany's partners, Italy and Bulgaria.

The occupation destroyed the Greek economy and brought immense hardships to the Greek civilian population.^[1] Most of Greece's economic capacity was destroyed, including 80% of industry, 28% of infrastructure (ports, roads and railways), 90% of its bridges, and 25% of its forests and other natural resources.^[2][3][4] Along with the loss of economic capacity, an estimated 7–11% of Greece's civilian population died as a result of the occupation.^[5][6] In Athens, 40,000 civilians died from starvation a total of 300,000 in the whole of the country and tens of thousands more died from reprisals by Nazis and their collaborators.^[7]

The Jewish population of Greece was nearly eradicated. Of its pre-war population of 75–77,000, around 11–12,000 survived, often by joining the resistance or being hidden.^[8] Most of those who died were deported to Auschwitz, while those under Bulgarian occupation in Thrace were sent to Treblinka. The Italians did not deport Jews living in territory they controlled, but when the Germans took it over from them, Jews living there were also deported.

Greek Resistance groups were formed during this occupation. The most important of them was ELAS (Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós – Greek People's Liberation Army), which was the military arm of the EAM (Ethnikó Apeleftherotikó Métopo – National Liberation Front). Both groups were strongly associated with the KKE (Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas – Communist Party of Greece).^[9] They were commonly named antartes from the Greek wikt:αντάρτης. Mark Mazower wrote that, the standing orders of the Wehrmacht in Greece was to use terror as a way to frighten the Greeks into not supporting the andartes (guerrillas).^[10]

This resistance group launched guerrilla attacks against the occupying powers, fought against collaborationist Security Battalions, and set up espionage networks.

Throughout the war against the Soviet Union, German propaganda portrayed the war as a noble struggle to protect "European civilization" from "Bolshevism".^[11] Likewise, German officials portrayed the Reich as nobly occupying Greece to protect it from Communists and presented EAM as a demonic force.^[11] The andartesof ELAS were portrayed in both the Wehrmacht and the SS as a "savages" and "criminals" who committed all sorts of crimes and who needed to be hunted down without mercy.^[12]

The British engaged in numerous intelligence deceptions designed to fool the Germans into thinking that the Allies would be landing in Greece in the near-future, and as such the German army forces were reinforced in Greece so as to stop the expected Allied landing in the Balkans.^[13] From the viewpoint of General Alexander Löhr, the commander of one Nazi Army Group in Greece, Army Group E, the attacks of the andartes, which forced his men to spread themselves out to hunt them down, were weakening his forces by leaving them exposed and spread out in the face of an expected Allied landing. However, the mountainous terrain of Greece ensured that there were only a limited number of roads and railroads bringing down supplies from Germany and the destruction of a single bridge by the andartes caused major supply problems for the German forces. The best known andarte operation of the war, namely the blowing up of the Gorgopotamos viaduct on the night of 25 November 1942, had caused Nazi Germans serious logistical problems as it severed the main railroad linking Thessaloniki to Athens. This interfered with overall operations of Nazi Germany, since Athens and its port Piraeus was used as a point of transporting supplies.

By early 1944, due to foreign interference by both Britain and U.S., ^[14] the resistance groups began to fight amongst themselves. At the end of occupation of the Greek mainland in October 1944, Greece was in a state of political polarization, which soon led to the outbreak of civil war. The civil war gave opportunity to those who had prominently collaborated with Nazi Germany or other occupiers to reach positions of power and avoid sanctions because of anti-communism, even eventually coming to power in post-war Greece after the Communist defeat.^[15][16]

The Greek Resistance killed 21,087 Axis soldiers (17,536 Germans, 2,739 Italians, 1,532 Bulgarians) and captured 6,463 (2,102 Germans, 2,109 Italians, 2,252 Bulgarians), compared to the death of 20,650 Greek partisans and an unknown number captured.^[17] BBC News estimated Greece suffered at least 250,000 dead during the Axis occupation.^[18]