tagged: 1940, Greek German war, Greek Italian war, ioannis metaxas, Occupation Axis IMF, october 28, Ohi Anniversary, Papandreou George, Sofia Vembo

Axis Occupation vs. IMF Occupation

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Very Mix

Politicians’ messages on the anniversary of 28th October 1940 were always meant to appeal to the sentiments of the Greeks. Unity, Solidarity, Heroism, National Pride, Commitment, Sacred Cause, Freedom Defense were always the key words of the tearful messages.

And so they are this year.  Of course, this year our politicians do not miss the chance to draw parallelism between the Then and  the Now.

Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou said in his massage that ”We fight for independence from loans forces.” 

“The message of the 70th anniversary is timeless and clearly more relevant than ever. In a period of generalized crisis, experiencing by all of us, we can walk together, making every effort to exit from a difficult situation which our country has come to” said Parliament Speaker Philippos Patsalnikos.

I believe that they miss the point!  We won the Greco-Italian War in 1940 but we lost the war against the Axis Forces six months later in April 1941. Greece was occupied by the Nazi Germany until 1944 , some parts until 1945.

Fascist Italy had initially invaded Greece in October 1940 but was defeated, and the Greek Army pushed the invaders back into neighbouring Albania. This forced Germany to shift its military focus from the preparation of “Operation Barbarossa” to an intervention on its ally’s behalf in the southern Balkans. A rapid German Blitzkrieg Campaign followed in April 1941, and by the middle of May, Greece was under joint occupation by three Axis powers: Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. A collaborationist Greek government was established immediately after the country fell (source: wikipedia)

Should we dare to draw indeed a historic parallelism? The occupation consequences were dreadful for the population then and are inhuman now.

The German occupation brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population. Over 300,000 civilians died in Athens alone from starvation, tens of thousands more through reprisals, and the country’s economy was ruined.  At the same time the Greek Resistance became one of the most effective resistance movements in Europe.

Let’s not fool ourselves. We are under occupation now, under the occupation of the austerity measures. And the omens are bad. The heroic fighting soldiers of 1940 are the low pensioners and employees of today. They struggle to survive with low income and unemployment. None of those who mismanaged the public money has paid for his/her crimes. 

“The fight for independence” is unfortunately fought only by some!