Abstract
The experience of total war in Greece during the 1940s had enormous implications for almost all groups in society, including children. Children participated in various ways both in the Second World War and the ensuing Civil War: as active members of the leftist guerrillas; as orphans or minors without a guardian, moving from place to place in search of food and shelter; as political prisoners either of the occupying armies or, afterwards, of the national Greek authorities; as evacuees either of the Athens government or of the communist guerrillas to encampments, far away from their families and their homes; and as a special recipient group of propaganda by both sides of the civil strife.
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Notes
For a brief analysis of the ‘children’s issue’, see Lars Baerentzen, ‘The “Paidomazoma” and the Queen’s camps’, in Lars Baerentzen, John Iatrides and Ole Smith (eds), Studies of the Greek Civil War, 1945–1949, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1987, pp. 127–57.
See also Amikam Nachmani, International Intervention in the Greek Civil War: The United Nations Special Committee on the the Balkans, 1947–1952, New York, Westport Connecticut — London: Praeger, 1990;
Eirini Lagani, To ‘paidomazoma’ kai I ellino-yugoslavikes shesis, 1949–1953, Athens: Sideris, 1996;
Milan Ristović, A Long Journey Home. Greek Refugee Children in Yugoslavia, 1948–1960, Thessaloniki: IMXA, 2000;
Yorgos Margaritis, Istoria tou ellinikou emfyliou polemou, vol. II, Athens: Vivliorama, 2001, pp. 605–14;
Stefan Troebst, ‘Evacuation to a Cold Country: Child Refugees from [the] Greek Civil War in the German Democratic Republic’, Nationality Papers, 32/3 (September 2004), pp. 675–91.
Tassoula Vervenioti, ‘Peri “paidomazomatos” kai “paidofylagmatos” o logos i ta paidia sti dini tis emfylias diamahis’, in Eutychia Voutira and Maria Bontila (eds), To oplo para poda. Oi politikoi prosfyges tou emfyliou polemou stiri Anatoliki Evropi, Thessaloniki: University of Macedonia Press, 2005, pp. 101–24; ‘Charity and Nationalism: The Greek Civil War and the Entrance of Right-Wing Women into Politics’, in Paola Bacchetta and Margeret Power (eds), Right-Wing Women. From Conservatives to Extremists around the World, New York and London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 115–26.
For the issue of children’s participation in modern wars, see James Marten (ed.), Children and War: A Historical Anthology, New York and London: New York University Press, 2002.
See Mónica Orduña Prada, Al Auxilio Social (1936–1940). La etapa fundacional y los primeros años, Madrid: Escuela Libre Editorial, 1996;
Alicia Vigil Alted, Encarna Marín Nicolás and Roger Martell González (eds), Los niños de la guerra de España en la Unión Soviética. De la evacuación al retorno, 1937–1999, Madrid: Fundación F. Largo Caballero, 1999;
Eduardo Pons Prades, Los niños republicanos en la guerra de España, Madrid: Oberon, 2004;
Michael Richards, ‘Ideology and the Psychology of War Children in Franco’s Spain, 1936–1945’, in Kjersti Ericsson and Eva Simonsen (eds), Children of World War II. The Hidden Enemy Legacy Oxford: Berg, 2005, pp. 115–37;
Ángela Cenarro, La sonrisa de Falange. Auxilio Social en la guerra civil y en la posguerra, Barcelona: Critica, 2006.
Dr Thérèse Brosse, War-Handicapped Children. Report on the European Situation, Paris: UNESCO, 1950. See also Eva Simonsen, ‘Children in Danger: Dangerous Children’, in Children of World War II, pp. 269–76.
Foreign Office (hereafter FO) 371/78370 Refugees from bandit controlled territory in Greece 1949/R 213: British consulate in Thessaloniki to FO, Thessaloniki, 29–12–1948; and FO 371/78370: Refugees from bandit controlled territory in Greece 1949/R 5460: UNSCOB to British Embassy in Athens: ‘Memorandum of the Greek Red Cross on the situation of the refuges’. See also Aggeliki Laiou, ‘Population Movements in the Greek Countryside during the Civil War’, in Studies of the Greek Civil War, pp. 55–103, and David Close and Thanos Veremis, ‘The Military Struggle, 1945–49’, in David Close (ed.), The Greek Civil War, 1943–1950. Studies of Polarization, London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 118–19.
On the political role of the Palace during and after the Second World War, see Jean Meynaud, Les forces politiques en Grèce, Lausanne: Etudes de science politique, 1965, pp. 330–6, and Tassoula Vervenioti, ‘Charity and Nationalism’, p. 118.
Greek General State Archives (hereafter GSA)/Central Office/389: Queen’s Lord Chamberlain/d. 29, Child-Towns: Report under the title ‘The Queen’s Fund: The Organization erected by Her Majesty the Queen of the Hellenes in order to save the children of Greece from abduction and starvation in the bandit stricken areas’, Athens, 6–4–1949; Greek Literary and Historical Archive (hereafter ELIA)/Kalligas Archive/Royal Relief Institute: Alexandra Mela, To Chronikon, n.d., 13–14, and in the same: Royal Relief Institute, Apologismos Dekaetias 1947–1957, n.d., 38–41. See also Queen Frederica of the Hellenes, A Measure of Understanding, London: Macmillan, 1971, pp. 134–9. For the Commissioned Ladies, see Vervenioti, ‘Charity and Nationalism’, pp. 115–26.
Lawrence Witner, American Intervention in Greece, 1943–1949, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, p. 162. The National Army was also assigned to guard the child-towns from possible raids by the guerrillas. See Historical Archive of Benaki Museum (hereafter IAMM)/458/Elli Zalokosta’s Archive/d. 2, Fund’s Committee, 1948–1963: Members of the Fund’s Executive Committee K. Arliotis and M. Pesmdjoglou to all child-towns, Athens, pp. 9–11–1948.
Constantine Tsoucalas, ‘The Ideological Impact of the Civil War’, in John Iatrides (ed.), Greece in the 1940’s: A Nation in Crisis, Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1981, pp. 329–36, and Close, ‘The Reconstruction of a Right-Wing State’, in The Greek Civil War, pp. 157–9;
Despoina I. Papadimitriou, Apo ton lao ton nomimofronon sto ethnos ton ethnikofronon. I syntiritiki skepsi stin Ellada, 1922–1967, Athens: Savalas, 2006, pp. 177–211.
FO 371/78361/R1789: Abduction of Greek children by the rebels, 1949: Mrs Oliver M. Marcy to FO, Athens, 21–12–1948; ELIA/Kalliga’s Archive/ Royal Relief Institute: Alexandra Mela, To Hronikon, 19–21. See also Lilika Papanicolaou, Frederica. Queen of the Hellenes. Mission of a Modern Queen, Malta: PEG, 1994, p. 149.
FO 371/72343: Foreign aid to Greek rebels, 1948: British Embassy to FO, Athens, 27–4–1948. See also Kenneth Matthews, Memories of a Mountain War. Greece: 1944–1949, London: Longman, 1972, p. 180.
Ellinika Dikaia. Ethniki Epitheorisis tou Ellinismou, per. III, n. 1, May 1948; Dimitrios Zafiropoulos (Infantry Colonel), To KKE kai i Macedonia, Athens, 1948; III Army Corps. Department of Press and Instruction, Makedonikon provlima kai Kommunismos, Thessaloniki 1949;
Mrs Zanandris, Anamesa sta thymata tou symoritismou, Athens, 1952.
David Antoniou, Ethniko Paidofylagma, Athens, 1949, pp. 22–3.
Eleni Tari, ‘Vassiliki Pronoia’ (Queen’s Relief Fund), in A Letsas (ed.), Thessaloniki, 1912–1962 Thessaloniki, 1962, pp. 109–10. Comitadjees refers to pro-Bulgarian fighters from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation who were active at the turn of the century and sought Macedonian autonomy.
For the participation of ‘Zoë’ in the anticommunist activities during the Civil War, see Vasilios N Makrides, ‘Orthodoxy in the Service of Anticommunism: The Religious Organization Zoë during the Greek Civil War’, in Philip Carabott and Thanasis D. Sfikas (eds), The Greek Civil War. Essays on a Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences, London: Aldershot, 2004, pp. 164–70. See also I Zoë tou Paidiou, bimonthly magazine, 54/1–1–1949, 57/15–2–1949, 65/11–6–1949, and 87/6–5–1950.
IAMM/458.Elli Zalokosta’s Archive/d. 1: History and activities of the Royal Relief Institute: Activities of the Institute (1969): Report on the child-towns by the Commissioned Lady E. Lelouda, Athens, 25–2–1969; GSA/Central Office/ Palace Archives/1779: Paidofylagma (1948–50): Supervisionary Committee for refugee children in Psyhiko (D. Economou) to Relief for the Northern Provinces, Psyhiko, 25–4–1948. See also Mark Mazower and Mando Dalianis, ‘Children in Turmoil during the Civil War: Today’s Adults’, in Mazower (ed.), After the War was Over. Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943–1960, Princeton: Princeton University Press: 2000, pp. 98–9.
For the activities of UNSCOB in this issue, see Baerentzen, ‘The “Paidomazoma”‘, pp. 132–8; Basil Kondis, I agglloamerikaniki politiki gia to elliniko politico provlima, 1945–1949, Thessaloniki: Paratiritis, 1984, pp. 360, 386;
Howard Jones, ‘The Diplomacy of Restraint: The U.S. Efforts to Repatriate Greek Children Evacuated during the Civil War of 1946–1949’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 3 (May 1985), pp. 65–85; Nachmani, International Intervention in the Greek Civil War, pp. 23–4, 49, 138.
FO 371/78363: Abduction of Greek children by the rebels, 1949: Several resolutions against the ‘abduction’ of the Greek, London, 7–7–1949. See also Nikos Roditsas, To deutero paidomazoma, 1948, Athens: Sideris, 1977, pp. 95–107. ‘I proti Mitera gia to etos 1950’, Paidopolis, 11/1–6–1950.
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Hassiotis, L. (2011). Relocating Children During the Greek Civil War, 1946–9: State Strategies and Propaganda. In: Reinisch, J., White, E. (eds) The Disentanglement of Populations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230297685_13
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