Church of Greece under Axis Occupation

Axis forces (Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria) occupied Greece from 1941 to1944. The unimaginable hardships caused by enemy occupation were compounded by the flight of the government days before enemy forces reached Athens. This national crisis forced the Church of Greece, an institution accustomed to playing a central political and social role during times of crisis, to fill the political vacuum. Led by Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, the clergy sought to maintain the cultural, spiritual, and geographic integrity of the nation during this harrowing period. Circumstances forced the clergy to maintain a working relationship with the major political actors, including the Axis authorities, their Greek allies, and the growing armed resistance movements, especially the communist-led National Liberation Front. These relationships forced the church to straddle a fine line between collaboration and resistance.^ Individual clerics, for instance, negotiated with Axis authorities to gain small concessions, while simultaneously resisting policies deemed detrimental to the nation. Drawing upon official sources as well as pertinent published primary and secondary literature, this study explores the response of the Greek clergy to the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. Despite significant differences between the Greek case and those of other territories in Axis-occupied Europe, the response of Damaskinos and his colleagues is instructive in helping us understand how and why traditional institutions such as the church played a central social and political role in moments of social upheaval and distress. Greek clerics dealt with many of the same challenges clerics faced in other parts of Hitler's Empire, including exceptionally brutal reprisal policies, deprivation and hunger, and the complete collapse of the social and political order caused by years of enemy occupation.^ By examining these challenges, this study makes an essential contribution to not only Greek historiography but also the broader literatures on the Holocaust, collaboration and resistance during World War II, and church-state relations during times of crisis. -- Provided by publisher.