Greek Society After Its Liberation - Assignment Example

Mark Mazower’s “After the War was Over” Q1. Write a concise summary of the essays contained in the book. ANS: The volume makes available some of the most exciting research currently underway into Greek society after its Liberation. This collection of 14 essays can be summarized according to the themes they deal with. There are basically four different themes. Theme 1: Justice Mark Mazower’s essay “Three Forms of Political Justice: Greece, 1944-1945” (Chapter 1 of the volume) deals with the fluctuating concepts of justice in Greece during the period of 1944-1945. Mazower explains how the many efforts (‘how Greece recovered from the most prolonged and traumatic experience of its brief life as a nation-state’{p.21}) to restore justice and prosecute collaborators were undone by the resurrection of the anticommunist right wing faction. Eleni Haidia’s essay “The Punishment of Collaborators in Northern Greece, 1945-1946” (Chapter 2 of the book) is a composition of studies of trials of collaborators in Thessaloniki. It explores how at first there was widespread determination to mete out strong punishment, a determination that eventually broke down and vanished after encountering malignancies such as improper administration practices, corruption, lack of funding and the new, sudden and unforeseen political crisis that resulted after the civil war. Procopis Papastratis’ essay “Purging the University after Liberation” (Chapter 3 of the volume) explores the efforts carried out with the aim of cleansing Athens University of those persons who had collaborated with the Germans and the pre-war Metaxas regime. The University used academic and political tactics to successfully repulse the threat of purging it; in the process, ironically, the University also succeeded in expelling several of its professors who supported the EAM (National Liberation Front). Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis’ essay “An Affair of Politics, Not Justice: The Merten Trial (1957-1959) and Greek-German Relations” (Chapter 14 of the book) reveals how Max Merten, a Nazi official mainly responsible for the deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews, escaped justice. She highlights this trial to show that not only collaborators, but even German war criminals escaped Greek justice, an evasion made possible by the late 1950s “mutual interest” move by the Greek and West German governments to turn a blind eye to past wartime events, and look ahead with a view to boost mutual political and economic relations. Polymeris Voglis’ essay “Between Negation and Self-Negation: Political Prisoners in Greece, 1945-1950” (Chapter 4 of the volume) is a valuable study of the civil war’s political prisoners. Putting forward a poignant tale of vivid pain, disillusionment and bewilderment, Voglis releases a series of personal testimonies by leftist prisoners disclosing how they were manipulated into signing declarations of repentance (Voglis calls this declaration ‘a self-betrayal, a self-negation’ {p.77}), or face the death penalty. The prisoners were given the option of gaining the dubious distinction of becoming “worthy” members of the national community and in the process alienating themselves from their former comrades, or face execution. Theme 2: Social Relations & Human Impact of the Conflict Mando Delianis’ essay “Children in Turmoil during the Civil War: Today’s Adults” (Chapter 5 of the book) is an explanation of the psychological impact of the conflict on the minds of children of leftist political prisoners. The children showed mild signs of resentment against their parents for putting themselves and their families into that unsavory situation all in the name of ideology. Delianis however is happy to point out that, fortunately, the children faced surprisingly few psychological problems even though some of them underwent the trauma of enduring several years either with their mothers in prison or in correction institutions. Tassoula Vervenioti’s essay “Left-Wing Women between Politics & Family” (Chapter 6 of the volume) deals with the impact of the resistance and the civil war on the lives and fortunes of leftist women. The resistance provided these women with a chance to gain public prominence, but their ambition soon faded because the KKE (Greek Communist Party) did not encourage women in their ranks (‘choosing between traditional gender role or continuing the struggle for social liberation was often a life-or-death matter’ {p.105}). The end result was that the leftist women were forced to recede into the background, and return to ‘a domesticity beset with enormous political and economic hardship’ (p. 116). Riki van Boeschoten’s essay “The Impossible Return: Coping with Separation & the Reconstruction of Memory in the Wake of the Civil War” (Chapter 7 of the book) concentrates on the people of the northern Greek village of Ziakas. This village was a stronghold of the leftists, and as a result of the civil war, most (estimated at 90%) of its population were forced to flee to different areas. Her essay contains poignant tales of how people were forced to leave their families, and how those in exile managed to survive. Riki also portrays how the few people left behind managed to regroup and start a new life. She concludes with scenes of jubilation when, after 1980, those in exile returned back to be reconciled with their long lost families. Theme 3: The Nature of Violence in the Resistance & Civil War Stathis Kalyvas’ essay “Red Terror: Leftist Violence during the Occupation” (Chapter 8 of the volume) discloses that the Leftists (EAM {National Liberation Front} and ELAS {National People’s Liberation Army}) unleashed a wave of violence that was of a much higher degree than what has been recorded so far in history. Kalyvas accuses the historians of gross neglect, saying they preferred to ‘overlook, minimize or whitewash’ it (p.142). The empirical evidence he puts forward in the essay about the dirty war fought by the Leftists comprises new information which must be considered for inclusion by future historians. John Sakkas’ essay “The Civil War in Evrytania” (Chapter 9 of the book) elaborates in the same strain as Stathis Kalyvas does about Leftist activities, pointing towards improperly recorded history of Leftist violence during the war by historians, especially highlighting the worst perpetrators – individual ‘ideologically fanatical kapetans’ (p.194). Sakkas also records some life stories showing the manner in which those on the losing side were ‘not only silent and silenced, but….virtually written out of history except in the role of the “enemy” in the moral Greek drama of Good versus Evil’ (p.204). Lee Sarafis’ essay “The Policing of Deskati, 1942-1946” (Chapter 10 of the volume) is a work that directly contradicts the essay of Stathis Kalyvas. She instead glorifies the resistance in her description of the policing work carried out by the state authorities and EAM/ELAS in the northern Greek village of Deskati, writing that the villagers proudly claimed ‘in Deskati, no one was killed by the resistance movement’ (pp. 213,217). Theme 4: National & Ethnic Identity Anastasia Karakasidou’s essay “Protocol & Pageantry: Celebrating the Nation in Northern Greece” (Chapter 11 of the book) discloses how the Greek government organized patriotic pageants in an attempt to imbibe a spirit of national unity and identity in the people, hoping that the new nationalistic fervor would make them forget the bitter experiences of the civil war. Bea Lewkowicz’s essay “After the War We Were All Together: Jewish Memories of Postwar Thessaloniki” (Chapter 12 of the volume) records the experiences of a small section of the Jews of Thesssaloniki who survived the Holocaust. Lewkowicz records the oral testimonies of these surviving Jews as they explain how they survived the death camps and finally returned home to try and find normal lives, only to discover that they faced, until very recently, possible physical danger as a result of the policies of the new Greek State, which was killing a large part of the Jewish population. Xanthippi Kotzageorgi-Zymari & Tassos Hadjianastassiou’s essay “Memories of the Bulgarian Occupation of Eastern Macedonia: Three Generations” (Chapter 13 of the book) is a work that, like that of Bea Lewkowicz, makes use of oral testimonies to describe the impact of the Bulgarian occupation in Eastern Macedonia on the immediate survivors as well as on later generations. Q2. Discuss how the various essays contribute to an understanding of the consequences of the Civil War for Greek Society. ANS: This collection of essays discusses the tragedy of Greece in the wartime and postwar years – a period representing one of the most contentious and incompletely studied periods in Greek History. The essays shed light into places no historian has ventured before, and upon events obscured by political injustice. Previously neglected subjects ranging from the plight of children and women in the resistance, the trauma of returning refugees, the way ordinary people overcome wartime grievances to live together, the controversial arrest of a war criminal, to the State use of pageantry to revive the flame of national unity and identity in the people, all serve to provide fresh information and insights into the conflict and its wide ranging consequences. In general, the essays show how the civil war affected the family, the law and the State of Greece. Q3. Develop and argument as to your critical opinion of the book: what are its strengths and weaknesses? What do you learn from the book? ANS: The main strength of the book is that it provides a fresh insight into hitherto unexplored or improperly recorded events by historians during the Greek civil war, focusing in important ways on what happened at the local level. The book showcases cutting edge research: some essays are based on oral testimony and anthropological analysis, others employ newly available Greek and German archival materials, while yet others use more familiar documentary evidence. Another area of strength of the book, to which its success can be largely attributed to, is the excellence of contributions from its wide variety of authors – ranging from young to well-established historians – including the widely acclaimed and widely recognized expertise of its editor. All authors are able to put forward their findings and portray the feelings of the people in stunning poignancy. A shining example of this is Polymeris Voglis’ study of the fate of leftist political prisoners of war, in which he conjures up the palpable pain and bewilderment of those imprisoned, and in many cases, executed. Another outstanding example is Tassoula Vervenioti’s touching analysis of how the resistance and civil war impacted on the life of leftist women, briefly igniting in them hopes of gaining prominence; a hope which soon dies out, making them returning to their usual anonymous background. A final area of strength of the book is that its essays are refreshingly free of ideological bias. The main weakness of the book is that it tends to raise as many questions as it answers, pointing productively, albeit untidily, in numerous directions. Another weakness is the two maps included in the book. These maps are not useful as they do not provide sufficient details to permit location of most of the places mentioned in the text – a fact that is bound to frustrate readers not fluent in Greek geography. Two of the essays exhibit inherent defects. Lee Sarafis in her essay on policing of the village of Deskati paints a rosy picture of the resistance; but she contradicts herself when having described the assassination of two collaborators, she goes on to say that the villagers took pride in the fact that “no one” was killed by the resistance movement. The second essay, that of Anastasia Karakisidou, tends to read like a general study of the Greek nation building in the 20th century. Her disclosure of how the Greek government attempted to create feelings of conservative national identity and unity after the war is rather disappointing because it lacks firm focus and is not closely attuned to the central concerns of the volume. In conclusion I can assert that I have learnt several matters from this book. The first is how war and its repercussions affect the family, the law and the State. The second is how deep are ethnic divisions. The third is which forms of power emerge under a weakened State. The fourth is how people react to repression; how ordinary people react to surmount wartime tribulations and regroup to patch up their lives and live together. The fifth is when forced to choose, will parents sacrifice family or ideology. And the final one is how the grand ideological passions of the twentieth century shaped and scarred the lives of flesh and blood individuals. WORKS CITED: Finney, Patrick (Director, Center for the Study of South Eastern Europe, University of Wales, Lampeter). Review of “After the War was Over. Reconstructing the Family, Nation & State in Greece, 1943-1960”. Mazower, Mark. “After the War was Over. Reconstructing the Family, Nation & State in Greece, 1943-1960”, Princeton, New Jersey (USA), Princeton University Press, October 2000. Read More