HHF Presents

How does a nation go on after the traumas experienced? How do you trust your neighbours after the horrors of what each side did to the other? After suffering a devastating loss, how and when were leftist sympathizers and Communist fighters reintegrated into society? Prof. Sakis Gekas from York University and Prof. Stathis Kalyvas from the University of Oxford discuss the end of the Civil War and its lasting impact on Greek society. 

Homes destroyed, family members killed, displaced from their homes, civilians endure the brunt of trauma during a civil war, especially children. Prof. Spyros Tsioutsioubis, from the University of Manchester, discusses how civilians were targeted by both sides.   Bill Fatsis, CEO of Greca TV, and his cousin John Topsis, both children at the time, recount how their family was impacted by the Paidomazoma.  

The enemy within. Families divided. Men, women, and even children choosing sides and taking up arms. Political science professor, Phil Triadafilopoulos at the University of Toronto, joins this episode to talk about the motivations that led Greeks to pick up arms and fight against their compatriots. 

The Varkiza Agreement of 1945 was supposed to bring a truce between the Nationalists and the Communists. How then, did the country plunge into a civil war over a year later on March 31, 1946? Guest Iasonas Rodopoulos, PhD candidate at York University, helps us make sense of the economic hardships faced by the Greek people, while Prof.  Neni Panourgia of Columbia University, explains how the many on the left faced persecution by armed right-wing paramilitary groups.

World War II ends as the Axis occupying forces withdraw from Greece in the fall of 1944.  Competing visions for how the country should be run widen the divide between the anti-communist right and the anti-monarchist left. Guest Prof. Sakis Gekas, the HHF Chair of Modern Greek History at York University, discusses the ideological and political stakes at play and how this battle took over the streets of Athens. 

How the occupiers left Greece and the power vacuum left behind. How the roots of the Civil War are taking shape as conflict between resistance groups builds, fueled by ideological differences. With guest Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. 

A look at Jewish life in Greece, before, during and after the War. The persecution Jews faced, particularly in Thessaloniki, and eventually deportations to concentration camps. How some Jewish Greeks survived and how this experience shaped their lives. With guests Kateřina Králová, Professor of Contemporary History at Charles University in Prague, Dianne Cadesky, daughter of Eli Benyacar and Esther Tivoli, both Greek Holocaust survivors.

Under the Axis Occupation, the Greek state collapsed and Greeks were subjected to hyperinflation, hunger, starvation, ongoing violence and atrocities. But a Resistance Movement grew, determined to overthrow the German, Italian and Bulgarian forces. With guest Spyridon Tsoutsoumpis, Historian of Modern Greece and Southeastern Europe at the University of Manchester.

War began with a cruel and punishing winter at the Albanian front, which led to victory for Greece – and an eventual German invasion. As parts of Greece quickly fell, the island of Crete was the site of the first major Allied victory. A look at the battles that shaped this war in Greece with guest Prof. Nicholas Doumanis, Professor of History of the University of Illinois Chicago. 

As fascism was spreading across Europe, Ioannis Metaxas seized dictatorial powers and transformed daily life in Greece. But his militarization of the nation became a factor when Greece was pulled into World War II on October 28, 1940 with an ultimatum by Italy. Guests include Professor Sakis Gekas, HHF Chair in Modern Greek History at York University.