The famine reaps in occupied Greece and in combination with the very bad weather conditions causes thousands of victims among the mainly urban population of the country.
By mid-1942 the dead will reach 200.000.
The Occupation Famine
The Occupation Famine in Greece (1941-1944) was a great famine during the triple occupation of the country by the Axis forces and was mainly the result of the arbitrary actions of the occupiers. Most of the victims were in the country's major urban centres. In particular, the first occupation winter (1941-1942) was the deadliest. In Athens and Piraeus, it is estimated that the famine death toll reached 63,734,[/B] while the total number of victims throughout Greece was 100,000.
During World War II, the occupying powers, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy (Triple Occupation of Greece) proceeded to systematically occupy the occupied countries, as they considered them a source of raw materials, food and labour.Greece particularly experienced the direct activity of the occupiers, with the result that it was later claimed by the British historian Mark Mazauer that it experienced the worst famine since ancient times.
The first days of the Occupation
With the occupation of Greece in April 1941, the main objective of the Nazi administrative system was to create a rudimentary state apparatus in Greece and the existence of several poles of power. The first occupation government was formed under Georgios Tsolakoglou a few days after he had signed the country's capitulation during the German invasion of Greece.
Greece was divided into three occupation zones. The Germans were confined to areas of strategic importance: pockets in Attica, Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia, some Aegean islands, most of Crete and the bank of the Evros River. The Italians occupied most of mainland Greece, while the Bulgarians occupied Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.
Immediate social consequences
The dogmatic Tsolakoglou government was unable to mitigate the consequences of the occupation reality, hyperinflation and uncontrolled requisitions. Typically, the exorbitant expenses that Greece supposedly owed to the occupiers were the highest per capita in occupied Europe, amounting to 113.7% of the country's national income. The raid on the banks' foreign exchange reserves also dealt a severe blow to the economic figures.
Source: el.wikipedia.org
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