Griechenland 1941 - 1944

Whereas names such as Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane and Babi Jar are well known as places where atrocities were perpetrated on the civilian population by Germans, the mass executions carried out in Greece by the Wehrmacht and SS troops are today still nearly unknown. The same may be said of the exact circumstances surrounding the occupation of Greece. The German occupation authorities followed the order to repress Greece with all political, economic and legal means available. In this study the author sets the occupation against the background of international law and existing legal policy. He shows, for example, how after 1945 the political and legal entities tended to draw a line under accounts concerning the atrocities of the occupiers. The author also looks at the civil suits filed by Greek civilians against the Federal Republic of Germany. The rejection of all claims by the German government remains a smoldering question with considerable explosive power even today.