[MGSA-L] Food during the Occupation

[Christos Katsetos]

Let it be known in no uncertain terms that the real and foremost culprit
of the WWII famine in Greece was the ruthless German occupier.

Below is an account of the infamous famine from the perspective of Lázló
Velics, a Hungarian diplomat in Athens during WWII, as described by
Professor Peter I. Hidas of Dawson College, Montreal [Hidas, P.I., "A
View from the Embassy: László Velics and Occupied Greece 1941-1944."
_Eastern Europe and the West; Selected Papers from the Fourth World
Congress for Soviet and East European Studies_, Harrogate, 1990. ed.
J.D. Morison (London and New York: The Macmillan Press and St. Martin's
Press, 1992), pp. 102-128]
http://www3.sympatico.ca/thidas/Hungarian-history/Velics.html

"Velics received first-hand information from Athens' city hall, the
Greek quisling government and the diplomatic corps, especially the
plenipotentiaries of Berlin and Rome, the representatives of the
International Red Cross and the office of Archbishop Damaskinos. The
mass of data he had received from these sources led him to the
inescapable conclusion that the prime responsibility for the famine
rested with Germany.

The Italians were not allowed into Athens when Velics wrote his first
report "On Starvation in Greece".(50) There was no bread in the German
occupied city and medicine was in short supply. Some of the provinces
had not received bread for forty to fifty days. There was no cooking
oil, rice or sugar to be found. The German army used up all the
reserves. Velics rejected the accusations levied against the British
that they were the ones who had exhausted the Greek reserves or had
shipped them out when they withdrew from Greece in April. In fact, the
ambassador wrote, the British furnished their own food when they were in
Greece and upon departure left behind some of their own supplies. The
prospects for the winter months were dark - mainly because of the extent
to which the Germans were robbing the Greeks. (51)

The Tsolakoglou government blamed the British, but pleaded with Rome and
Berlin; the Italians blamed the Germans and they appealed to the
International Red Cross for food; the Germans demanded action from the
Bulgarians and the Turks but privately held the Italians responsible for
the tragedy in Greece while they publicly blamed the British. The latter
did not consider they had a responsibility to feed an enemy-occupied
country.

At the urging of his representatives in Athens, Hitler eventually agreed
to a one time loan of 10,000 tonnes of wheat. According to the German
Field Marshal William von List, Greece needed ten to fifteen thousand
tonnes monthly. (51) Despite the urgency, the Germans did not agree to a
reduction in Greece's contribution to the high cost of occupation until
March 1942 when, for the first time, they halted the export of food from
Greece. (52) The Axis Powers allegedly sent 50,000 tonnes of food in the
previous eleven months to Greece; a number validly doubted by Velics.
Little aid came from the Axis in the winter of 1941. In January the
ambassador wrote to his prime minister: "The garbage trucks move
hundreds of corps to mass graves." -- "During the Greco-Italian War,
Radio Berlin told the Greeks not to dig air shelters but graves for
themselves. Alas, that is where we are to-day." -- "For God's sake,
let's help this dying nation!" (53) While others provided significant
relief, the occupiers kept removing foodstuff from Greece. (54) In 1942
the supplies which arrived from Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary were
minimal and were partly lost because of mismanagement and pilfering.
(55) Velics appealed for Hungarian aid several times, but since
Hungary's agricultural surpluses were committed to the German war
machine the Hungarian government was able to make only a token
contribution. (56)

In October 1941 Velics learnt of the fate of American food shipments.
When the Greeks of the United States sent their first aid package via
the Red Sea to Greece, the food supply was re-routed. The Italians
negotiated an arrangement with the International Red Cross (IRC)
according to which the food from America was handed over to the starving
Italian population of Erithria. In compensation Italy promised to ship
canned milk to Greece. A second American shipment of 700 tonnes of
flour, canned food and medicine was also re-directed to Erithria. This
time the IRC attached no conditions to the transfer but sent a general
request to Rome to compensate the Greeks. The IRC also obtained
safe-conduct certification from the British, the Germans and the
Italians for a Turkish shipment of 1,200 tonnes of food. Velics was also
aware of the efforts of the Vatican to obtain the wheat from Australia,
which was paid for by the pre-occupation Greek government. (57) The
Vatican failed to negotiate the deal, and the Apostolic Delegate
Roncalli blamed the British. Velics passed no moral judgement at this
time. (58)

The following month he signalled the arrival of food from many
countries, including some of the goods purchased by the pre-occupational
government from Australia. Then he added: "The occupiers are still
taking food out of Greece." (59) The crisis was over by September 1942
with the regular arrival of Canadian wheat shipments. The Germans were
cooperating and sent some wheat from the Banat. But it was the Canadian
donation that mattered because whenever there were delays in shipment
the bread rations of the Greeks were immediately reduced. (60) The high
cost of the occupation caused inflation and the economic devastation of
Greece; the daily survival of the masses depended, stated Velics in
August 1943, on the generosity of Canadians. (61) On 2 April 1942 he
listed the causes of the Greek food supply tragedy: occupation, decline
of food production, the state of transport, shortage of energy and poor
organization. (62)"

N.B. For literature cited above please refer to
http://www3.sympatico.ca/thidas/Hungarian-history/Velics.html

----

Christos D. Katsetos




George Gedeon wrote:

> People in large urban areas suffered the most. Between 300,000 and
> 500,000 died directly or indirectly due to the famine (sorry about the
> 200,000 discrepancy but historians are still arguing about the exact
> numbers). Germans "officially" assisted the Greek Occupation
> authorities to distribute food but also plundered the countryside.
> Most imports were stopped due to Allied bombardments of ships coming
> into Greece. Finally they were forced by international opinion and the
> Greek Diaspora to make exceptions for ships from neutral countries.
> Sweden and Turkey provided transportation and perhaps food as did
> Canada with wheat and the US thanks to the American Greeks and the
> Roosevelts.Greek farmers outside Athens made it also difficult by
> refusing to co-operate with the embarrassing Quisling authorities in
> the capital. Ironically, if not for the blackmarketeers, many more
> people would have starved. It was THE WORST FAMINE IN WW2 EUROPE.
>
>      ----- Original Message -----
>      From: acadbury
>      To: mgsa
>      Sent: December 22, 2003 2:08 PM
>      Subject: [MGSA-L] Food during the Occupation
>       A fine thing to research during this season of excess and
>      jollity. However...I am interested in how people survived
>      during the Occupation. (I am well aware that many did not).
>      I have a few stories from "my" village but people don't like
>      to talk about it. I'm referring to foods--wild or cultivated
>      plants, fish or seafood, whatever--traded, stolen,
>      smuggled,  hoarded, hidden. One villager who finally
>      understood what I meant when I was trying to track down
>      bulgar wheat, said, "Oh, we ate virtually nothing else
>      during the Occupation, so no one wants to ever see it
>      again." I was surprised the Germans allowed them to keep the
>      wheat. Kala Hristouyenna! AC
>
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