"The destruction of the Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki, then the largest in Europe, began in December 1942. This article is the first to deal with the actual destruction, a unique event in occupied Europe. It discusses the main actors behind this decision, the process of the destruction, as well as the subsequent use of the tombstones and the land. As such, this event is an ideal case study to describe the triangular relationship between the city’s Jews, the German occupation forces, and the local Greek elites, on the eve of the deportations. Using never before published documents from a wide variety of...
"This book shares the conclusions of a remarkable conference marking the centennial of Thessaloniki's incorporation in the Greek state in 1912. Like its Roman and Byzantine predecessors, Ottoman Salonica was the metropolis of a huge, multi-ethnic Balkan hinterland, a center of modernization/westernization, and the de facto capital of Sephardic Judaism. The powerful attraction it exerted on competing local nationalisms, including the Young Turks, gave it a paradigmatic role in the transition from imperial to national rule in southeastern Europe. Twenty-three articles cover the multicultural physiognomy of a...
"This book deals with the Second World War in Southeastern Europe from the perspective of conditions on the ground during the conflict. The focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious groups in wartime, on the 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' dynamics of mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust. The approach breaks with the national narratives and 'top-down' political and military histories that continue to be the predominant paradigms for World War Two in this part of Europe".
"This anthology brings together eight chapters which examine the life of Jews in Southeast Europe through political, social and cultural lenses. Even though the Holocaust put an end to many communities in the region, this book chronicles how some Holocaust survivors nevertheless tried to restore their previous lives.
Focusing on the once flourishing and colorful Jewish communities throughout the Balkans – many of which were organized according to the Ottoman millet system – this book provides a diverse range of insights into Jewish life and Jewish-Gentile relations in what became Greece, Yugoslavia,...
"This study by. Heinz A. Richter describes the developments of the German-Greek relations from 1940 to 1960 focusing on the role of Max Merten, a military official during the German occupation of Greece, whose arrest in 1957 and release in 1959 despite a twenty-five year prison sentence, has long been the subject of speculation and conjecture. Richter begins with the occupation of Greece and the organizational structures of the German army in Greece. It analyses the functions and competences of a "Kriegsverwaltungsrat" which was the function of Max Merten. In 1943, Merten was confronted with the deportations of...