Relocating children during the greek civil war, 1946-9: State strategies and propaganda

Abstract

The experience of total war in Greece during the 1940s had enormous implications for almost all groups in society, including children. Children participated in various ways both in the Second World War and the ensuing Civil War: as active members of the leftist guerrillas; as orphans or minors without a guardian, moving from place to place in search of food and shelter; as political prisoners either of the occupying armies or, afterwards, of the national Greek authorities; as evacuees either of the Athens government or of the communist guerrillas to encampments, far away from their families and their homes; and as a special recipient group of propaganda by both sides of the civil strife.