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“Like we would help brothers or sisters”? Practising Solidarity with Greek Civil War Refugees in Socialist Czechoslovakia and the GDR in the Shadow of World War II

Part of: Special Issue: Everyday Internationalism: Socialist-South Connections and Mass Culture during the Cold War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2024

Nikola Tohma Open the ORCID record for Nikola Tohma [Opens in a new window]  and
Julia Reinke Open the ORCID record for Julia Reinke [Opens in a new window]
Nikola Tohma*
Affiliation:
Masaryk Institute and Archives, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Julia Reinke
Affiliation:
Masaryk Institute and Archives, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
*
Corresponding author: Nikola Tohma; E-mail: tohma@mua.cas.cz
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Abstract

This article investigates the solidarity campaigns supporting refugees from the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) in post-war Czechoslovakia and the emerging German Democratic Republic. Framed as an important bridge between the interwar and later Cold War forms of socialist internationalism, this case sheds light on its transitory character, revealing the narrative shift from anti-fascist to anti-imperialist contexts and the increasingly institutionalized and ritualized solidarity. Thus, not only was practising solidarity already an integral part of post-war socialist regimes, but it also served a variety of functions, contributing to the legitimization and identity of the Eastern bloc. Based on archival documents and press, the article uncovers the deployment of analogical institutional structures employed by both states, thus opening up the sphere of interaction with their citizens, mobilized to become involved in various ways. The two countries, however, departed from different positions, dealing with opposing legacies of the wartime experience, which influenced the motivations employed in their campaigns. Entangled in discourses of guilt, heroism, and victimhood, yet aligned under the proclaimed values of socialist brotherhood and anti-fascism, building internationalist solidarity in both countries worked alongside and even boosted attempts to overcome the obstacle of the Nazi past, both internally and in their mutual relationship. This article thus contributes to a better understanding of how internationalist solidarity functioned as a platform to build bridges – not only towards the “South”, but also within the Eastern bloc.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 69 , Special Issue S32: Everyday Internationalism: Socialist-South Connections and Mass Culture during the Cold War , April 2024 , pp. 13 - 41
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

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Footnotes

*

This article was written as part of the ERC Consolidator project “Unlikely Refuge? Refugees and Citizens in East-Central Europe in the 20th century” under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 819461).

References

1 Report and all quotes from “Solidarisch mit dem Freien Griechenland. Eindrucksvolles Bekenntnis der griechischen Freiheitskämpfer zum Frieden”, Neues Deutschland, 1 February 1949, no. 26, p. 2.

2 “V Řecku jde o demokracii a mír celého světa”, Rudé právo, 29 March 1947.

3 Ibid.

4 Betts, Paul, Ruin and Renewal: Civilising Europe after the Second World War (London, 2020), pp. 236, 239Google Scholar.

5 The exact mechanisms for regulating the distribution and reception of refugees on the transnational level have not yet been sufficiently determined by scholarship; such work has been complicated by the unavailability of sources and the obstacles to accessibility of especially Soviet archives. Concerning the general parameters of the international intervention on behalf of Greece or the Greek communists, see, for instance, Nachmani, Amikam, International Intervention in the Greek Civil War: The United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, 1947–1952 (New York, 1990)Google Scholar; and Marantzidis, Nikos and Tsivos, Kostas, O ellinikos emfylios kai to diethnes kommounistiko systima (Athens, 2012)Google Scholar; regarding the KKE's vision of socialist Greece, see Karpozilos, Kostis, “The Defeated of the Greek Civil War: From Fighters to Political Refugees in the Cold War”, Journal of Cold War Studies, 16:3 (2014), pp. 62–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Weiss, Holger (ed.), International Communism and Transnational Solidarity: Radical Networks, Mass Movements and Global Politics, 1919–1939 (Boston, MA, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kirschenbaum, Lisa A., International Communism and the Spanish Civil War (Cambridge, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Hong, Young-Sun, Cold War Germany, the Third World, and the Global Humanitarian Regime (New York, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 This article uses various expressions to describe the refugees from the Greek Civil War that are either neutral or follow historical narratives. At this point, we would like to emphasize that the refugee group was heterogeneous in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity, with most of the refugees being either Greek speaking or Slavic speaking (Macedonian). However, for the purpose of simplicity, we mostly refer to them as “Greek”, pointing to the country of their origin rather than their ethnicity.

9 For a broader approach, see Danforth, Loring M. and Boeschoten, Riki van, Children of the Greek Civil War: Refugees and the Politics of Memory (Chicago, IL, 2012)Google Scholar; Tsekou, Katerina, Ellines politikoi prosfyges stin Anatoliki Evropi, 1945–1989 (Athens, 2013)Google Scholar; for the “fragmented and multi-language studies”, see also Stefan Troebst, “‘Grieche ohne Heimat’. Hellenische Bürgerkriegsflüchtlinge in der DDR 1949–1989”, in Katarzyna Stokłosa and Stefan Troebst (eds), Fluchtpunkt Realsozialismus. Politische Emigration in Warschauer Pakt-Staaten, special issue of Journal of Totalitarianism and Democracy, 2:2 (2005), pp. 245–271, 247.

10 Weis, Toni, “The Politics Machine: On the Concept of ‘Solidarity’ in East German Support for SWAPO”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 37:2 (2011), pp. 351–367, 355CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 See, for instance, Zdenko Maršálek and Emil Voráček, Interbrigadisté, Československo a španělská občanská válka (Prague, 2017); Magdaléna Leichtová and Linda Piknerová, Rozvojová spolupráce východního bloku v době studené války (Prague, 2013); Ondřej Klípa, “Disenchanting Socialist Internationalism: Polish Workers in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, 1962−91”, Journal of Contemporary History, 57:2 (2022), pp. 455–478.

12 Pavel Hradečný, “Příchod dětí z Řecka do Československa. Únos, nebo záchrana”, in idem, Řecká komunita v Československu. Její vznik a počáteční vývoj (1948–1954) (Prague, 2000), pp. 24–37; idem, “Zdrženlivý internacionalismus. Občanská válka v Řecku a československá materiální pomoc Demokratické armádě Řecka”, Soudobé dějiny, 10:1–2 (2003), pp. 58–92; Kostas Tsivos, “O megalos kaymos tis xeniteias …”. Ellines politikoi prosfyges stin Tsechoslovakia, 1948–1989 (Athens, 2019).

13 Conference of the Volkssolidarität of the SBZ, Weimar, 3 September 1949, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde (hereafter BArch) DY 67/2, Geschichte der Volkssolidarität, 1949–1950, p. 11.

14 For the most recent, yet rather unsatisfactory contribution, see Maria Panoussi, Politisches Exil. Die griechischen politischen Immigranten in der SBZ/DDR (1949–1982): Identität, Wahrnehmung und gesellschaftliche Partizipation (Hamburg, 2017). At the most, Patrice G. Poutrus has briefly discussed this case against GDR internationalism, focusing mainly on its limits and without particular attention to the solidarity campaign connected to the refugee reception; see Patrice G. Poutrus, “Zwischen Internationalismus und Assimilation. Griechische ‘politische Emigranten’ in der DDR”, in Marco Hillemann and Miltos Pechlivanos (eds), Deutsch-griechische Beziehungen im ostdeutschen Staatssozialismus (1949–1989). Politische Migration, Realpolitik und interkulturelle Begegnung (Berlin, 2017), pp. 61–75.

15 See, for example, Frank Bösch, “Internationale Solidarität im geteilten Deutschland. Konzepte und Praktiken”, in Frank Bösch, Caroline Moine, and Stefanie Senger (eds), Internationale Solidarität. Globales Engagement in der Bundesrepublik und der DDR (Göttingen, 2018), pp. 7–34, passim; see also Dietmar Süß and Cornelius Torp, Solidarität. Vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Corona-Krise (Bonn, 2021), pp. 92–96; Detlev Brunner, “DDR ‘transnational’. Die ‘internationale Solidarität’ der DDR” (Göttingen, 2015), pp. 64–80.

16 Achim Reichhardt, Nie vergessen. Solidarität üben! Die Solidaritätsbewegung in der DDR (Berlin, 2006), pp. 38–44. Interestingly, he even points to the allegedly exclusively “national character” of East German solidarity in the immediate post-war period, thus completely omitting the case of refugees from Greece; see pp. 37f.

17 For examples focusing on and thus emphasizing this period, see Gregory Witkowski, “Between Fighters and Beggars: Socialist Philanthropy and the Imagery of Solidarity in East Germany”, in Quinn Slobodian (ed.), Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold War World (New York [etc.], 2015), pp. 73–94; and Katrina Hagen, “Ambivalence and Desire in the East German ‘Free Angela Davis’ Campaign”, in Slobodian, Comrades of Color, pp. 157–187. Most recently, and with explicit focus on the Global South, see Jörg Ganzenmüller and Franz-Josef Schlichting (eds), Die DDR und der Globale Süden. Zwischen “internationaler Solidarität”, wirtschaftlicher Zusammenarbeit und Auslandsspionage (Weimar, 2022).

18 Pavel Kolář, “Transnational and Global History and the Study of Communism”, Divinatio, 44 (2017), pp. 31–40, 32.

19 Quotes taken from the title of Franz Sikora, Sozialistische Solidarität und nationale Interessen. Polen, Tschechoslowakei, DDR (Cologne, 1977), cited according to Volker Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft im Wandel. Die Beziehungen zwischen der SBZ/DDR und der Tschechoslowakei (1945–1969) (Essen, 2010), p. 15. For a discussion of the previous historiography and its limits, see Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft, pp. 9–23.

20 Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft, pp. 33–52.

21 Ibid., pp. 82, 95.

22 See Andreas Kossert, Kalte Heimat. Die Geschichte der deutschen Vertriebenen nach 1945 (Munich, 2008), p. 196.

23 Considering the difficulties with documentation, some estimates even range as high as 70,000–100,000 refugees; see Troebst, “‘Grieche ohne Heimat”, pp. 246–249.

24 Danforth and Van Boeschoten, Children of the Greek Civil War, pp. 46–49; Tsekou, Ellines politikoi prosfyges stin Anatoliki Europi, pp. 86, 188.

25 For an overview for the GDR, see Patrice G. Poutrus, Umkämpftes Asyl. Vom Nachkriegsdeutschland bis in die Gegenwart (Berlin, 2020), pp. 103–159; for Czechoslovakia, see Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Z Prahy proti Titovi! Jugoslávská prosovětská emigrace v Československu (Prague, 2012).

26 Kateřina Králová and Konstantinos Tsivos (eds), Vyschly nám slzy. Řečtí uprchlíci v Československu (Prague, 2012), p. 42.

27 Stefan Troebst, “Die ‘Griechenlandkinder-Aktion’ 1949/1950. Die SED und die Aufnahme minderjähriger Bürgerkriegsflüchtlinge aus Griechenland in der SBZ/DDR” (2004), republished in idem, Zwischen Arktis, Adria und Armenien. Das östliche Europa und seine Ränder: Aufsätze, Essays und Vorträge 1983–2016, vol. LIII (Cologne [etc.], 2017), pp. 257–280, 271; the commonly cited 800 is probably the roughly rounded-up figure of 720 children and teenagers, accompanied by Greek teachers and educators.

28 Antula Botu and Milan Konečný, Řečtí uprchlíci. Kronika řeckého lidu v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku 1948–1989 (Prague, 2005), pp. 11–17.

29 Protocol no. 109 (II), BArch, DY 30/ IV 2/2.1/230 [digitalized copy under the old signature (new signature: DY 30/41936)], 14 September 1948, p. 2.

30 Report on the work of the Relief Committees for Democratic Greece until January 1949, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120 [digitalized copy under the old signature (new signature: DY 30/67889)], p. 9.

31 Hong, Cold War Germany, p. 155.

32 Report on the care provided by the Ministry of Education, Science and Arts to the child refugees from Korea, NACR 315/2 ÚPV-T, k. 558.

33 Report on the transfer of education and material provision of Korean and Greek children to the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, 6 December 1954, NACR 315/2 ÚPV-T, k. 1605.

34 For an overview, see Günter Braun, “Volkssolidarität”, in Martin Broszat and Hermann Weber (eds), SBZ-Handbuch. Staatliche Verwaltungen, Parteien, gesellschaftliche Organisationen und ihre Führungskräffte in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands, 1945–1949 (Munich, 1990), pp. 793–798. For a contemporary account on self-conception and objectives, see Zentralausschuß der Volkssolidarität (ed.), 5 Jahre Volkssolidarität. Ein soziales Friedenswerk (Berlin, 1950), especially pp. 3–6, 12–14. From its very beginnings, the Volkssolidarität made a point of emphasizing that it was not “an old-style charity” (p. 4), stressing instead – as its name suggests – solidarity and mutual self-help.

35 See Troebst, “Griechenlandkinder-Aktion”, pp. 270f.

36 Note on a meeting of VS representatives with the Saxon Ministry of Education, Radebeul bei Dresden, 16 June 1950, Sächsisches Staatsarchiv – Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (hereafter SächsStA-D), 11401 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Volksbildung, no. 494.

37 “Čs. ženy proti popravám v Řecku”, Lidové Noviny, 17 December 1948.

38 “Řecká vláda žalářuje vědce a spisovatele”, Práce, 11 December 1947.

39 “Pomáháme Řecku”, Rudé Právo, 16 April 1947.

40 “Korespondence”, MZA Brno, B 280 ZNV Brno, k. 4530.

41 For Czechoslovakia, see “Za vítězství řeckého lidu”, Svobodné Slovo, 3 April 1948; see also “Jednota a solidarita”, Lidová Demokracie, 9 June 1948.

42 Artur Hofmann, according to the minutes of the founding conference of the “Greece-Relief Committee” in Dresden, 7 December 1948, SächsStA-D, 11856 SED-Landesleitung Sachsen, no. A/0325, p. 4.

43 [Karl] Stenzel, Report about the meeting of secretaries of the regional relief committees with the central board of the Relief Committee for Democratic Greece, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, pp. 1–12.

44 Richard Gladewitz, according to the minutes of the founding conference, 7 December 1948, SächsStA-D, 11856 SED-Landesleitung Sachsen, no. A/0325, p. 1.

45 Correspondence of the Czechoslovak–Greek Society (1948), National Archives of the Czech Republic (NACR) 1169 ČSČK, k. 10.

46 Ibid.

47 Frau Pfennig, as reported in the Minutes of the founding conference, 7 December 1948, SächsStA-D, 11856 SED-Landesleitung Sachsen, no. A/0325, p. 5.

48 See, for instance, Report on the work of the Relief Committees, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, p. 6.

49 Call of the FDJ company's youth group of the Saxon state administration, 25 October 1948, SächsStA-D, 11401 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Volksbildung, no. 2228.

50 “Zehn Jahre Befreiungskampf in Griechenland”, Sächsische Zeitung, 2 October 1951, p. 8.

51 Ibid.

52 Correspondence of the Czechoslovak–Greek Society (1948), NACR, 1169 ČSČK, k. 10.

53 Hong, Cold War Germany, p. 146.

54 Report about the activity of the Saxon Relief Committee for August and September 1949, 10 October 1949, SächsStA-D, 11393 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung, no. 054, p. 4.

55 Annual Report of the Relief Committee, Saxony, 31 December 1949, SächsStA-D, 11393 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung, no. 054, pp. 8f.

56 “Unsere ganze Liebe den griechischen Kindern”, Sächsische Zeitung, 22 June 1950, p. 6.

57 “Dětská kulturní brigáda svobodného Řecka”, Zemědělské noviny, 28 April 1949.

58 Report about the activity of the Saxon Relief Committee for August and September 1949, 10 October 1949, SächsStA-D, 11393 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung, no. 054, p. 4.

59 See also “‘Die weite Welt’ in der kleinen DDR” in Brunner, “DDR ‘transnational’”, pp. 77–80, for similar performances, specifically p. 80.

60 Brunner, “DDR ‘transnational’”, p. 80.

61 Darko Gavrilović and Vjekoslav Perica (eds), Political Myths in the Former Yugoslavia and Successor States: A Shared Narrative (Dordrecht, 2011); Margaret Poulos, “Gender, Civil War and National Identity: Women Partisans during the Greek Civil War 1946–1949”, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 46:3 (2000), pp. 418–427.

62 Proclamation of the Relief Committee for Democratic Greece, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, p. 1.

63 “Manifestace pro svobodné Řecko”, Svobodné Noviny, 29 March 1947.

64 Regarding the significance of martyrdom in the memory of World War II and the Greek Civil War, see Joanna Wawrzyniak, Veterans, Victims, and Memory: The Politics of the Second World War in Communist Poland, Studies in Contemporary History, vol. 4 (Frankfurt am Main, 2015); and Nikola Tohma, “The Role of Martyrdom and Victimhood in the Memory of the Greek Civil War Refugees in Czechoslovakia through the Prism of ‘Refugee’ Literature”, Journal of Modern European History, forthcoming.

65 “Otřásající moták ze soluňského vězení”, Práce, 22 January 1947.

66 “Protest proti rozsudku smrti nad šéfredaktorem Glezosem”, Rudé Právo, 31 March 1949; “Pro pomoc demokratickému Řecku a proti běsnění monarchofašistické vlády”, Právo Lidu, 18 June 1948.

67 “The Dawn of a Brighter Day”, Czechoslovak Life, 1 August 1949, p. 30.

68 Irma Nawrotzki and Peter Lefhold, “Die faschistischen Mörder landen auf dem Schafott”, Neues Deutschland, 30 September 1949, no. 229, p. 4.

69 Nawrotzki and Lefhold, “Die faschistischen Mörder”.

70 For instance, Patrice G. Poutrus, “Die DDR als ‘Hort der internationalen Solidarität’. Ausländer in der DDR”, in Thomas Großbölting (ed.), Friedensstaat, Leseland, Sportnation? DDR-Legenden auf dem Prüfstand (Berlin, 2009), pp. 134–154, especially 135.

71 See Andreas Stergiou, “Der griechische Bürgerkrieg, seine Nachwirkungen und die Rolle der DDR”, Thetis, 8 (2001), pp. 239–256, 243.

72 For example, “Zehn Jahre Befreiungskampf in Griechenland”, Sächsische Zeitung, 2 October 1951, p. 8.

73 See Christoph Wunnicke, Die Blockparteien der DDR. Kontinuitäten und Transformation 1945–1989 (Berlin, 2014), pp. 112–118.

74 Official Statement of the NDPD on the Relief Committee, 25 January 1949, BArch DY 16/1044, NDPD “Hilfskomitee für das demokratische Griechenland, 1949”.

75 “Mahnung und Ansporn. Griechische Gäste im Kulturbund”, Neues Deutschland, 30 January 1949, no. 25, p. 7.

76 “Za vítězství řeckého lidu”, Svobodné Slovo, 3 April 1948.

77 “V Řecku jde o demokracii a mír celého světa”.

78 “Za vítězství řeckého lidu”.

79 Plan for educational work with Greek and Macedonian children during holidays in homes and camps of recovery care, 2 August 1951, NACR 1261/2/KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Sv. 147, a.j. 582.

80 “Pro pomoc demokratickému Řecku a proti běsnění monarchofašistické vlády”.

81 For the conceptualization of children as “quintessential victims”, see Tara Zahra, The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe's Families after World War II (Cambridge, MA [etc.], 2011), pp. 24–58.

82 “Deset tisíc dětí přijede do ČSR”, Mladá Fronta, 10 April 1948.

83 “Transport nejsmutnější”, Svobodné Noviny, 26 April 1948.

84 Correspondence of the Czechoslovak–Greek Society (1948), NACR 1169 ČSČK, k. 10.

85 Libuše Hanušová, “Neboť svět patří dětem”, Národní Osvobození, 10 June 1948.

86 “Sorgt dafür, daß Frieden wird!”, Sächsische Zeitung, 9 January 1951, p. 4. For the practice of presenting German children as – more or less direct – victims of Nazi rule in order to create some common ground for rapprochement, see also Marína Zavacká, “Freund oder Feind? Der loyale junge tschechoslowakische Bürger und ‘der Deutsche’ in den Jahren 1948–1956”, in Volker Zimmermann, Peter Haslinger, and Tomáš Nigrin (eds), Loyalitäten im Staatssozialismus. DDR, Tschechoslowakei, Polen (Marburg, 2010), pp. 134–159, 143f.

87 See Gilad Margalit, “Der Luftangriff auf Dresden. Seine Bedeutung für die Erinnerungspolitik der DDR und für die Herauskristallisierung einer historischen Kriegserinnerung im Westen”, in Susanne Düwell and Mathias Schmidt (eds), Narrative der Shoah. Repräsentationen der Vergangenheit in Historiographie, Kunst und Politik (Paderborn [etc.], 2002), pp. 189–207.

88 “Sorgt dafür, daß Frieden wird!”.

89 Poutrus, “Hort der internationalen Solidarität”, p. 136.

90 [Karl] Stenzel, Report about the meeting of secretaries of the regional relief committees with the central board of the Relief Committee for Democratic Greece, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, p. 2.

91 See Poutrus, “Hort der internationalen Solidarität”, p. 136.

92 “Betreuen, wie unsere eigenen Kinder”, Sächsische Zeitung, 9 August 1949, p. 3.

93 Minutes of a meeting of the Saxon Relief Committee, 9 March 1949, SächsStA-D, 11393 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung, no. 054.

94 Report on the work of the Relief Committees, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, pp. 1, 6.

95 Report about the activity of the [Saxon] Relief Committee for August and September 1949, 10 October 1949, SächsStA-D, 11393 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung, no. 054, p. 4.

96 Jiří Beneš, “Řekněte. Athény: Ozve se smrt”, Práce, 3 August 1947.

97 Plan for educational work with Greek and Macedonian children during holidays in homes and camps of recovery care, 2 August 1951, NACR 1261/2/KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Sv. 147, a.j. 582.

98 Péter Apor and James Mark, “Homefront”, in James Mark and Paul Betts (eds), Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation (Oxford, 2022), pp. 318–357, 322.

99 Proclamation of the Relief Committee for Democratic Greece, BArch DY 30 IV 2/2.022/120, p. 1.

100 Call of the FDJ company's youth group of the Saxon state administration, 25 October 1948, SächsStA-D, 11401 Landesregierung Sachsen, Ministerium für Volksbildung, no. 2228.

101 Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft, p. 179.

102 Ibid., p. 180.

103 For Czechoslovak mistrust of Germans due to the historical background, see ibid., especially pp. 107 and 177–188.

104 Ibid., pp. 81–102.

105 A letter by the representatives of the KKE in Czechoslovakia for the CC KSČ, NACR 1261/2 KSČ-ÚV-100/3, Sv. 140, a.j. 548.

106 Record of the Stay of Comrade Nikos Zachariadis, the Secretary General of the KKE in Czechoslovakia during 3–7 January 1955, NACR 1261/2/KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Sv. 143, a.j. 554.

107 Anna Maria Droumpouki, “Trivialization of World War Two and Shoah in Greece: Uses, Misuses and Analogies in Light of the Current Debt Crisis”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 21:2 (2013), pp. 190–201; as well as her more recent article “Shaping Holocaust Memory in Greece: Memorials and Their Public History”, National Identities, 18:2 (2016), pp. 199–216.

108 Plan for educational work with Greek and Macedonian children during holidays in homes and camps of recovery care, 2 August 1951, NACR 1261/2/KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Sv. 147, a.j. 582.

109 Ibid.

110 Asylum request by Nicolas Galanis, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 April 1958, NACR 1261/2/KSČ-ÚV-100/3, Sv. 145 a.j. 567.

111 Report on the visit of Greek deputies in Czechoslovakia, NACR 1261/66/KSČ-ÚV-AN II, k. 177, a.j. 18.

112 Fritz Große as reported in the minutes of the founding conference, 7 December 1948, SächsStA-D, 11856 SED-Landesleitung Sachsen, no.A/0325, p. 3.

113 See Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft, pp. 93f.

114 Fritz Große as reported in the minutes of the founding conference, 7 December 1948, SächsStA-D, 11856 SED-Landesleitung Sachsen, no. A/0325, p. 3.

115 For instance, see a brief note about the founding of a relief committee in Hungary, mentioning Hungarian workers donating part of their wages for the “Democratic Greece”, Neues Deutschland, 25 December 1947, no. 301, p. 2; or the brief mention on the front page that the “Czechoslovak–Greek Society” invites “10,000 Greek children […] into Czechoslovakia for recovering”, Neues Deutschland, 1 April 1948, no. 75.

116 “Kinder der verbrannten Erde”, Neues Deutschland, 24 September 1949.

117 “Das deutsche Volk steht nicht mehr allein”, Berliner Zeitung, 27 January 1949, no. 22, title page.

118 Report on Inquiries of the Diplomatic Mission of the Czechoslovak Republic, undated [December 1953], Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Ministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, M1 A 2.447, p. 4.

119 A letter from the Greek Apprentice Home Grammos from May 1955, NACR 1261/2 KSČ-ÚV-100/3, Sv. 140, a.j. 548.

120 Zimmermann, Eine sozialistische Freundschaft, p. 88.

121 Hong, Cold War Germany, pp. 153f.