Other societies, and not ours, have matured and marched for the golden political decades of the reign through the moral respect of the end of World War II and the resistance of the peoples. Either as the great anti -fascist victoryEuropean Center Left, either for the center -right as the victory against human barbarism and as the victory over the Nazi law of race and blood, the Second World War formed a new deepest on which all social, human, even labor rights that characterized the concept of West was structured from 1945 to the present day.
Since 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites, the moral historical baton of the West shows, year after year, becoming increasingly weaker. The almighty but also omniscient (theoretically) economic capitalism, without any brake born by the perception of history, has been moving for more than three decades liberated from the “rival awe” of the old “existential” socialism. Of the oppressive system that, despite its absolutely inhumane functioning and despite the maximum production of fear in its nationals, continued to threaten the West politically and perhaps ideologically.
Forced (?) The west the ‘Existent’ socialism To take care of the welfare state, the safe public health and education of its peoples, who, along with the Jews of Europe from Nazism and the barbarism of genuine blood that has been fanatically fanatically imposed.
However, respect for the Allied victory, during the post -war decades, was not only in the West because of the fear of the left. It was mainly due to the generation of those leaders of the West who experienced and handled the horror of war for their peoples. De Gaulle; Churchill; Anteenauer and many more gave the baton among other things to Mitterrandto Cooleeven to the Elder Bush. Leaders who, along with the Cold War, took care of the (self) conviction that they were ethically structured by the victory of 1945. The victory in a war that obviously cannot be compared to anyone else, since the criterion was not the criterion of the territory.
History exams – History, either with capital Yiota or with a small Yiot, does not pass us through exams. Unfortunately, he considers our knowledge for granted and goes below by creating fermentations, developments, events and, above all, cultures in successive layers, often without vacuum.
For decades, discussions about whether World War II ended in Europe on May 8 in Westerners or May 9, according to the Soviets, dominated a given moral hub. In the last decades the celebration in the West has been cut. Gradually it disappears as students’ moral utensils. Becomes weak, an element of an indifferent past.
The societies of the West, due to the culture that was in place, grew up with the (frequent) virtues of their past. Something similar can happen to families who manage their past honestly. The story of the social framework we live in is no other thought. It is a given cut and a starting point that is constantly renewed, reaches not to think that the past does not need care. Fortunately or unfortunately for some, it needs and provides care and care.
The value of victory- respect for the Allied victory was mainly in place because of the generation of those Western leaders who, along with the Cold War, took care of the (self) belief that they were ethically structured by the victory of 1945.
History, either with yacht or with a small Yota, does not pass us through exams. Unfortunately, he considers our knowledge for granted and goes below by creating fermentations, developments, events and, above all, cultures in successive layers, often without vacuum.
Politics tends to cultivate its own – and for the benefit – attitudes. We live it daily in a West that on its own initiative is disintegrated, constantly wondering why its foundations that have depreciated and shot itself were disassembled.
We have learned, despite what we were told when the West politically defeated Sovietia, that unfortunately the market is not deregulated for the benefit of the citizens. They are now customers and their market only treats them as such and who withstands a completely unmapped future …
But are they not only the politicians (the market) who depreciate public memory, but also historians overlook it with only the interior of their guild?
Somehow, however, public memory needs a renewal of its language, otherwise political disagreements will give way to catastrophic wars, and we will think they are the same.
*Mr. Tasos Sakellaropoulos is a historian, responsible for the Benaki Museum’s Historical Archive.
The paradox of Greek memory
Antonis Clasis
The week passed by most European countries They celebrated the eighty -nineth anniversary From the end of World War II in Old Epirus, which has been the result of the unconditional tradition of Nazi Germany. Indeed, in many of them, the anniversary of the end of the war is an official national memory or public holiday.
But not in Greece, where no celebration It is not done on the occasion of the completion of the most devastating war that humanity has experienced. On the contrary, in our country we celebrate the beginning of the Greek participation in the armed conflict, which emerged due to the event of the Italian attack at dawn on October 28th.
On October 24, 1944, that is, just twelve days after the liberation of Athens, his government Georgiou Papandreou (which also included members of the EAM) declared the anniversary of the Italian invasion as a national holiday. Thus, on October 28, 1944, the first official celebration was held in the capital, which included a military parade before the Prime Minister. Why is Greece different from the rest of Europe? Why is it celebrating the beginning and not the completion of a war?
The first reason It has to do with the evolution of the Greek-Italian war of 1940-1941, which has been victorious For the Greek side. Even though, after the German invasion that began in April 1941, Greece was eventually degraded to the Axis forces, the effective reproduction of the Italians was proud of the Greeks, who wanted to remember that they had achieved the first military victory over a country. It is therefore not paradoxical that in the consciousness of the Greek people the October 28th was established in practice as a national anniversary before it was even defined as such by the Greek state. In 1941, the students of Athens, who gave the spontaneous celebration of the character of the ancient event, pioneered. Removing mobilizations on the occasion of October 28, coordinated by resistance organizations such as EPON and PEAN, both in 1942 and 1943.
The second reason It is not at all pleasant, as it relates to the dramatic turn that Greek history took shortly after the Axis forces were liberated. In most of Greece, the liberation took place in October 1944, that is, six months before the German capitulation. However, the Greek festivities did not last long. At the beginning of December, an armed conflict broke out in Athens between EAM forces (under the guidance of the KKE) and the government forces (supported by British military departments), which five weeks later resulted in the prevalence of the latter.
While for the rest of Europe, the end of World War II marked the beginning of a peaceful period, in the case of Greece the end of foreign occupation was combined with the challenge of a brother -in -law.
Even worse, in 1946 Greece rolled into the precipice of a bloody civil War, which lasted for three whole years, causing many human casualties and huge material disasters. Instead of dedicating themselves to reconstruction, the Greeks were committed to mutualizing. Thus, while for the rest of Europe, the end of World War II marked the beginning of a peaceful period, in the case of Greece the end of the foreign occupation was combined with the challenge of a brother -in -law that stated greatly in the place, and even at this time.
Nations prefer to celebrate the glorious moments of their history. So did the Greeks. The effective treatment of Italian aspiring conquerors was an act of bravery that made the Greeks rightly boast. The victories in the fields of the Albanian Front battles were founded in a climate of great unity and sympathy against the invaders (even if a dictator was in power). On the contrary, in May 1945 the Greeks were deeply divided and ready to interfere with.
In the environment of post -Greek Greece, even the reference to the national resistance at the time of the Occupation was subject to forced restrictions, which were linked to the fact that the defendants of the Civil War had starred in this resistance. If the national celebration was focused at the end of World War II, the reading of history would have to include what had happened in Greece during its time – but many of the winners of the civil war did not want to remember them because they were not necessary. The celebration of the Pericles Authority was, in this respect, a safer choice.
Mr. Antonis Klasis is an Associate Professor of Contemporary History and International Policy
In the Department of Political Science
and international relations of the University of Peloponnese.
