Yesterday was a Greek national holiday, which is also celebrated in Cyprus and Greek-speaking communities around the world. It’s also a religious holiday in the Greek Orthodox Church. The occasion is Oxi Day.
"Oxi" (pronounced O-khee) means "No" in Greek. It is the anniversary of the day that the Greek government said "No" – first to Mussolini and then to Hitler – to the ultimatum that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified "strategic locations" or otherwise face war.
At dawn on October 28, 1940, Mussolini issued the ultimatum via the Italian ambassador to Greece. The then-prime minister, Ioannis Metaxas replied, "Then it is war." That morning the Greek population – regardless of political affiliation - took to the streets, shouting "Oxi!" Since 1942 this day has been referred to as Oxi Day. During the Second World War Greek populations around the world commemorated the day, and after the war it was declared a national holiday in Greece.
To understand the significance of Oxi Day it’s necessary to understand the conditions in Europe and in Greece at the time of the "No." The Axis Powers had given such an ultimatum by that time to many European countries. Most of Europe by this date was occupied by Axis powers. Italy had already crossed into Greece’s neighbor, Albania, and so Mussolini’s forces were prepared to enter into Greece. Greece, a poor country, was less prepared for war than much of Europe had been. But, the sentiment of the population – given its history both ancient and modern – was to be defiant nevertheless.
Eventually Italy invaded and remarkably, the Greek forces – both the professional army and partisan volunteers - defeated Mussolini’s superior army. After four months, they were forced to retreat to Albania. This was the first land defeat of Axis powers. To put things in a very tight nutshell, this defeat for the Axis forced Hitler to redirect his military to Greece, even though it would interfere with and delay his plans for the invasion of Russia. By April 1941 Greece became a battleground, and Allied forces had poured into the country. The Nazi invasion ended with the Battle of Crete, in which the population of the island (literally men, women and children of all ages) of Crete together with Allied Troops – mostly British Commonwealth - offered fierce resistance to the invasion. This was the first time in history in which invasion was attempted via airborne troops. The German elite airborne divisions suffered massive casualties – approximately 7,000 – and this strategy was scrapped by Hitler for the rest of the war.
After the first day, the Axis troops had suffered tremendous defeats, which unfortunately were lost over the next two days due to faulty Allied intelligence. Read more about the Battle of Crete here: http://en.wikipedia.org/... Traveling in Crete myself, I came across villages where buildings (such as the local church) looked surprisingly relatively "new" by comparison to most. When I asked about this, I was told that the male population had been shot and the old village razed due to local resistance during the war.
Greece was to suffer under Nazi occupation for the duration of the war, during which time the population continued to form resistance armies working with Allied forces. In addition to the casualties of warfare, there were thousands killed by reprisal, and over 300,000 people starved to death due to the occupation’s diversion of resources elsewhere.
The fate of the historical Jewish communities of Greece varied by region. In Thessalonica, a renowned center of Jewish life and culture generally formed by populations fleeing the Inquisition, and under Bulgarian occupation control, there was tremendous loss of life (over 90 percent), for many reasons - including the fact that the Jewish community generally lived in one district central to the Temple and so strategically was a tragically easy target. In Athens and the rest of until then-Italian occupied areas of Greece, the Greek police ignored orders to turn Jews over to the Nazi forces. The Athens police chief issued over 27,000 false identity papers to Jews. The Greek Orthodox Archbishop ordered his priests to ask their congregations to help the Jews, sent a strongly worded letter of protest to collaborationist & German authorities, and issued thousands of phony baptismal certificates to Jews. The Athens Temple membership list was burned so it could not be given to the Nazi authorities, the Grand Rabbi of Athens was smuggled out of the city by Greek resistance forces, and the general Jewish population of Athens (which traces its origins to ancient times) lived well-integrated with the Greek Orthodox population so a house-to-house identification was not possible by the Nazis. The Greek Orthodox church considered itself part of the resistance, and so for example, on the island of Zakynthos the Bishop and police chief, when asked to give the occupation forces the names of all Jews on the island, presented them with a list of two names – their own. Their names are at Yad Vashem today.
Perhaps most importantly, due to the resistance, Hitler’s planned invasion of Russia was delayed by six weeks. Therefore Axis invasion forces wound up at Stalingrad at the onset of the cold and the snow, instead of during the summer. For many historians, this occasion offered the first turning point of the war. Because a small population stood up, in contrast to most of Europe – and was defeated and suffered terribly – the eventual outcome of the war was changed.
Oxi Day is important to me today as I wonder about my own country and our population. Do we stand up and say no although the odds are against us? Do we play the smart card and go along to survive? This year it’s more important to me than ever, for reasons I don’t really completely understand. Maybe it’s just that despite what seems like Obama’s sure victory, for the first time I’m not so sure our population understands the importance of standing up for values – or where its true identity lies. I thought I’d share Oxi Day with DailyKos readers.