The Worst Times Are Not Yet Over: Jewish Life in Post-War Greece, 1944-1949

• Applicant: Dr. Anna Maria Droumpouki, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493583555

The Shoah claimed the lives of over 85% of Greece’s Jews, a percentage among the highest in the continent. As elsewhere in liberated Europe, the c. 10,000 survivors initially found themselves in dire straits. Whether emerging from hiding, from participation in the resistance movement, or returning from the death camps, they had to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and the destruction of cultural capital, deal with the confiscation of assets and the expropriation of property and choose between rebuilding their shattered lives in their homeland or seek better fortunes abroad.The Jewish presence in Greece in the wake of the Holocaust by and large constitutes terra incognita. Following a holistic and interdependent approach that connects the destruction of Greek Jewry with its (re)making, integrates the survivors’ voices and weaves their stories into the analysis, the project examines how the Shoah and its consequences and legacies impacted on their lives, amidst a changing national and international environment, and map the choices they made and the paths they followed at the collective and individual level.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants