Dimitrios Varvaritis
Research Fellow (10/2016-08/2017)
Antisemitic Discourses in Greece After the Shoah, 1944–1949
Following the end of the Axis Occupation of Greece, those Greek Jews that survived the Shoah faced, like their coreligionists in the rest of Europe, a host of pressing issues as they attempted to rebuild their lives: Securing accommodation and employment, reclaiming confiscated property, and dealing with the sorrow directly related to the loss of family and the destruction of communities. In confronting these challenges, many Jews also faced the indifference – if not the outright hostility and antisemitism – of the broader Greek population. This research project aims to document and critically examine the numerous manifestations of antisemitism in the period encompassing the Allied Liberation of Greece (1944) through to the end of the Greek Civil War (1949). In examining these manifestations, it also seeks to assess how post-Shoah antisemitism was related, if at all, to previous cases of Greek antisemitism and, finally, to what extent factors such as locality and national politics played a role, if at all, in their occurrence.
Dimitrios Varvaritis studied Law at the University of Sydney and History at the University of London. He gained his PhD in History from Kings College London. His main research interests focus primarily on the history of Jewish/non-Jewish relations in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean world. He has contributed to the edited volume Sephardi Lives: A documentary history 1700–1950, Stanford 2014.