Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?
09:56 Share

This BBC podcast is supported .

by ads .

outside the U.

K.

On our news season of the hint economics of remarkable women or hero, top financial leaders shared their wisdom about the long fight for women and girls. People like Christine legal, president of the european central bank legal, was named by forbes as the number two most powerful women in the world.

I have insisted on having women at the table, and I have stood my ground in circles. Sometimes I was the .

only woman follow hero on apple or whatever. You get your podcast.

Looking for excitement, jump a casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere, play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play on your board today for chance to win. Anyway, once in is free to play experiences.

social game, play like never before. Go to champ ki know right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots, o lingo and more live the chAmbers life at chAmbers caso 点 com necessities eating plus。

Thanks for dow loading. The more or less forecast. This is the program that looks at some of the numbers in the news and in life. I'm Charlotte co. ald. On the twenty eight, the october greek people around the world celebrate all he day commemorating the rejection of an automated given by italy's dictator benito meli in nineteen and forty.

This rejection saw greece plunged into the second world war on the side, great britain and its eyes that the war in greece was brutal and cost many thousands of lives is not in question. But long time listener present cabinet got in touch from florida in the U. S. To ask about a claim on the washington, ohio day foundation website that says.

overall, one out of ten greeks gave their .

lives during world war two.

Is this number correct? Is IT right that ten percent of the greek population died in world war two? Let's start with the basic history. The second child war came degrees a little later than for other countries in europe.

Italy entered the war in nineteen forty on the side of head of in the arses and turned its army on greece in october of that year. What followed was months of grinding warfare amid the mountains and md of northern greece, with neither the italian nor greek armies gaining the upper hand. Then in march thousand nine hundred and forty one, the german army join the battle and the greeks were defeated.

The country was occupied, split between nazi german, fascist, italian and bulgarian territories. A terrible farmin hit the country in the winter of that year. Resistance fighters took to the hills with ferocious reprisals. Following their attacks, greek jews were taken to death camps in poland and murdered in one thousand nine hundred forty four with factis m in retreat across europe, the country was liberated.

As the eyes of the world focus on greece struggled to form a government food, the greatest passport of all arrives to feed the people, which has start for almost four years.

He was around this time, just after deliberation, that an attempt was made to estimate the cost to greece of the occupation at the .

very end of the, uh, second world war. The greek government set up ministry of reconstruction.

This is professor via lessor. He needed from newcastle university in the U. K.

And the minister was constant docia theis. And he wrote a series of publications trying to present to the world essentially how much greece suffered during the second world war in economic terms, in terms in demographic terms.

Real letter says these numbers had a clear motive to secure support for greek reconstruction. But dox ii artist did a pretty good job considering the .

circumstances. The only issue is that actually the word enough numbers for him to present something that absolutely precise or even accurate at times. And these numbers that he presented have been used pretty much by everyone without questioning them. And I have to say, I use them too, simply because there is nothing else available.

Some of the figures of these reports are more solid than others. For example, there is a census in nineteen forty. So you can be reasonably confident that the greek population before the war, with somewhere around seven point three million.

it's one of the most robust numbers and that we have.

So ten percent of a seven million population would be deaths of around seven hundred thousand. Let's start. We're looking at the military deaths.

The greek military recorded that nearly fourteen thousand people died fighting the italian, german and bug arian armies before the greeks were eventually defeated in nineteen forty one. This number is value robust. After that, the fog of war descends inside greece. The fastest occupiers were a ocie sly, suppressing internal decent. Within the ninety forty five report, they estimate tens of thousands of deaths in executions, massacres and reprisals.

Think of those deaths come to about hundred and fifty five thousand. According to.

on top of this, an estimated sixty thousand greek jews were deported and murdered in death camps outside the country. Added together, this comes to two hundred and fifteen thousand deaths in total.

And these numbers are outside approximately acceptable, even though some of them are estimates as well. Where the big problem is, is the farming deaths.

Now we need to be clear here. There was a horrific faring greece, starting in one thousand and forty one, following the ni Victory, the british navy enforced a blockade on greece, which stop food getting into the country. At the same time, the occupying forces, stoll food, stopped people moving around and destroyed the economy.

Tens of thousands died of hunger. But it's very hard to know how many. And the method used in this nineteen forty five report was not a good one.

Luxuria is used essentially the figures for athens. He extra pulau from those figures into the hole of the country. And this is definitely not an accurate estimate.

The famine was worse in the big cities like athos than other areas in greece. Rural areas were far less affected. So extrapolating from the rate of deaths in athens created an unrealistically large number, in this case, around two hundred and fifty thousand deaths, they said, that are even large estimates of the foreign death toll out where one comes from us. The earliest .

estimate of deaths during the farm incomes from baby programme that was broadcast in April of nineteen and forty two, and that refer to five hundred thousand deaths due to starvation and diseases. IT wouldn't have been .

possible in nineteen forty two to collect this kind of information. And with the war raging around the world, this is very likely to have been propaganda based on nothing more than anecdotes, but is stuck around. And this five hundred thousand figure is still occasionally quoted. The other car is rather more modern.

This is the black book of the occupation.

This document was produced in two thousand and six.

The people who produced this book essentially argue that germany needs to pay reparations for everything that happened in the second world war during the german occupation.

So another clear political motivation and no explanation for how they reach their number.

The six hundred thousand death due to farming and related diseases is a massive exaggeration.

Now the true death toll of the famine will never be known. But for her part, via letter, an expert on this area has attempted her own extrapolation.

My estimates came between hundred and thirteen thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand.

This is lower because instead of assuming the mortality rate in athene's supplies everywhere, SHE worked out a rough mortality rate for rural al areas too. And apply these two rates to the whole population is appropriate. Further claim that one in ten greeks died in the war to be true, the scale of famine, death has to be somewhere around half a million. And we have no good reason to put the figure that high. But there is one of the number that doxy artists used in his nineteen forty five report, which could push the number up significantly.

Another figure that he's using is three hundred thousand people who would have been born in Grace if the war hadn't happened. He calculated the figure.

how many children would have been born had prewar fertility trends continued and not been interrupted by the war. This number also appears in the two thousand and six report, clearly a projection of the number of unborne children. People who never existed is not something you can use to justify the claim that one in ten greeks died in the war.

So if one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand people died in the farming, in addition to the more than two hundred thousand who died directly due to fighting and the occupation, then you can certainly justify a claim that that around five percent of the greek population died in world's two. That's one in twenty greeks, not one in ten though. Unfortunately, the confusion of war and the haze of history make IT almost impossible to know anything with certainty.

Are thanks to professor via letter he needed from newcastle university in the U. K. That's IT for this week. Please do like our listen to present. Get in touch. If you've in a number that you think deserves some attention, the email is more or less, A, B, B, C, C, O, D, U, K, will be back next week, until then, goodbye.

On our newest season of the hit economics of remarkable women or hero, top financial leaders shared their wisdom about the long fight for women and girls. People like Christine legal, president of the european central bank. The guard was named by force as the number two most powerful women in the world.

I insisted on having woman at the table, and I have stood my ground in circles where sometimes I was the .

only woman follow hero on apple or whatever. You get your podcast.

hey, it's right in secret life comes at you fast, which is why it's important to find some time to relax a little you time enter champa casino with no download required. You can jump on any time, anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes. So treat yourself with tumba casino and play over one hundred online casino style games all for free. Go to chAmbers caso outcome to collect your free welcome bonus sponsored by champ, a casino no purchase necessary V G W group void were prohibited by law eighteen, plus terms and conditions supply.