Great Famine ( Greece ) The Great Famine ( ) was a period of mass starvation during the Axis occupation of Greece , during World War II ( 1941 – 1944 ) . The local population suffered greatly during this period , while the Axis Powers initiated a policy of large scale plunder . Moreover , requisitions together with the Allied blockade of Greece , the ruined state of the country ' s infrastructure and the emergence of a powerful and well - connected black market , resulted in the Great Famine , with the mortality rate reaching a peak during the winter of 1941 – 1942 . The great suffering and the pressure of the Greek Diaspora eventually forced the British to partially lift the blockade , and from the summer of 1942 , the International Red Cross was able to distribute supplies in sufficient quantities ; however , the situation remained grim until the end of the occupation . Background . Fascist Italy invaded Greece from Albania on 28 October 1940 . However , the invasion was quickly turned into a humiliating defeat for the Italians and the Greek forces managed to penetrate deep into Albanian territory . On 6 April 1941 , Germany attacked Greece and the Greek forces fell back quickly under the astonishing firepower of the Blitzkrieg . Immediately following their victory , the occupation powers divided the country into 3 zones between which any movement of goods and people was strictly prohibited . The Germans occupied parts of Athens , the region around Thessaloniki , a few strategic outposts in the Aegean and the island of Crete , the Bulgarians held the northern regions of Thrace and Eastern Macedonia , while the Italians controlled most of the mainland and the Ionian Islands . In general , the Axis powers viewed conquered nations as sources of raw materials , food and labor . As a matter of policy , subjugated nations were to provide material support to Germany and Italy . According to this principle , already from the outset of the occupation , German and Italian troops initiated a policy of wide - scale plunder of everything of value . Moreover , pillage , torture , executions , and civilian massacres throughout Greece were also part of the Axis agenda during the years of occupation . The German attitude toward occupied peoples was expressed succinctly in the words of Hermann Göring in a letter to the Reich commissioners and military commanders of the occupied territories on 6 August 1942 : First months of occupation . Within the occupation zones , the confiscation of fuel and all means of transportation , including fishing boats and pack animals , prevented any transfer of food and other supplies and reduced mobility to a minimum . The occupiers seized strategic industries and appropriated or bought them at low prices , paying with occupation marks they circulated all stocks of commodities like tobacco , olive oil , cotton , and leather and transferred them to their home countries . Laid Archer , who worked for an American aid agency and was in Athens when the Germans entered the city on 27 April 1941 , noted in his Journal : ' April 28 . . . The wholesale looting of Athens has begun . ' Remaining food and fuel reserves have been taken first . … [ A staff member ] found the entire market sealed under the swastika . The Germans have emptied all public [ fuel ] tanks ] . … A Marathon farmer , who made his way in today to report that our nurses were safe in the hills , said that his flocks of poultry , even the pigeons , had been machine - gunned and the swastika planted at the four corners of the field . He had been warned to take nothing from the fields on pain of death . ' The invaders have been taking meat , cattle and sheep north of the city for some days and now have reserved the dairy herds in the environs of Athens for their own use . … My friends in the Ministry of Agriculture estimate that the 200 , 000 - ton domestic supply may be cut to a third by the slaughtering . ' Modern transport has been seized simultaneously with food supplies . Syntagma square is already filled with seized cars . … Buses likewise are being taken . And especially trucks … . Orders posted and radioed require all bicycles to be delivered to a given location , More than five thousand have been taken . ' Wholesale and retail shops are being systematically cleared out . This is done by the polite method of “ purchase ” with freshly printed Occupation Marks , of no value outside of Greece . Early this morning , all troops in Athens not on detail were issued with 100 of such marks each . . . . They were sent into the shops to buy anything from women ’ s stockings to electrical equipment . They took their “ purchases ” to the parcel post office or to the reailway express and promptly shipped them home to the Reich … . I saw a squad of soldiers , who had cleaned out a small leathergoods shop , carry their new suitcases to a clothing store to be filled . The Eastmand Kodak store has been emptied of cameras . … Principal Greek industries are been taken over . This is done by the same polite system of “ purchasing ” 60 percent of the issued stock and installing a German director . ' Raw materials , metal , leather and so on are being confiscated . Scores of little factories , turned back to their owners by the sneering Germans as not of any importance , are without materials for processing . … Carpenters can ’ t get nails with which to get on with the few construction jobs that are still in progress . Even cement … can no longer be had . ' Finally , hospital and drugstore supplies are being taken . . . … ' The incredible speed and efficiency of this leaves us dazed , not knowing where to turn for the most ordinary supplies . ' Unemployment rose to extreme levels , while extraordinary levies were extorted from the Greek collaborationist government to sustain the occupying forces . Occupied Greece was not only burdened with the occupation costs of the German and Italian armies but also with the expenses of Axis military projects in the Eastern Mediterranean . Unlike the rest of the occupied countries , whose costs were limited to their actual defense appropriations prior to the Axis invasion , the size of Greece ' s levy in 1941 - 1942 reached 113 . 7 % of the local national income . On the other hand , the Allied forces responded with a full naval blockade in order to weaken the Axis in its military efforts . This cut off all imports to Greece , including foods . Farmers in Greece had to pay a 10 % in kind tax on their produce and to sell to the collaborationist government at fixed prices all production above the subsistence level . The food price controls and rationing that had been in place before the Greek defeat were now tightened . With the low government prices and newly imposed taxes , farmers went to great lengths to hide their produce from the officials and traders pulled their merchandise from the shelves , a factor that added to the severing of the foreign trade routes on which Greece traditionally dependeded for food imports . Thus , the scarcity of food supplies resulted in the increase of their prices , while the circulation of the German Occupation Reichsmark and the Italian Casa Mediterranea Drachma led soon to inflation . Under these circumstances , black market and rationing became the only means of food supply in the urban areas of Greece . Fishing was also prohibited , at least during the early period of occupation . Moreover , the Bulgarians forbade any transportation of grain from their zone , where 30 % of the Greek pre - war production took place , to the rest of the country . In mid - September 1941 , when the famine was imminent , Berlin responded to enquiries of German officials in Greece : Under these conditions , and contrary to the rational exploitation of the national resources applied to the occupied countries in Western and Northern Europe , the Germans in Greece resorted to a policy of plunder . Although the collaborationist government under Georgios Tsolakoglou requested from the Axis to import grain before the winter this didn ' t have any serious impact : Germany and Italy sent a very low amount of grain while Bulgaria sent nothing at all . The few organized efforts by the Orthodox Church and Red Cross were unable to meet the needs of the population . Determining factors of the food crisis were low food availability and curtailment of communications , partly due to the severe lack of transport facilities but especially because it was imposed on both goods and persons . Other factors were the attempt of the local government and the occupying forces to regulate the market and its prices . Winter of 1941 – 1942 . The nutritional situation became critical in the summer of 1941 and in the fall turned into a full - blown famine . Especially in the first winter of occupation ( 1941 – 1942 ) food shortage was acute and famine struck especially in the urban centers of the country . Food shortage reached a climax and a famine was unavoidable . During that winter the mortality rate reached a peak , while according to British historian , Mark Mazower , this was the worst famine the Greeks experienced from ancient times . Bodies of dead persons were secretly abandoned in cemeteries or at the streets . In other cases bodies were found days after the death had taken place . The sight of emaciated dead bodies was commonplace in the streets of Athens . The situation in Athens and the wider area with its port , Piraeus , was out of control , the hyperinflation was in full swing and the price of bread was increased 89 - fold from April 1941 to June 1942 . According to the records of the German army the mortality rate only in Athens reached 300 deaths per day during December 1941 , while the estimates of the Red Cross were much higher , at 400 deaths while in some days the death toll reached 1 , 000 . Apart from the urban areas the population of the islands was also affected by the famine , especially those living in Mykonos , Syros and Chios . There are no accurate numbers of the famine deaths due to the fact that civil registration records did not function during the occupation . In general , it is estimated that Greece suffered approximately 300 , 000 deaths during the Axis occupation as a result of famine and malnutrition . However , not all parts of Greece experienced equal levels of food scarcity . Although comprehensive data on regional famine severity does not exist , the available evidence indicates that the severe movement restrictions , the proximity to agricultural production and the level of urbanization were crucial factors of famine mortality . Lifting of the Allied blockade . The first ship with food supplies that was permitted to reach Greece was the SS " Kurtuluş " from Turkey , at September 1941 . This assistance however was symbolic since one ship was unable to alleviate such an extreme situation . Because of the efforts of the Greek Diaspora in the United States and Great Britain , the situation of the starving civilian population in Greece soon became a public issue in the Allied countries . The increasing public pressure finally led to the lifting of the naval blockade in February 1942 . The plan carried under the auspices of the International Red Cross , while Sweden offered for the transportation of 15 , 000 tons of Canadian wheat . Wheat shipments soon began and together with the rising temperatures of springtime , resulted in the reduction of the mortality rates . At the end of 1942 with the steady supply of sufficient quantities to the country ' s greatest ports , the mortality rate fell , however the food situation remained grim until the end of the occupation ( 1944 ) . The international relief was focused mainly on children . In Athens the Red Cross started to provide daily milk rations , medical services and clothing to children younger than two years . In following March the occupiers and Allied forces agreed to the establishment of the Swedish - run Joint Relief Commission to reorganize the public food supply system . On the other hand , the occupiers moreover committed to replace all appropriated agricultural products with food imports of equal calorific value and relaxed the harshest mobility restrictions and price regulations . Nazi bail - out plan and the resistance . As the collapse of the Greek monetary system was imminent , the Germans were alarmed that such a possibility would render worthless the flow of Drachmas to their troops . In order to deal with this situation , Hermann Neubacher , was appointed Reich ' s special commissioner in Greece . Neubacher ' s objective was to sustain Axis operation in Greece without destroying the Greek economy . His initiative was eased by the supplies provided by the International Red Cross . From 1943 large areas of the countryside that witnessed reprisal operation , burning of settlements and massive executions by the Germans , like in Epirus and Thessaly . The military operations of the Germans against rural areas due to the rising guerrilla activity sent large numbers of people into the towns or to the mountains , denuding that way part of the countryside of its labor force . Famine conditions appeared again during the winter of 1943 – 1944 in Aetolia and some islands . Moreover , the rural population did not receive Red Cross supplies like the cities , either because the Germans retaliated against villages suspected of supporting guerrillas , or because they feared that the supplies would fall into the hands of the resistance . On the other hand , the largest Greek resistance organization , the National Liberation Front ( EAM ) took the initiative and distributed food and clothing to the regions it controlled at that time . Impact on literature and thought . In the everyday Greek language the word " occupation " indicates famine and hunger due to the harsh situation the Greek population faced during these years . Moreover , various works mention the severe situation faced by the Greek population during the years of occupation . One of these is the novel " Zorba the Greek " , by Nikos Kazantzakis , which reflected the general anarchy and starvation of that time . As of 2011 , the idea that a German chancellor will impose strict austerity measures on Greece as part of the financial debt crisis that the country faces , cannot be tolerated by a large number of Greeks . In fact , many Greek citizens still believe that Germany owes Greece reparations for acts committed during World War II , including those that led to the Great Famine and the massacres committed by German troops , activities that caused hundreds of thousands of Greek citizens to lose their lives .