WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN DIFFERENT FORMS OF RESISTANCE DURING THE OCCUPATION OF GREECE BY THE AXIS POWERS (1940-1944)

Abstract

From the very beginning of the Occupation, women organized themselves to carry out acts in order to alleviate the situation brought upon the nation by the Axis powers, or to directly fight against the invader. Initially, their participation in these actions could be considered an extension of the tasks they had traditio- nally carried out but they were no less important because of that. In this way, they began to take care of the soldiers and civilians who stayed in the villages and towns. The women gradually took on roles which until then had been res- tricted to men. Many women enlisted and contributed to the resistance struggle through the different groups they established. There was also an important num- ber of women who were posted in the mountains and took part in the fighting alongside the men. Nor should we forget those who undertook specific initiati- ves, by means of which they saved many lives or inflicted injury on the enemy. The aim of this essay is to highlight the work of all these groups of women who in one way or another showed resistance against the invader.