The period of the First World War was experienced with particular intensity and severity in Greece, as the conflict between King Constantine and Prime Minister Venizelos over the country's stance towards the opposing camps led to the first National Schism and its sad repercussions.
The present study by Gerasimos Alexatos deals with one of the most tragic complications of the period, the issue of the captivity, in the late summer of 1916, of the 4th Army Corps and its transfer and settling in Germany, in the small border town of Görlitz in Silesia.
There, approximately 7,000 Greek soldiers and officers remained in captivity for about two and a half years. The author conducted extensive research in German (federal and local) archives, utilized the available Greek sources and the testimonies of some of the protagonists, and proceeded to compose a sober, vivid, and interesting study.
The pages unfold the political scene of the time, the conditions of the transport of the captives by train from Kavala to Germany, as well as the process of settling and living there. The rich intellectual movement and production of the Greek soldiers is also highlighted, among them the great playwright Vasilis Rotas.
Particularly revealing is the chapter that describes the return of the majority of the captives to Greece after the end of the war. However, the subsequent period of their lives is also of exceptional interest, the reception in Greece, as the adventures of the Greek officers did not stop at the territorial boundaries of Germany but continued, integrating and reflecting the passions and tensions of the National Schism during the Interwar period, as many of them were accused and condemned as cowards.
The above "Odyssey" of the Greek soldiers of the 4th Army Corps has many characteristics of Greek tragedy, yet the ancient Greek "catharsis" did not touch many of them.
In this direction, Gerasimos Alexatos's study constitutes a valuable bibliographic contribution, as it provides a starting point for a sober reassessment of the First World War and its repercussions in Greece, after nearly a century.
Jakovos D. Michailidis
Associate Professor of Modern & Contemporary History at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
