During the summer of 1916, Greece found itself crushed under the weight of a world war in which it was not actually involved. This unfortunate state of affairs resulted from numerous events having taken place over the previous 12 months.

In October 1915, the situation in the Balkans was critical for the Entente Powers: the Dardanelles campaign had proved far from victorious and Serbia was being overrun by enemy troops while Greece remained neutral. However, Eleftherios Venizelos’s decision to allow Allied armies to land in Thessaloniki transformed one of the largest cities in Greece into a vast military base.1 Gradually, the presence of the Allies in Macedonia began to look like an occupation involving, among other humiliating actions, the disarmament of Greek troops, the arrest of Greek citizens and the generally arrogant behaviour of Allied soldiers.2

A few months later, the situation became even more difficult for Greece when German and Bulgarian forces invaded its territory. Having occupied Rupel since May 1916, the armies of the Central Powers were ordered to march into Eastern Macedonia on 17 August 1916. Neither King Constantine nor the Greek Prime Minister expressed any protest against the memorandum submitted to Athens by the German and Bulgarian ambassadors.3 The next day, they even required the commander of the 4th Army Corps stationed there to “gather all forces at the headquarters of divisions and evacuate all forts […] so as to avoid any kind of confrontation [with foreign troops]”.4

All officers of the 4th Army Corps subsequently made their subordinates leave their entrenched positions in Macedonia and retire before the advancing German and Bulgarian soldiers. This Greek retreat allowed the Bulgarians to implement their policy of ethnic cleansing. Indeed, only 2 days after their entry into Greece, the commander of the 4th Army Corps informed the Minister of Armies that Bulgarians were behaving aggressively not only towards Greek troops but also the local population, who consequently fled the countryside to take refuge in Serres, Drama and Kavalla.5 On the very day of his arrival in Drama (19 August 1916), Gendarmerie Captain Ioannis Papadakis noted the following scene in his wartime diary:

A crowd of peasants came to the police station to report plunder, commandeering, assaults, rapes and all manner of lawless violence on the part of Bulgarians.6

Meanwhile in Athens, the rift between Eleftherios Venizelos and King Constantine grew wider with each passing day and created the likelihood of a “Venizelist” uprising.7 Nevertheless, those in the capital who considered the events in Eastern Macedonia as tantamount to treason were crushed under the weight of royalist propaganda and the boot of clandestine paramilitaries faithful to the king.8

In this tense climate, the capture of the 4th Army Corps and Gendarmerie forces in Eastern Macedonia, only a short time afterwards, provided clear evidence that the Greek government was now, in the summer of 1916, only a spectator in terms of the developments taking place in its own territory. Yet how were Greek gendarmes actually captured by the Germans? What was their captivity experience in Görlitz? Finally, yet equally important, when and how did they return to Greece?

Capture

From the early days of the German and Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia, the situation of the 4th Army Corps and the gendarmes posted in the region was disastrous. The rapid advance of invaders and the entrapment of Greek troops, confined to local towns without means of communication or proper supplies, soon turned this into a tragedy. On 22 August 1916, the commander of the 5th Division surrounded by Bulgarian forces in Drama sent a letter to the commander of the 4th Army Corps in which he simply wrote: “My situation is hopeless. I cannot put up any resistance”.9 At the same time, local authorities were equally powerless to manage the situation since Macedonian gendarmes in all towns and villages were being disarmed by the Bulgarians. The presence of the Greek state in the region had simply been erased. Long after his liberation from Görlitz, non-commissioned Gendarmerie officer Stylianos Kandilákes remembered his experience of late August 1916 when, just as he was trying to reach the village to which he was assigned, he was stopped, disarmed and instructed by Bulgarian troops to follow six fellow gendarmes to Drama, where they would be confined.10

In this sorry context, Greek troops could only turn to the government for instruction. Commander-in-Chief Ioannis Chatzopoulos kept sending desperate pleas from Kavalla to Athens underlining the necessity to transfer the whole army corps to southern Greece. Yet the government preferred not to answer. On 9 September 1916, the last line of communication—the telegraph station in Kavalla—was handed over to the British who had in the meantime blockaded the seaport.11 From then on, a process was engaged which would lead to the capture of 6100 privates, 430 officers and 400 gendarmes (of whom 10 to 12 were commissioned officers).12

The next day, Major von Schweinitz presented Chatzopoulos with the decisions of the German High Command; these included the transfer of Greek troops to northern districts under Bulgarian occupation so as to separate them fully from the Allied armies and prevent any possible collaboration. However, playing for time and trying to avoid capture by the Bulgarians, the commander of the 4th Army Corps requested one German officer ask his superiors about the possibility of transferring Greek forces to Germany instead, where they would be stationed until the end of the hostilities. The German officer promised to bring an answer the very next day.13

Ioannis Chatzopoulos then summoned division commanders who had already resisted capture by the Bulgarians. Eventually, all agreed to surrender to the Entente Powers with a request to be transferred to southern Greece. The British were ready to grant this request but opposing Greek factions involved in the National Schism sabotaged the plan and the last chance of remaining free vanished for the army corps.14 During the night of 10/11 December 1916, with Greek soldiers already beginning to embark, an announcement was made that only soldiers volunteering to join the National Defence Movement were to be allowed on board15; this forced Chatzopoulos to halt the operation and order his troops back to barracks.16

The next day, Major von Schweinitz informed Chatzopoulos that his suggestion had been accepted by the German High Command. The agreement, signed between the two men, provided for the transfer to Germany of all privates and officers of the 4th Army Corps, together with their weapons and ammunition. It also included gendarmes who were therefore captured along with their army colleagues. However, the status granted to Greeks was not that of prisoners of war but of “guests of the Kaiser”.17

On hearing the news, Gendarmerie Captain Ioannis Papadakis went to see the Commander-in-Chief in order to protest against an accord that compelled his men to follow the army corps to Germany: “The Gendarmerie is an independent force. It obeys different orders. It cannot leave the town”. This daring objection was met with a scathing reply: “Independent force? Humbug! I’m in charge here – your only government and king here is me”.18 Chatzopoulos’ furious reaction left the Gendarmerie captain, who was trying to save his men, with no option. His protest to the German consul proved to be just as fruitless.19 Non-commissioned Gendarmerie officer Stylianos Kandilákes likewise felt the extreme anguish of his men and noted it in his diary of the same date.20 Yet even a belated reaction from the government in Athens remained ineffectual.21

In the following days, all Greek troops were thus gathered in Drama where their transfer to Germany began. In point of fact, “royalist officers seemed enthusiastic”,22 but the whole army corps was in complete disarray. As Ioannis Papadakis wrote in his diary:

All kinds of war material are now being sold on street corners for a mess of pottage; gypsies have broken into a number of our depots and stolen rifles and other war equipment.23

On 15 September 1916, the first train left Drama to take Greek prisoners to their “guest residence” in Görlitz.24 Over the following days, two to three trains crammed with Greek privates and officers left daily.25 On 27 September 1916, at 3.30 a.m., came the turn of Ioannis Papadakis and his gendarmes to leave the city after having handed over the premises of the Gendarmerie Directorate to the Bulgarians.26 This was a poignant moment for all men and Ioannis Papadakis, forlorn, said goodbye to Eastern Macedonia, as he saw it, for the last time under Greek sovereignty.27

The train stopped first in Adrianople (Eastern Thrace). Bulgarians had come to the station to watch but they were not the only ones; relatives from this region beyond the Greek border had also come to embrace their sons, fathers or fiancés.28 Two hours later, the train started again, travelled across Bulgaria and, after several stops where gendarmes were strictly forbidden to get off or speak to anyone, arrived in Belgrade on 30 September 1916. There, they all disembarked and, under escort of Austrian officers, were led to hotels.29 On October 1916, the gendarmes went through Semlino,30 then on into Austro-Hungarian territory and up to Oppeln,31 where they underwent a long treatment of disinfection. Three days later, on 9 October 1916 at 7 p.m., the Greek gendarmes finally reached the town of Görlitz32 where they were led, preceded by a fanfare of German musicians, to their internment camp.33 Its entrance had been decorated with garlands of flowers and a large sign featuring the word “Welcome” in Greek.34

There began a period of captivity for the 400 gendarmes that was destined to last for more than 2 years. What was life like in Görlitz?

Life as Guests of the Kaiser

Since its capture in Eastern Macedonia, the Gendarmerie battalion, divided into five companies as ordered by Chatzopoulos,35 suffered the same fate as the men of the 4th Army Corps. As soon as they arrived in Görlitz, some 390 gendarmes settled36 side by side with their army comrades in what was in fact an internment camp vacated only a few days before by Russian prisoners of war. The place was located to the east of Görlitz, rather far from the city centre.37

However, the dozen or so commissioned and non-commissioned Gendarmerie officers were settled outside the military camp, as suggested by General Erich Ludendorff himself.38 Ioannis Papadakis, after a short stay at the Europe hotel, was thus allowed to rent a room from a local woman for 25 drachmas a month.39

Accommodation was generally well prepared, and the local authorities vaunted it in the press for propaganda purposes.40 The internment camp was vast since it had been designed to house up to 12,000 prisoners of war. It featured large dormitories equipped with proper heating and lighting, numerous sanitary blocks, large kitchens and a nearby hospital that was easily accessible to those that were sick—designed to give the impression that Greek prisoners of war enjoyed the same lifestyle as German soldiers in peacetime conditions. Officers were even allowed to train their men via physical exercise.41 However, despite the living conditions and the decent behaviour of the local population towards Greek prisoners,42 Hellenic gendarmes in Silesia were confronted from the outset with two major problems: scant food and extreme cold weather, both of which impaired the health of even the toughest of men.

From his early days in Görlitz, Ioannis Papadakis noticed the near complete absence of food. Ten days after the arrival of his Gendarmerie battalion in Germany, the Gendarmerie captain wrote this entry in his diary: “Soldiers have started to complain. Their food is really insufficient and the quality so terrible that even the poorest Greek is not accustomed to such”.43 Such starvation, reserved for Greek gendarmes and soldiers, was highlighted in numerous complaints sent to the Prime Minister by the men’s relatives and a series of articles in the press.44

In the meantime, Greek gendarmes accustomed to mild Mediterranean weather were more vulnerable to the harshness of a German winter and suffered as a consequence of the very low temperatures. Ioannis Papadakis describes the kind of cold experienced in Görlitz as totally unknown to Greeks.45 Some gendarmes actually died in the hospital as a result of diseases caused by the extreme cold.46

Furthermore, gendarmes also had to work several hours a day from the very beginning of their stay, as German headquarters were keen to use the Greek workforce for voluntary work, paid at the same rate as local wages.47 Yet this voluntary work gradually became forced employment in German factories supporting the war effort. In February 1917, Greek gendarmes also had to remove snow from the city streets.48 Others manufactured shoes or tailored clothes inside the camp, providing for both Greek prisoners and German soldiers.49 Some even had to leave Görlitz, either to perform public work or to join the workforce of the Krupp factories in Essen.50

On another level, gendarmes still loyal to King Constantine and guided by royalist officers were given the task of “policing” political ideas inside the camp to make sure it remained staunchly anti-Venizelist. These gendarmes kept watch over their fellow countrymen, always ready to report any pro-Venizelist action.51 They therefore introduced the National Schism to Görlitz and made the lives of their political enemies unbearable. Venizelists, or those merely suspected on account of their origin, like the gendarmes from Crete, had to live through the dark days of oppression in Germany. Given his own political leanings, Gendarmerie Captain Ioannis Papadakis spent Christmas 1916 in complete isolation.52 A few months later, he was even arrested and imprisoned, together with other Venizelist officers, in a fortress in Westphalia from which he was not released until the end of the war.53 Other Venizelist gendarmes considered dangerous to the camp were also severely punished.54

However, throughout this period of captivity that was not devoid of coercion, despite German promises made in September 1916, passing moments of entertainment allowed the men to forget their situation. The two officers’ clubs in town were reserved to army and gendarmerie commissioned officers55 but privates and NCOs were allowed to walk around town, go boating on the Neisse with local women,56 eat at the brasseries or even attend a theatre evening specifically given in honour of the “guests of the Kaiser”.57

Reading the daily Görlitz News, written in Greek, also provided entertainment and information. This periodical was created a month after the arrival of the 4th Army Corps in Germany58 and soon became the favourite newspaper of Greek prisoners, including gendarmes.59 Moreover, both gendarmes and soldiers were allowed to practice traditional singing and dancing, a form of entertainment that even raised the interest of German academics who in July 1917 recorded their songs and the Greek dialects spoken in Görlitz.60

Eventually came liberation—for Venizelists and royalists alike. How were they welcomed home? Was the treatment suffered by gendarmes the same experienced by the rest of the army?

Homecoming and a Damaged Reputation

News of the Armistice found the Görlitz prisoners in the throes of political fighting. Venizelist gendarmes were still being persecuted under the permanent surveillance of their royalist colleagues. When the Armistice was announced, a number of royalist officers refused to allow the Army Corps to return to Greece until the Venizelist government had actually signed a decree of amnesty for all officers in Görlitz. According to their plan, preventing their men from returning home after more than 2 years in Germany (late September 1916 to November 1918) would trigger protests from relatives in Greece and put pressure on the government to sign the decree.61

Such attitudes, held by officers, caused a rebellion in the Görlitz camp at a time when the Spartakist revolt had already broken out in Germany and encouraged revolutionary behaviour among Greek servicemen. Hellenic soldiers and gendarmes expressed their determination to return home immediately by expelling officers from the camp, blocking the camp’s entrance and appointing their own new leader. This revolt lasted a month. Yet German authorities eventually managed to crush it, leaving five dead among the Greek rebels and chaos among the rest of the troops.62

In December 1918, most Greeks had left Görlitz within a period of a few days. On foot or driving cars, alone or in groups, more than 5000 “guests of the Kaiser” set off to return to their homeland. After a long journey through war-ravaged rural districts and cities, the greater part ended up in Fiume, with others in Varna or Constantza,63 where they waited for ships to take them to Corfu, Patras or Crete.64

The evacuation of the remaining elements of the Gendarmerie battalion and 4th Army Corps from Görlitz lasted until 24 February 1919 when sick gendarmes and others who had not left Germany in December 1918 finally boarded trains which took them to Fiume where they too were transferred to Greece.65 However, some Görlitz gendarmes stayed in Germany for good. Sixteen of them had died during their period of detainment and were buried in the municipal cemetery66 while others having found a new homeland stayed to begin a new life; such was the case of Gendarmerie Captain Pantelis Chrissoulis who became a chauffeur, started a family but eventually returned to Greece in the 1930s.67

For most of those who returned to Greece in 1918–1919, the welcome they received at the hands of the government, the people and their Greek fellow soldiers was far from triumphal. Considered as cowards or even traitors, gendarmes had to face the bitter irony of their countrymen; with Greek young men having offered their lives to the Great Idea,68 gendarmes had to live with the infamous reputation of having comfortably waited for the end of hostilities in an internment camp as “voluntary prisoners”.69 Arriving in Greece, all former Görlitz detainees were interned in a military camp in Crete where they underwent repeated interrogations for 6 months by both military and political authorities.70 In June 1919, nearly all soldiers and gendarmes from Görlitz were finally released and demobilised. However, for 320 officers and NCOs, accused of a shameful surrender, the ordeal went on for a further year. A dozen of them were even court martialled. Finally, in July 1920, eight officers were sentenced to death while the others were dismissed from the Greek Army.71

In the extremely tense context in which the Görlitziotés72 returned home, only a handful of gendarmes were able to avoid sarcasm and dismissal. These were the four officers and NCOs faithful to Venizelos who had been incarcerated in Werl (Westphalia). A few days after their arrival in Greece, those gendarmes were welcomed by the Vice President of the Greek Government who congratulated them on their heroic and patriotic behaviour as well as for their loyalty towards Venizelos during their time of captivity.73 They were even rewarded and promoted to higher ranks.74

Yet later, in November 1920, the arrival to power of anti-Venizelists allowed all Görlitz officers, dismissed after the summer of 1919, to be reintegrated into the army and even promoted as had the others a year earlier.75

In conclusion, the gendarmes of Eastern Macedonia captured in the autumn of 1916 took the same road to Görlitz, alongside troops of the 4th Army Corps. There, interned together in the same military camp, they experienced a harsh life with moments of relief punctuated by hard work, drills and days of extreme isolation or even prison incarceration, especially the Venizelists among them. Furthermore, those men had imported with them into Germany the National Schism of 1916 and the underlying conflicts of Greek society that it revealed. After their liberation, some gendarmes remained in Germany but those who returned to Greece had to live with the stigma of having been a Görlitz prisoner, which for the Greek people and Greek authorities was associated with cowardice, if not treason.

Indeed, the capture of the 4th Army Corps and the Eastern Macedonia Gendarmerie remained, long after the Great War, one of the most humiliating periods in Greek history. For many years, the Görlitziotés had to endure bitter irony from their fellow countrymen, in particular of the press. New heights of contempt were even reached when such men later assumed positions of prominence in public bodies or claimed damages from the state as victims of the Great War.76

Notes

  1. 1.

    Vassilis Kolonas and Eric Auzoux (eds.), La Ville de Thessalonique durant la première guerre mondiale, 1915–1918, Thessaloniki: Ministry of Culture, 1989, p. 4.

  2. 2.

    See in particular Γενικά αρχεία του κράτους (Ελλάδα)/General State Archives (Greece) [hereinafter AGE], Political Secretariat of the Prime Minister, Envelope 14, Civilian complaint dated 12 November 1917, No. 1217, pp. 1–4; Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, 1914–1918 [title in greek], Athens: Historical Directorate of the Greek Army, 1993, pp. 62–83; Georgios Leontaritis, “Greece and the First World War” [title in greek], in Georgios Christopoulos and Ioannis Bastias (eds.), History of the Greek Nation [title in greek], Athens: Éditions d’Athènes, 1978, Vol. 15, pp. 29–33.

  3. 3.

    Polychronis Enepekides, Glory and discord, Athens: Zacharopoulos, 1992, pp. 492–493.

  4. 4.

    “Αποσύρατε τμήματα Δ΄ Σώματος Στρατού, ως και ολοκλήρους φρουράς ερυμάτων, εις έδρας Μεραρχιών […] προς αποφυγήν πάσης προστριβής”. Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, p. 93 (author’s own translation).

  5. 5.

    Ibid., pp. 94–98.

  6. 6.

    “Πλήθος χωρικών προσέρχονται εις την αστυνομίαν και καταγγέλουν αρπαγάς, επιτάξεις αυθαιρέτους, τραυματισμούς, εκβιάσεις, βιασμούς και παντός είδους βιαιοπραγίας εκ μέρους των βουλγάρων κατά των ελλήνων χωρικών”. Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer [title in greek], Manoles Papadogiannis (ed.), Thessaloniki: Manoles Papadogiannis, 1990, p. 39 (author’s own translation).

  7. 7.

    Georgios Leontaritis, “Greece and the First World War”, pp. 35–38.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., pp. 38–40; Ελληνικό λογοτεχνικό και ιστορικό αρχείο-Μορφωτικό ίδρυμα εθνικής τραπέζης, Historical and Literary Greek Archive—Educational Fund of the Central Bank [hereinafter ELIA-MIET], Melas family archive, Georgios Melas, My Notebook, 1916–1917 [title in greek], pp. 3–5; Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz [title in greek], Thessaloniki: Despina Kyriakidi, 2010, pp. 36–49.

  9. 9.

    Είμαι απελπισμένος. Δεν είμαι εις θέσιν να κάμω άμυναν. Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, 1914–1918, p. 96 (author’s own translation).

  10. 10.

    Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…; Captivity Notebook of the Venetian Officer Stylianos Kandylákes in Germany of the Kaiser [title in greek], Gerassimos Alexatos, Stratos Dordanas, and Manoles Kandylákes (eds.), Thessaloniki: Kiriakidis Éditions, 2014, p. 14.

  11. 11.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 55–56.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., p. 79; Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, p. 14. A brief description regarding the capture of the Greek forces in Eastern Macedonia is also included in Zografos Anastasios, « 1917: l’année où la Discorde nationale dépassa les frontières de l’État grec », Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande [En ligne], 49-2 | 2017, mis en ligne le 29 décembre 2018, consulté le 04 septembre 2019. http://journals.openedition.org/allemagne/580; https://doi.org/10.4000/allemagne.580.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., pp. 52–57; Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, 1914–1918, p. 100.

  14. 14.

    The National Schism is the standard historical phrase referring to the conflict between King Constantine and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos during WWI, which ultimately led to the creation by Venizelos of a “second government” in Thessaloniki.

  15. 15.

    The National Defence Movement was the name of the Venizelist uprising in Thessaloniki (late August 1916). It led to the local creation of a provisional government.

  16. 16.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 57–62; Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, 1914–1918, p. 101.

  17. 17.

    Id.

  18. 18.

    “Η Χωροφυλακή είναι δύναμις ανεξάρτητος από το σώμα, έχει άλλας διαταγάς και δεν δύναται να εγκαταλείψει την πόλιν. […] Ανεξάρτητος, αυτά είναι κουραφέξαλα […]. Εγώ είμαι τώρα και Βασιλεύς, και Κυβέρνησις” (Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 53) (author’s own translation).

  19. 19.

    Ibid., pp. 53–54.

  20. 20.

    Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, p. 15.

  21. 21.

    Angeliki Dema-Demetriou (ed.), History of the Greek Army’s Participation in the First World War, 1914–1918, pp. 102–103.

  22. 22.

    “Οι Βασιλόφρονες Αξιωματικοί εφαίνοντο ενθουσιασμένοι”. Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, p. 15 (author’s own translation).

  23. 23.

    “Υλικά του στρατού παντός είδους πωλούνται εις τας οδούς αντί πινακίου φακής, εις μερικάς δε αποθήκας εισήλθον και τσιγγάνοι και διήρπαζον και όπλα και λοιπά υλικά”. Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan officer, p. 55 (author’s own translation).

  24. 24.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 78.

  25. 25.

    Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, p. 15.

  26. 26.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 63.

  27. 27.

    Id.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., p. 64.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., pp. 64–68.

  30. 30.

    Then a town on the Austria–Hungary border; today a neighbourhood of Belgrade. Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 78.

  31. 31.

    Now the Polish town of Opole. Id.

  32. 32.

    Located in the east of Germany, Görlitz is now a border town with Poland. Id.

  33. 33.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, pp. 68–70.

  34. 34.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 86.

  35. 35.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 53.

  36. 36.

    Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, pp. 15–16.

  37. 37.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 92; Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 70.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 87.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., p. 70.

  40. 40.

    “Visit in Greek camp”, News from Görlitz, No. 40, 20 December 1916, p. 4.

  41. 41.

    For a general account of the Görlitz camp, see Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 92–97.

  42. 42.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 71.

  43. 43.

    “Η γκρίνια ήρχισε μεταξύ των στρατιωτών. Η τροφή των ανεπαρκεστάτη και ποιότητος αγνώστου και εις τον πτωχότερον έλληνα”. Id. (author’s own translation).

  44. 44.

    AGE, Political Secretariat of the Prime Minister, Envelope 124, Complaint to the Prime Minister, 16 July 1918, No. 16775; “The prisoners in Görlitz. Their miserable life”, Macedonia, No. 2219, 16 March 1918, p. 1.

  45. 45.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 72.

  46. 46.

    Three gendarmes died of pneumonia, one of bronchitis and eight others from tuberculosis. For a summary of losses, see Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 371–385.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., p. 87.

  48. 48.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, p. 77.

  49. 49.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 94.

  50. 50.

    “Life in Görlitz”, Rizospastis, No. 312, 3 June 1918, p. 1; “The prisonners of Görlitz. Their miserable life”, Macedonia, No. 2219, 16 March 1918, p. 1.

  51. 51.

    “Görlitz case in military court”, Empros, No. 8486, 31 May 1920, p. 2; “Greek soldiers’ life in Görlitz”, Macedonia, No. 2576, 20 March 1919, pp. 1–2.

  52. 52.

    Ioannis Papadakis, The Unknown War Diary of a Cretan Officer, pp. 74–75.

  53. 53.

    “Görlitz case in militart court”, Empros, No. 8489, 3 June 1920, p. 2; Εθνικό ίδρυμα ερευνών και μελετών “Ελευθέριος K. Βενιζέλος”/Eleftherios K. Venizelos National Foundation for Research and Studies [hereinafter FNREEV], Papadakis Report, Athens, 14 February 1919, p. 9.

  54. 54.

    “Görlitz case in military court”, Empros, No. 8486, 31 May 1920, p. 2; Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 décembre 1917…, p. 146. For more information about the “civil war” between Venizelists and Royalists in Görlitz, see also Zografos Anastasios, « 1917: l’année où la Discorde nationale dépassa les frontières de l’État grec », Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande.

  55. 55.

    Gérassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, p. 170; Angeliki Chronopoulou Archive, Wartime diaries of John Chatzipanagos, Europeana 1914–1918, http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/17712 (5 January 2016).

  56. 56.

    “Görlitz case in military court”, Empros, No. 8491, 5 June 1920, p. 2; Maria Katsarou-Nassiakou Archive, Photograph 4, Europeana 1914–1918, http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/17125 (5 January 2016).

  57. 57.

    “In Germany”, Year 1917 Greek Calendar, Görlitz: Emil Glauber and Dionissios Agapitos, 1917, p. 36; Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 146–148.

  58. 58.

    For more detailed information, Ibid., pp. 97–107.

  59. 59.

    “Görlitz case in military court”, Empros, No. 8465, 10 May 1920, p. 3.

  60. 60.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 122–137.

  61. 61.

    FNREEV, Papadakis Report, Athens, 14 February 1919, pp. 5–9; Report by Gendarmerie Captain A.K. Chrissomalos, Görlitz, December 1918, pp. 1–4; Stylianos Kandylákes, In Görlitz, 31 December 1917…, pp. 74–75. A brief description of the departure of the Greek troops from Görlitz is also included in Zografos Anastasios, « 1917: l’année où la Discorde nationale dépassa les frontières de l’État grec », Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.; Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 176–192; “Greek soldiers’ revolution in Görlitz”, Rizospastis, No. 309, 23 July 1932, p. 2.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., pp. 193–195; “Coming back from Görlitz”, Empros, No. 7985, 5 January 1919, p. 2; “Returning from Görlitz”, Empros, No. 7963, 12 December 1918, p. 2.

  64. 64.

    “Incidents happened in Görlitz”, Empros, No. 7973, 22 December 1918, p. 2; AGE, Political Secretariat of the Prime Minister, Envelope 238, Telegram to the prefect of Corfu, 20 December 1918, No. 365.

  65. 65.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 199–201.

  66. 66.

    For a summary of losses, Ibid., pp. 371–385; FNREEV, Request from the Committee of Görlitz gendarmes, Drama, 27 March 1934, p. 1.

  67. 67.

    Testimony of Maria Mannak, Ibid., pp. 234–241.

  68. 68.

    The Great Idea was the unification of all Greeks within a single nation state.

  69. 69.

    “Görlitz”, Macedonia, No. 6289, 4 January 1930, p. 1.

  70. 70.

    “Coming from Görlitz and driven to Souda”, Empros, No. 7983, 3 January 1919, p. 1.

  71. 71.

    Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 206–211. See also numerous articles published in Greek newspapers between May 9 and June 29, 1920.

  72. 72.

    The Greek nickname for Görlitz prisoners.

  73. 73.

    “Görlitz officers’ reception”, Empros, No. 8069, 31 January 1919, p. 2. See also, Zografos Anastasios, « 1917: l’année où la Discorde nationale dépassa les frontières de l’État grec », Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande.

  74. 74.

    “Military promotions”, Empros, No. 8094, 27 April 1919, p. 4.

  75. 75.

    “Officers’ promotions”, Macedonia, No. 3169, 1 December 1920, p. 1. See also Gerassimos Alexatos, The Greeks of Görlitz, pp. 212–217.

  76. 76.

    See, among many other similar articles “Our hand glass. Shortly afterwards…”, Macedonia, No. 6238, 12 November 1929, p. 1; “Görlitz”, Macedonia, No. 6289, 4 January 1930, p. 1.