Jewish woman and children before deportation by Wehrmacht soldiers, Ioannina/Greece, 24 March 1944

Jewish women and children in Greece

Video Gebärdensprache

Audio Text

This scene took place in March 1944 in the administrative region of Ioannina in north-western Greece. Within a few hours, the Jewish women and children were rounded up by the German occupying forces. The year before the region was still held by Italian troops; under the Italian occupiers, the Jewish population did not suffer as much. At that time, Italy was still an ally of the Third Reich. But in summer 1943, events in Italy led to the end of this alliance. From then on, the German forces took over control in Greece, and also started deportations of Jews from here as well. The people from the Jewish community in Ioannina were ultimately taken to Auschwitz where, with very few exceptions, they were all murdered.

At this point, over two years had already elapsed since the meeting at Wannsee. Yet despite immense military loses and major economic problems, Nazi Germany kept to its programme of murder. In the words of the protocol of the meeting:

In the course of the practical implementation of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from West to East.

In some places, the deportations were resisted and not all governments in all the countries affected allowed the German forces to have their own way unconditionally. The so-called ‘final solution’ was not applied equally everywhere, but its implementation was always influenced by a range of diverse factors. Individuals and institutions as well as social alliances and entire states played a role in ensuring the perpetrators’ plans could be realised as envisaged – or they tried if not to prevent these actions entirely, at least to impede them.