(Mirror.)
It should be noted that the primary factor in the excessive mortality of the Greek population during the [Axis] occupation was starvation. Indeed, as Valaoras pointed out, starvation was the underlying cause of death for several thousands of Athenians during that time. We can also reasonably speculate that deaths ostensibly due to tuberculosis, for example, were expedited by the hunger famine of the period under review.
Interestingly, the [Wehrmacht] imposed food rations based on racist basis with Germans receiving biggest food rations in [Axis] occupied territories of Greece, with little spared for [the] Greek population. In fact, the Greek population in Athens during the winter 1941–1942 received only 53,15 gr of bread.
On the contrary the members of the German community in Athens received 1771,85 gr of bread per week, and also 354,37 gr of meat, 88, 59 gr butter, 354,37 gr olive oil, 177,18 gr rise or legumes, 177,18 gr pasta, 177,18 gr sugar, 17,71 gr coffee, 8,85 gr tea and 3,54 gr egg [3,14,15].
This practice was in line with the [Fascist] policy in the occupied Poland. Both Polish and Jewish population was considered by [Fascist] authorities to be “sub‐human” (Untermensch) and as such targeted for extermination. Under [the Axis’s] plans, deliberate starvation of [those who] were considered “sub‐humans” was considered. In particular, by 1941, the official ration provided 2613 calories daily for Germans in Poland, 699 calories for Poles, and 184 calories for Jews in the Warsaw ghetto [16].
[…]
In conclusion, we found that the Axis […] occupation of Greece has had considerable health effects on infectious diseases and hemorrhagic stroke mortality. It should be stressed that deaths ostensibly due to infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis or malaria), were expedited by the hunger famine of the period under investigation.
With regard to the elevated mortality due to hemorrhagic stroke, we believe that the stressful events of occupation and famine have triggered increased psychosocial stress which in turn may have increased the risk of hemorrhagic stroke mortality during the period of Axis […] occupation of Greece.
See also: Early‐Life Famine Exposure and Later‐Life Outcomes: Evidence from Survivors of the Greek Famine (mirror).
Click here for other events that happened today (February 22).
1904: Franz Kutschera, major general in an Axis police force, was sadly born.
1932: Joseph Goebbels announced on Adolf Schicklgruber’s behalf that Schicklgruber would run for the office of the President of Germany, challenging incumbent Paul von Hindenburg. The Imperialists also lost one bomber over Shanghai.
1933: Hermann Göring established an auxiliary police force in Prussia, staffed mostly with members of the SA organization, and Berlin made its initial plans for a detention camp in Oranienburg.
1940: Georg von Küchler ordered his subordinates to stop all forms of criticism toward the Reich’s racial policies.
1941: The Axis deported 430 Netherlandish Jews from Amsterdam to Auschwitz as reprisal for the murder of a Netherlandish Fascist.
1943: The Kingdom of Bulgaria agreed to Berlin’s demand to deport 11,000 Jews from twenty‐three communities in Thrace and Macedonia, occupied areas of Yugoslavia and Greece. It sent them to Treblinka where many of them subsequently died.