Plundered loyalties

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Plundered Loyalties examines the impact of the Axis occupation (1941-44) and the Greek Civil War (1946-49) on Greek West Macedonia's multi-lingual and deeply fragmented population.The political situation in that mountainous region was enormously complicated, defined by occupying forces, their 'collaborators, ' and resistance organizations. Guerrilla activity and the attendant harsh reprisals brought untold suffering to the peasants as a result of the growing ferocity of the occupiers. The fight against the occupying forces and the need to build and maintain as formidable a guerrilla army as possible obliged the resistance forces to press their units' unwilling recruits and even wage war against resistance forces ideologically opposed to them.The situation became even more torturous in the years of civil strife after the War, when yesterday's heroes turned rebel against the legitimate government of the country.