The Greek resistance involved armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II. The largest group was the Communist-dominated EAM-ELAS. The Greek Resistance is considered one of the strongest resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe, with partisans, men and women known as andartes and andartisses, controlling much of the countryside prior to the German withdrawal from Greece in late 1944.
Athens University students parading on Greek National Indpendence Day (25 March) 1942, in defiance of the German and Italian occupation forces; the parade was eventually dispersed by Axis troops.
German soldiers raising the German War Flag over the Acropolis of Athens. The symbol of the country's occupation, it would be taken down in one of the first acts of the Greek Resistance.
Aris Velouchiotis, chief captain of ELAS
Napoleon Zervas, leader of the military wing of the EDES, with fellow officers
Axis occupation of Greece
The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded the Kingdom of Greece to assist its ally, Italy, in their ongoing war that had started in October 1940. Following the conquest of Crete, the entirety of Greece was occupied starting in June 1941. The occupation of the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria withdrew under Allied pressure in early October 1944, with Crete and some other Aegean islands being surrendered to the Allies by German garrisons in May and June 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe.
1941. German soldiers raising the German War Flag over the Acropolis. It would be taken down by Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas in one of the first acts of resistance.
1944. Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and others on the Acropolis after the liberation from the Nazis
German artillery shelling the Metaxas Line
German soldiers in Athens, 1941