Great Famine (Greece)

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The Great Famine (Greek: Μεγάλος Λιμός, sometimes called the Grand Famine) was a period of mass starvation during the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1944), during World War II. The local population suffered greatly during this period, while the Axis powers initiated a policy of large-scale plunder. Requisitions, together with a blockade by the Allies, the ruined state of the country's infrastructure after the German invasion of Greece, and the emergence of a powerful and well-connected black market, resulted in the Great Famine, with the mortality rate reaching a peak during the winter of 1941–42. The resulting human suffering, and the resulting pressure from the Greek diaspora, eventually forced the Royal Navy to partially lift the blockade. Through the end of 1941, Kızılay (the Turkish Red Crescent), and in the summer of 1942, the International Red Cross, were able to distribute supplies in sufficient quantities with the help of several foreign and Greece-based humanitarian organizations...

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