Resisting the Spazio Vitale of Fascism: The Case of the Ionian Islands
Artemisia Athanasiou
PhD holder in Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens
Spyridon Emmanouil Lygkouris
PhD Candidate in Modern and Contemporary History, University of Patras
After the defeat of Greece by the German forces, a triple occupation was imposed on the country: Italian, German and Bulgarian. The Ionian Islands were added to the Italian zone of occupation and a plan was immediately launched to Italianise the inhabitants with the aim of integrating the region into the Italian Empire. Although the fact that Italy claimed the extension of its borders at the expense of Greece has been mentioned in the academic literature, both in Greek and in foreign languages, the acts of resistance of the Ionian islanders have not received the attention they deserve. This article discusses the Italian occupation of the Ionian Islands between 1941 and 1943, focusing on the resistance developed by the Ionian inhabitants against the Italian conqueror. The aim is to highlight the forms of resistance in the Ionian Islands, which, as it turns out, took two forms: on the one hand, the resistance of the inhabitants against the attempt to Italianise the islands, the ultimate aim of which was their incorporation into the Italian state; on the other hand, the resistance of the inhabitants aimed at winning freedom, in cooperation with the other resistance organisations that had been created in Greece in response to the demands of the time. This article is based on archival material, on the Italian occupation press - Gazzetta Ionica and Nuova Cefalonia - on secondary literature of the period and on essays written by protagonists of the war, the occupation and the resistance from the Ionian Islands. The latter, moreover, still constitute the majority of works dedicated to the Occupation and the Resistance in the Ionian Islands.
Keywords: Ionian Islands; Italian occupation; Resistance; World War II
