ΔΗΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΕΣ ΜΕΤΑΒΟΛΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤΟΧΗΣ (1941-1944/45): ΜΙΑ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΛΗΘΥΣΜΙΑΚΗΣ ΚΙΝΗΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑΣ

Abstract

The article attempts to compose a map of the greek historiographical ac¬counts that deal with the composition of the population in Greece and the question of demographic changes that took place in the country during the German occupation (1941-1944/1945). In the framework of the research program ‘‘Database of German military and paramilitary units in Greece 1941-1944/45’’, the need arose to investigate demographic changes in or-der to gain a deeper understanding of the imprint of German occupational forces on the Greek population. The article tackles issues of historical demography, analyses the different sources of recording of the popula¬tional rearrangements that occurred in Greece during the Second World War, while approaching contributions of the greek historiography, in which many aspects of the German occupation are studied. Parameters, like losses on the battlefields, birth rates and mortality from famine, disease and executions, the Holocaust and the issue of Greek prisoners of war and workers of the Reich, the violent and involuntary movements of populations inside and outside Greece, and the integration of a signif¬icant number of people into resistance organizations, actively reflect the fluidity of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics attributed to the numbers of a census. Finally, an approximate and conventional nu¬merical representation of the changes that took place in the demographic map of Greece for the period 1941-1944/45 is attempted.