Trivialization of World War Two and Shoah in Greece: Uses, Misuses and Analogies in Light of the Current Debt Crisis

Abstract

The economic crises since 2008 have, in Greece, given rise to a variety of blame-narratives which have instrumentalized both anti-Semitic and anti-Nazi stereotypes to justify popular resistance to the imposition of crippling austerity measures on the Greek people. This article explores the often confusing and contradictory narratives of parties and civil society groups across the political spectrum, which conflate images of German occupation, supposedly Jewish dominance of finance capital and Zionist brutality against Palestinians as the basis of Greek victimhood. The article underscores the power of myths and distortions in the process of identity-formation in a period of desperate crisis which ultimately renders democratic discourse and European solidarity even more fragile.