At the end of WW2 when the enemy forces left from the occupied countries, women who had been sexually involved with enemy soldiers faced a wave of attacks. They were punished in various ways for what were considered traitorous acts. Although in some cases punishment was officially sanctioned and women were put on trial for collaboration, in most cases the mob took the law into its own hands and punished women in various abusive and humiliating ways. However, even though research has been conducted by scholars in countries such as France on this topic, the same does not apply to Greece. In France a large amount of data such as photographs are available, but in Greece only brief references have been made in studies of the period to the punishment of these women. This ongoing research aims to explore this topic and fill this gap.

In particular, the paper will explore the punitive regimes which were used against women accused of sexual involvement with the occupying forces in Greece. Then forms of punishment in France will be examined and compared with what happened in Greece. As, unlike France, there are limited sources regarding the punishment of women the research relies on a small number of newspaper articles and oral interviews which will be analysed for the study of this topic.

Authors:
Georgia Eglezou, Panteion University, Greece

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Georgia Eglezou is a University Postdoctoral Fellow or Instructor at Panteion University in Greece

See this presentation on the full schedule – On Demand Schedule

Bookmark