British perceptions of EAM/ELAS rule in Thessaloniki 1944-45

Abstract

The article is based on British official documents and examines events
in Thessaloniki between November 1944 and January 1945. In early November
1944 British troops, accompanied by representatives of the Greek Government,
entered Thessaloniki on the heels of the retreating German forces. They
found the city under the control of EAM/ELAS, the communist-dominated
Greek resistance movement.
Repeated attempts to establish the authority of the Greek Government
failed. In early December 1944, the British and EAM/ELAS clashed in Attica.
In Thessaloniki, they preserved an uneasy truce until EAM/ELAS’s withdrawal
from the city in early January 1945.