The Fourth of August Regime and Greek Jewry, 1936-1941

Delving into a traditionally underexplored period, this book focuses on the treatment of Greek Jews under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas in the years leading up to the Second World War. Almost 86% of Greek Jews died in the Holocaust, leading many to think this was because of Metaxas and his fascist ideology. However, the situation in Greece was much more complicated; in fact, Metaxas in his policies often attempted to quash anti-Semitism. The Fourth of August Regime and Greek Jewry, 1936-1941 explores how the Jews fit (and did not fit) into Metaxas's vision for Greece. Drawing on unpublished archival sources and Holocaust survivor testimonies, this book presents a ground-breaking contribution to Greek history, the history of Greek anti-Semitism, and sheds light on attitudes towards Jews during the interwar period.
Katerina Lagos is Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), in the USA, and the Director of the Angelo K. Tsakopoulos Hellenic Studies Center and Hellenic Studies Program. Katerina teaches modern European and Greek history, having previously studied at the University of Washington, New York University, and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. She has published on interwar Greece, minorities, and has co-edited The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967-1974 (2021).