Thanksgiving in Athens

In Greece, perhaps to a greater extent than in any other country of occupied Europe, hunger is Hitler's principal ally. From refugees, last week, came stories of the plight of those left behind:

> As early as mid-September men and women fainting from hunger were a common sight in the streets of Athens, Salonika, Peiraeus. Bread, wheat and flour were the first commodities the Germans confiscated. Later they took tomatoes, sent them to Libya, where German troops were suffering from scurvy. Dried figs and raisins, now the staples of Greek diet, also are being commandeered, shipped to Germany.

> There is plenty of money. The Germans see to that. Every Saturday night German printing presses are set up in the streets and German soldiers are paid in banknotes hot off the press. On one side the "value" of the banknote is printed; on the other, a warning that refusal to accept the money is punishable by law.

> With money devaluated and the population starving. Greeks still look with contempt on the invaders. On a bus in Athens an Italian officer offered his seat to a Greek soldier with an amputated leg. Said the Greek: "I'd rather stand than accept your kindness." The Italian did not know what to do, but a German officer did. He arrested the Greek, took him to German headquarters, made him stand on his one leg for three hours, saluting every officer who entered or left.

>Partitioning of Greece is foreshadowed by the deportation of thousands of Greeks from Thrace and Macedonia, by an influx of Bulgarians to occupy the abandoned homes and farms.

> To a young woman who pleaded to be left one sack of potatoes after all the food in her house had been requisitioned, a German officer said politely: "I am sorry, but you must realize there are at present twice as many Greeks as we need here. Half must die. The rich shall become poor and the poor shall die. That is our policy, and I am unable to make an exception in your case."

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