The Freie Universität Berlin is one of the sponsors of the digital archive Memories of the Occupation in Greece Project. It collects, organises and makes accessible the personal memories of Greeks who endured the Axis occupation of 1941-1944. But there is a related story that involves a country on the other side of the word. New Zealand society has a special emotional place for the ordinary Greeks and Cretans who helped their soldiers evade capture or escape from enemy-occupied Greece. In public venues, official and family pilgrimages to Greece and Crete, commemoration, and publications, both this assistance and the cost to the civilians through executions and burning of villages, has been evident in New Zealand since the Second World War.

But what practical help was New Zealand able, or willing to alleviate the wartime and post-war suffering of the Greeks and Cretans with whom it professed to have a special relationship with? The actual history of New Zealand assistance is often one of conflict within New Zealand society. This seminar looks at the aspirations and limits of that humanitarian aid also with the added complications of Anglo –Greek relations and ongoing turbulent Greek civil conflict.

Dr. Martyn Brown is an Honorary Research Fellow with the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland, Australia. He has investigated the New Zealand-Wartime Connection for over 10 years. His findings have been published in academic journals and the popular press. He has also been a guest for extended interviews by community Greek radio stations in the UK and Australia. Most recently, Dr Brown has researched, written and co-produced a radio documentary/podcast on the free Greek military uprising of April 1944.