The Kalamata Diary: Greece, War, and Emigration

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From October 28, 1940 until February of 1947, Sotiria Salivaras provided a unique eye-witness account of life in Kalamata, Greece before, during, and after World War II through her meticulous diary entries. In The Kalamata Diary: Greece, War and Emigration, Eduardo D. Faingold carefully analyzes and contextualizes the major events in modern Greek history about which Salivaras writes in her diary. He examines the expulsion of the Greek minority from Turkey in the aftermath of World War I, as well as the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers during World War II and the Greek civil war. Following Salivaras from her teenage years in Greece to her adult life in Argentina, Faingold also explores immigration patterns from Greece to Argentina and Latin America. Drawing from extensive tape-recorded interviews with Salivaras and her sons, Faingold offers a glimpse into Salivaras's life long after she ceased maintaining her diary.

Reviews

The Kalamata Diary: Greece, War, and Emigration provides a fascinating view of the Greco-Italian War and German invasion of Greece. Sotiria Salivaras's diary reproduces at length original statements made by Greek leaders during that turbulent time and reveals the hopes and anxieties of a nation at war. Eduardo Faingold uses interviews and narrative to elucidate two different but interrelated episodes in Greek history: the experience of world war, occupation, and civil war in the 1940s and the immigration of Greekslike Salivarasto Latin America. -- Jay Howard Geller, University of Tulsa

Author Bio

Eduardo D. Faingold is associate professor of Spanish at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.