This includes approximately 10,000 cases, which were heard after a claim was filed by persons who had sold property during the Occupation and were now, under Law 1323/1949, requesting that said property be returned.

The archives of the Athens Court of First Instance comprise the judgments of the cases heard by the court but not the lawsuits themselves, meaning that we are not in possession of complete case histories with all the relevant information on the parties and properties involved in each case[1].

Data for the study on the economy during the occupation was collected through meticulous and exhaustive indexing of court judgments issued during 1950–1955 and of witness depositions where these exist. Thus, whilst we indexed 600 judgments, we only have employment information for about half of the claimants.

Witnesses for the buyers (the parties that purchased properties during the occupation) aimed to convince judges that

• The pre-war value of a given property (when this was not of negligible worth) was more than 750,000 drachmas, which was the legal limit for a claim, meaning that the claim would therefore be dismissed automatically.
• The seller had a considerable estate and/or savings and was employed in a profession that guaranteed a good standard of living, meaning that the return of the property was not a real necessity.
• The buyer had invested a significant sum of money in making improvements to the property, an amount equal to or greater than half the real value of the property, meaning that the property would not be returned but the seller would be reimbursed with an amount equal to real value of the property at the time of the sale.
• The buyer was the victim of a bombing, fire or organised leftist activity, meaning that the property would not be returned but the seller would be reimbursed with an amount equal to real value of the property at the time of the sale.
• The claimant “voluntarily participated in leftist organisations” or was known to have “anarchist ideas” and therefore was denied the right to claim that the property be returned. This archive, very much a product of its time, clearly conveys the prevalent sentiment in post–civil-war Athens where anyone suspected of being of leftist ideology was automatically denied even their basic rights.

It appears thus that the majority of transactions (82%) took place between October 1941 and October 1942—the worst period of the occupation in terms of food shortages, hunger and inflated prices—and only 5% of transactions occurred in 1943.

 

The history of register offices in Greece illustrates the country’s administrative history: unenforced laws and a manifest ignorance of legal regulations and other requirements. In total, it took three rounds of legislation before register offices could operate effectively, in the manner we are familiar with today.

The first attempt to introduce the institution of register offices came six years after the London Protocol of 1830, which recognised Greece as a sovereign state. The Royal Decree ‘Περί ληξιαρχικών βιβλίων’ (‘On Civil Registers’), of 20 October/1 November 1836^[1], stipulated that mayors were to also serve as registrars during their terms and laid out a detailed account of their duties and obligations, and of the proper way of keeping birth, marriage and death records. It seems, however, that this decree was never enforced, as two decades later, in 1856, a new law^[2] was voted in. A number of circulars were issued during those two intervening decades, threatening sanctions against any mayors who neglected their duties as registrars; for example, Circular no. 141 ‘Περί Συντάξεως και Αποστολής των Πινάκων των Γεννήσεων, Γάμων και Αποβιώσεων’ (‘On Completing and Forwarding Birth, Marriage and Death Registers’), dated  19 August 1846^[3]. The 1856 ‘Αστικός Ελληνικός Νόμος’ (‘Greek Civil Law’) comprised three sections; the second of these comprised in turn of five chapters and sixty articles and dealt with registry records. The Royal Decree ‘Προς Εκτέλεσιν του Περί Ληξιαρχικών Πράξεων Νόμου’ (‘On Enforcing the Law on Civil Registry Records’)^[4] was issued less than a week later and addressed practical aspects of enforcing the law. However, this law too was not immediately enforced. Of the few cases we know of where it was enforced, in cities (Athens, Piraeus) and on the islands, records were kept from 1859 on, and consistent enforcement is seen only in death registers.

Consistent and meticulous completion of registry records was achieved with the 1920 Law ‘Περί των Ληξιαρχικών Πράξεων’ (‘On Civil Registry Records’)^[5] which was finally enforced in 1925^[6].

For a detailed presentation of these laws, and of the structure and operation of the Athens Register Office, see Ληξιαρχείον Αθηνών (1836-2006): Ιστορικά Στοιχεία και Σωζόμενα Αρχεία by Eleftherios G. Skiadas (Athens: City of Athens Development Agency, 2005). The book also includes a brief overview of the Register Office’s records for the period 1859–2005.

The records that have been indexed and processed into electronic databases until now are:

1. Registry records of births, Municipality of Athens, 1915 and 1926
2. Registry records of marriages, Municipality of Athens, 1859-1960
3. Registry records of deaths, Municipality of Athens, 1859-1920 and 1939-1944
4. Registry records of marriages 1934-1991 and Registry records of deaths 1934-1953, Egaleo Register Office
5. Registry records of deaths, all Capital Region municipalities, 1939-1944

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^[1] Royal Decree of 20 October 1836, “Περί Ληξιαρχικών Βιβλίων”, Government Gazette issue 59, 28 October 1836, pp. 300–303.
^[2] Law of 29 October 1856, Government Gazette issue 75, 15 November 1856, pp. 399–405.
^[3] Circular no. 141, “Περί Συντάξεως και Αποστολής των Πινάκων των Γεννήσεων, Γάμων και Αποβιώσεων”, 19 August 1846.
^[4] Royal Decree of 31 October 1856, “Προς Εκτέλεσιν του Περί Ληξιαρχικών Πράξεων Νόμου”, Government Gazette issue 77, 21 November 1856, pp. 415–418.
^[5] Law 2430 of 29 June 1920, “Περί των Ληξιαρχικών Πράξεων”, Government Gazette issue 156 A’, 14 July 1920, pp. 1565–1569.
^[6] Royal Decree of 14 August 1924, “Περί Εκτελέσεως του Περί Ληξιαρχικών Πράξεων υπ΄αριθμ. 2430 Νόμου”, Government Gazette issue 200 A’, 21 August 1924, p. 1178.

 

 

University of Athens Historical Archive, Rectors’ Speeches, 1850–1914   
The archives of ‘Marika Iliadi’ Hospital, 1933–1940
Igglesis’ Guide to Greece; volumes for the years 1910, 1921, 1930, 1939, 1947–1948  and 1957–1958
Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, Athens Telephone Directory, 1949
National Statistical Service of Greece, population censuses and population movement data.

Notarial archives are a veritable treasure trove for social history, as they include records of all landmark transactions in people’s social and financial lives: from the dowry contract--and, therefore, the creation of a family--on one end to the will and testament and the inventory of the estate on the other, as well as the multitude of financial transactions between these, including purchases and sales, rental agreements, loans, and employment contracts.

According to the 1879 census, which was the first time that residents’ occupations and employment information was officially recorded and included in the data, there were 24 notary offices in the Athens. In 1905, according to N. Igglesis’ Guide to Greece^[1], there were 32 notaries in the capital^[2], and this number had gone up to 129^[3] by 1926.

For the period studied, there are three main bodies in Athens that keep notarial records:

• The General State Archives (Γενικά Αρχεία του Κράτους),61 Dafnis Street, Psyhiko
• The Notary Association of the Courts of Appeal, Athens–Piraeus (Συμβολαιογραφικός Σύλλογος Εφετείων Αθηνών – Πειραιώς), 4 G.Gennadiou Street, Exarheia

The list of notaries whose archives are kept by the Association is not open to the public. We do, however, know that the Association maintains the archives of 40 notaries who began practicing their profession after 1860.

• The Athens Land & Mortgage Registry (Έμμισθο Υποθηκοφυλακείο Αθηνών), 75 Aristotelous Street, Athens

The Land & Mortgage Registry records every deed that affects the legal status of a property (purchases and sales, bequests, dowries). The Registers were established by Law ‘Περί Μεταγραφών’ (‘On Registrations’) in 1856, and their operations were set out in the Regulatory Decree ‘Περί Οργανισμού των Υποθηκοφυλακείων του Κράτους’ (‘On Organising the State’s Land & Mortgage Registries’) and in article 11 of Law 4201/1961, ‘Περί Τροποποίησης και Συμπλήρωσης του Οργανισμού των Υποθηκοφυλακείων του Κράτους’ (‘On Amending and Completing the Organisation of the State’s Land & Mortgage Registries’). The Athens Land & Mortgage Registry began operating in 1857 and, during the period studied, also kept records for districts that are no longer part of the Municipality of Athens (e.g. Psyhiko, Nea Ionia, Galatsi).

The archives that have been indexed and processed into electronic databases until now are:

1. Athens Land & Mortgage Registry, Purchases and Sales for the years 1910, 1920, 1930, 1939 and 1957
2. The archive of Athens notary Dimitrios G. Vouzikis, 1886-1919
3. The archive of Athens notary Christos D. Magkafas, 1931-1950
4. The archive of Athens notary Nicholaos G. Kanavaris, 1957
5. The archive of the Athens Court of First Instance, ‘Κατοχικαί αποφάσεις’ (Court Judgments Regarding Cases of the Occupation period), 1950-1960

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 ^[1] First published in 1905, N. Igglesis' Guide to Greece was published annually during 1910–1957. The guide contained a plethora of information, covering various topics such as the economy, trade, shipping, agriculture and transportation.
^[2] The 1907 Census recorded 51 notaries in the province of Attica.
^[3] Στατιστική της Δικαιοσύνης (‘Statistics of the Ministry of Justice’),1926.