Figure 1.--Greek dictator Metaxas is seen here with a boy, young man and woman EON Fallagites. Picture from "Neolaia magazine" November 1939.

Scoting from an early stage in its development adopted an internatioanlist approach. With the rise of Fascism after World War I and the development of political parties with intense ultra-nationalist, often racist ideologies, youth groups with more nationalistic programs were founded. The NAZIs supported these groups in many occupied countries, but many were founded before World War II began. Not all nationalist groups were Fascist, but most were. Often political parties would found youth auxileries. Some countries had several such organizations. In Greece we know of only one natioanlist group--EON.

Ethniki Organosi Neolaias (EON)

Greece like neigboring countries was swept up in the 1930s with highly nationalistic sentiment. Fascist political parties fed on this sentiment. We know of one nationalist uniformed groups, the Ethniki Organosi Neolaias (EON--National Organization of Youth) which operated from 1936-41. This was a Fascist organization sponsored by the filo-fascist dictator, Joannes Metaxas. EON was rather an anomally among European Fascist youth groups. This was because a Fascist dictatorship was established before World War II and then attacked by both the Italians and Germans. Greek's Fascist dictator successfully resisted the Italian invasion in 1940, but died before the German invadsion in 1941. Greece's Fascist Goverbment still wound up fighting against the Fascists in World War II. EON was very popular and boys and girls from democratic and even communist families joined. Unlike the Scouts, even children from poor families could participate in Scouting.

Other Groups

We know of no other Greek nationalist youth group. We are not aware of what occurred during World War II. We do not think there was any right-wing pro-NAZI youth group formed. In NAZI-occupied Europe this only ocurred in northern Europe. We do note some youth auxilleries of the resistance groups. One example was Aetopoula -- The Little Eagles. While we have some information on the resistance groups, we don't know much about the youth auxileries yet.