Produced by the HHF’s award-winning History Committee, the six-part series delves into the turbulent events of WWII in Greece—exploring the Occupation, the Resistance, and the Holocaust—while highlighting the personal stories of Greek Canadians who lived through those years. Many of the voices featured in the podcast are drawn from the HHF Greek Canadian Archives at York University, offering first-hand accounts from seniors who reflect on their childhoods during the war and the hardships that defined their generation.
The project is the first instalment of a two-part exploration of Greece’s 1940s. Part Two: The Civil War will be released in March 2026 to mark the 80th anniversary of the conflict’s outbreak, and will feature additional archival interviews from the HHF collection.
“We originally planned to tell the story of the Civil War in Greece, but we found we couldn’t do it justice without going back to cover World War II,” explains Sandra Gionas, Chair of the HHF History Committee and co-host of the series. “They’re both stories along the same trajectory.”
Gionas hosts the series alongside Angelo Laskaris, a York University PhD candidate whose interviews form the backbone of the archive. For Laskaris, the project is deeply personal: “I wanted to tell the story of the trauma which led so many people of that generation to leave Greece and seek a better life elsewhere. Our grandparents’ generation lived through incredible hardship, and I didn’t want those stories to be lost.”
In addition to community testimonies, the podcast features insights from local and international experts, helping contextualize the political, social, and military forces that shaped the decade. Still, Gionas says the heart of the series lies with the people who endured it. “The real treat is hearing the voices of our own immigrant community who make the 1940s come alive for us.”
Episodes of Greece’s Darkest Decade, Part One will be released weekly from October 28 to November 25 and are available on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and the HHF website.
This latest season builds on the strong reputation The HHF Presents has already earned. Previous series have explored key chapters in Greek and diaspora history, including Exodus: The Stories of 1922, which won the 2023 Canadian Ethnic Media Association Award for Best Podcast Series, and The Idea of Greece, which was featured in the Greek Republic’s bicentennial campaign. Other seasons on the Athens Polytechnic uprising and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus earned nominations for Heritage Toronto Public History Awards.
The HHF History Committee—recognized for its work with the 2019 Heritage Toronto Community History Award for its commemoration of Toronto’s 1918 anti-Greek riots—is composed of volunteers from diverse backgrounds who share a commitment to preserving and sharing Greek Canadian history through public projects, exhibitions, walking tours, and podcasting.
You can find all HHF podcast episodes here: https://hhf.ca/podcasts/
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