National Union of Greece

The National Union of Greece (Greek: Εθνική Ένωσις Ελλάδος, Ethniki Enosis Ellados or EEE) was a far-right political party established in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1927.

Registered as a mutual aid society, the EEE was founded by Asia Minor refugee businesspeople. According to the organisation's constitution, only Christians could join. Its members were in political and, especially, commercial antagonism with Thessaloniki's substantial Jewish population.

It was eventually led by Georgios Kosmidis (Γιώργος Κοσμίδης), a banking clerk. Estimates put the party's strength at 7,000 members in 1932; by 1933, it had 3,000 of its members march to Athens, in apparent imitation of Benito Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome.^[1] However, it polled poorly in the 1934 city elections in Thessaloniki, and in 1935, the party dissolved as a result of political in-fighting.

Owing to its paramilitary uniforms and organisation, the party was commonly referred to as "The Three Epsilons" (τα Τρία Εψιλον) or "The Steelhelmets" (οι Χαλυβδόκρανοι), in allusion to the German paramilitary Der Stahlhelm.

References

External links

• History of the EEE (in Greek)

Further reading

• Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, London: HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN 0-00-712023-0