Panhellenic Liberation Organization

Panhellenic Liberation Organization
Participant in the Greek Resistance
Active	1941–1944
Ideology	Anti-communism, Greek nationalism
Leaders	Spyros Spiridis
Area of operations	Macedonia and Western Thrace
Size	Several hundred (1944)
Part of	Greek Resistance (1941–1943) Hellenic State (1944)
Allies	Greek government-in-exile, Special Operations Executive (1941–1943) Wehrmacht, Security Battalions (1944)
Opponents	Bulgaria EAM-ELAS Wehrmacht (1941–1943)

The Panhellenic Liberation Organization (Greek: Πανελλήνιος Απελευθερωτική Οργάνωσις (ΠΑΟ), Panellinios Apeleftherotiki Organosis (PAO)), was a Greek undercover resistance organization against the Axis occupation of Greece. It was founded in 1941 by a group of Greek army officers, under the name Defenders of Northern Greece (Υπερασπισταί Βορείου Ελλάδος, YBE; Yperaspistai Voreiou Ellados, YVE), employing methods of non violent resistance. In 1943, YVE was renamed as the Panhellenic Liberation Organization (PAO), shifting its focus towards armed struggle. In the August of the same year it came into conflict with Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), a communist-led resistance organization. PAO was defeated in the ensuing civil war and its remnants turned towards collaboration with the Germans.

On 28 October 1940, Italy declared war on Greece, expecting a swift victory but the invasion failed and the Italians were pushed back into Albania. As the war dragged on, on 6 April 1941 Germany was forced to intervene to support its struggling ally. The small Greek force defending the Metaxas Line on the Greco–Bulgarian border was defeated by the better equipped and numerically superior Germans. The German penetration deep into Greece made further resistance at the Albanian front pointless, ending the Battle of Greece in the favor of the Axis Powers. Greece was subjected to a triple occupation by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. Unlike Italy and Germany, Bulgaria did not administer eastern Macedonia and the parts of Western Thrace it controlled through Greek collaborators, but annexed the area to form the province of Belomorie. The Bulgarian language was made compulsory in all administrative matters, as well as in the education and liturgy. Businessmen were forced to accept Bulgarian partners or even hand their property over to Bulgarian control. Efforts to promote Bulgarisation were also enacted in the German-controlled Greek Macedonia, through the creation of Bulgarian clubs in all major towns. The first resistance organization in northern Greece was founded in May 1941; Eleutheria (Liberty) united people from across the political spectrum ranging from communists to Venizelists. The group was short-lived, as internal political disagreements and the work of Axis intelligence services suppressed its activities, but bands belonging to the Communist-led National Liberation Front (EAM) and its Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), continued to emerge in the region.

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