Taking advantage of the official nomination of 2024 as the Year of Philhellenism and in the context of its “Corfu remembers…” series of events, the Albert Cohen Association Corfu has decided to organize a special commemorative event on the subject, dedicated to the Philhellenes in general who, under various personal capacities and occupations, came effectively to our Nation’s help during especially critical times in its history.
Many well-known names come to our memory, such as Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, Jean-Gabriel Eynard - but also many other personalities from Europe, America and other nationalities that, although they were not Greek, believed in the dramatically difficult struggle of the enslaved Hellenes for acquiring their liberty, made it their own cause and helped effectively, each one in his capacity, to the re-establishment of the 19th century free Hellenic State and also to its necessary subsequent support.
It was certainly not in our board’s intentions, neither in its members’ limited knowledge on the subject, to cover in its entity that wide a theme. We managed, however, to secure the contribution from eminent historians specialized on the subject that, in their presentations for this event, are referring to specific cases, some even related to Corfu and probably unknown to most. These presentations compose the main content of this commemorative publication, and we are deeply grateful to their authors.
We believe that both the local and foreign readers will acquire some interesting new facts on the Philhellenism movement, honoring in that way the memory of personalities and related events that offered so much to our country.
The Albert Cohen Corfu Association