Hand loomed wool blanket. Made in Greece March 1946

This blanket is a prized possession. As a small child, on rare occasions when the weather was especially cold, my parents would add it to the bed covers for my sister and me. It was certainly warm but heavy and scratchy! My sister and I knew it was very special but because we knew no better, we called it “the Indian blanket”.

As a young adult, I was surprised to learn it was actually a Greek blanket and my dad had witnessed it being loomed in the Greek countryside of the Patras district in March 1946.

The background story is:
WWII had just ended. The Varkiza Agreement provided that elections should be conducted in Greece to settle the question if it should once again be a dictatorship or become a democracy with elected representatives.
There was a high likelihood of intimidation and interference in the elections. (Wow, does that ever resonate with the current US political mess!!)
Greece requested impartial observation of their elections to ensure fairness.
My dad was honored to be a part of the observations as a member of The Allied Mission For Observing Greek Elections ( known as AMFOGE). Representatives from US, England and France participated in that post-war mission.

The blanket measures 82” X 70”. It was woven as 2 sections 35” wide, then hand-stitched together down the middle with wool yarn.

The wool is coarse. The colors are vibrant.
The main design represents red olives, their leaves and branches. Olives have been grown in Greece historically as a main agricultural product.
Olive branches represent peace.
I’ve always wondered if the bright red and white checked area represent the decades of bloodshed suffered by the Greek.
The upper and lower edges of the blanket are a dull olive green, such as the color of many military uniforms.
I like to think they used that color at the beginning and end of the blanket to recognize the military (theirs and the Allies).
I don’t think they would have hand woven the intricate design but just threw in some olive-drab yarn because it was handy.

Since my dad’s first glimpse of this blanket, he had known he wanted it. As it was being finished, he stopped at the pitiful partly war-ruined house where the weavers were working at the loom in the yard. Thru his team’s interpreter, he learned that they didn’t want money. They wanted something to eat.

He was very moved by their request and hand-to-mouth gestures to indicate the act of eating.

He returned to the place he was staying and got his stash of rations from under his bunk as well as 3 Army blankets he could spare.
The people were overjoyed to make the trade. He got the beautiful blanket and they got 3 cases of “10 and 1 rations” which were meant to feed 1 man for 10 days or vice versa......so that was essentially 90 meals for these people who were in desperate need.

My dad said word must have spread quickly about the trade because for the remainder of his days there, he noticed locals pointing him out and some came to him to express their gratitude for him providing food to the weavers.

So that’s it in a nutshell....I tried to be concise but squeeze in the story of why this blanket is special to me.
I did submit pictures/details to the appraisal service but didn’t gain any information I didn’t
already know.
I would love to see similar blankets from Greece from the inter-war and immediate post-war years.

I welcome all info and comments!
Thanks for reading/looking!