Grekoff, his father and one of his brothers, at first became farm workers in the south, before working in the "Hutchinson" factories in Chalette close to Montargis.
It was during his captivity that he met the owner of Editions de Cluny, who, immediately after their release, commissioned him to illustrate several luxury edition books, including "Les fleurs du mal" by Baudelaire (etchings); "The blind clairvoyant" by Father Bruckberger (etchings); and "Hell" by Patrice Tower Pine (lithographs).
The result such a success that the publisher of Crezevault Adressat commissioned seventy two lithographs from him for an edition of "Crime and Punishment", which took Grekoff two years to complete.
Album dit Zutique (extraits) by Arthur Rimbaud, providing 17 homoerotic engravings for a luxury edition of just thirty copies, a few of which were hand coloured.
In 1954 he illustrated Tirésias by Marcel Jouhandeau, for an edition of 120, providing 20 wood engravings, 15 of which were published in the book, and 5 in a separate slipcase as refusées prints.
Until 1962, Grekoff compositions consisted in large measure of human themes: somewhat melancholic young men, girls and children, in arcadian settings.