THE TRAGIC EVENTS OF THE HOLOCAUST AND THE GREEK CHRISTIANS; HELP TO THE JEWS
Orestes Varvitsiotes
Greek News
me=News&file=article&sid=7971
Jan 21 2008
New York
On the occasion of the designation of January 27 as a Day of
Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust in Greece, it is timely
to recount these horrific events, and also to examine how their
Christian brothers acted and reacted to those events. To begin with,
it must be acknowledged that the subject of the Holocaust in Greece,
though not deliberately, had been left to benign neglect so to speak
for a long time. It resurfaced again in the mid-1990ʼs with the
advent of the 50th anniversary of the end of the World War II and the
erections of the various Holocaust memorials to mark the event. There
are many reasons for the silence, of course. I would like to point
out, however, that the tragic developments that took place in Greece
after the Liberation, i.e., the civil war, the imperatives of the
Cold War and the desire of the Greek people to bury the events of
the unpleasant past, also contributed to this neglect.
Yet, it is a story that must be told, both for its tragic aspect,
i.e., almost the total annihilation of an entire people and also for
the empathy and assistance they received from the Greek Christian
population during their ordeal. Although Greek Christian-Jewish
relations (especially in Thessaloniki) were not always at their best,
there was no official or institutional anti-Semitism in Greece. In
fact, as soon as Thessaloniki was liberated by the Greek forces in
1912, King George I and other Greek officials went out of their way
to re-assure the Jews that they had nothing to fear and they were
welcome as one of the cityʼs thriving communities. Indeed the Jews
continued to live their lives as before with their own institutions:
synagogues, schools, a hospital, newspapers, orphanages and an old
age home.
In order to understand what happened to the Jews in Greece, one must
have an idea of their history and the demographics at the time of the
Holocaust. The Jews arrived in Greece prior to the Current Era, as
early as 140 BC, and maybe even earlier, since there are archaeological
remains of a synagogue in Delos dating back to the 3rd century BC. At
the time of Paul the Apostle (circa AD53), we know that thriving Jewish
communities existed in continental Greece, the Greek islands and in
Asia Minor, then inhabited by Greeks. As a matter of fact, it was
St. Paulʼs visits to these communities that started Christianity
going by visiting the Jewish Diaspora of the Greek World. But he did
not get anywhere with the Jews; as a matter of fact he had to flee in
the darkness of the night several times to save his life, for he was
considered a heretic and his teachings, blasphemous. Along the way,
however, he made converts among the Greeks, at which time he changed
his tactics and concentrated on them. The descendants of these Jews
are called Romaniotes (Greek speaking). At the time of the Holocaust,
their main centers were the city of Ioannina, in Epirus-a region of
northwestern Greece-and the nearby towns: Arta, Preveza, Kastoria,
Trikkala, and Larissa. (Although the latter two towns had "mixed"
communities, meaning there were also Sephardic Jews; i.e., Jews
who came from Spain. Other smaller communities also existed in the
islands and other parts of Greece. (After Greeceʼs independence,
there was a small community in Athens as well.)
The first Ashkenazi (Central and East European Jews who speak Yiddish
or Jewish German written in Hebrew letters) came to Thessaloniki
from Hungary and Germany in 1376 in order to escape persecution, and
their arrival continued throughout the fifteenth century. In 1394 as
well as during the Venetian rule (1423-1430), other smaller groups
came from the Provence, mainland Italy and Sicily. On March 26 1430,
after a three-day siege, Thessaloniki fell to the Turks. Slaughter,
looting and taking of slaves followed to such a point that the Sultan,
Murat II, intervened in order to put an end to the slaughter. The
devastation was so brutal that he personally freed at his own expense
many prisoners and, subsequently, tried to revive and repopulate
the devastated city by bringing Turks as well as Christians from the
surrounding area. Thus, when the Jews were forced to leave Spain in
1492, the Sultan, Beyazid II, saw a great opportunity to repopulate
the city, and with talented people at that. Of the Spanish Jews
who thus arrived in the Ottoman Empire, a number of them settled in
Constantinople, Smyrna and to a lesser extent some other places.
Thessaloniki, however, attracted the largest number of the Sephardim,
and thus they became the largest ethnic element in Salonika, as they
came to call Thessaloniki. Soon afterwards, others also began to
come from Italy as well as Ashkenazi from Germany and other parts
of Europe. But the Sephardim dominated the scene. In due course,
Thessaloniki would become a thriving community and a vibrant Jewish
cultural center, gaining for itself a reputation as the "Second
Jerusalem" and "Mother of Israel". In the 1913 census conducted
by the Greek authorities, out of the total population of 157, 889,
61,439 were Jews, 45,889 Turks, 39,956 Greeks, and a small number
of Armenians, Bulgarians, and Europeans. (According to a 1919 Jewish
census, their number was 90,000.) By contrast, the Jewish population
in Constantinople and Smyrna was just between 5-10% of the total.
The demographics of Thessaloniki, however, began to change drastically
after the Balkan Wars (1912-14), the Russian Revolution (1917) and
the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922), when a continuous flow of Greeks
from Bulgaria, Russia and Turkey poured into Thessaloniki.
During the exchange of population in 1923-24, a large number of
the 1.2 million Greek refugees from Turkey settled in Thessalonike
and other parts of northern Greece. It is estimated that the total
population of Thessalonike in 1941 was about 225,000. At the time,
of the 72,900 Jews living in Greece, 56,000 lived in Thessalonike. The
total population of Greece was just over 7 million.
By this time, the Jews in all parts of Greece were assimilated or
mainstreamed, except in Thessaloniki. There they lived in their own
quarters, spoke Ladino (a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew) as their
mother tongue, and had their own schools, newspapers, a hospital, two
orphanages, an old age home, and cultural centers. It was not until
1932, when it became mandatory that the Greek language be taught in all
schools-be it public or private-that the Jews began to learn Greek. The
lack of knowledge of Greek will cost them dearly, as it is considered
one of the reasons that the Thessaloniki Jews did not take to the
mountains to escape, and they so easily became captives of the Germans.
When Mussolini ordered the attack against Greece in October 1940,
many Jews served in the Greek Army and fought in the Albanian Front.
(A total of 12,898 enlisted men and 343 officers, of which 513 died
and 3,743 wounded.) As a matter of fact, the first victim of the war
was Colonel Mardohai Fritzis, who became legendary for his courage.
The inability of the Italians to conquer Greece brought in the Germans,
who wanted to protect the oilfields of Romania from possible British
air strikes and also to cover Wermachtʼs southern flank when
they would invade Russia, as they planned. Thus, Germany attacked
Greece on April 6, 1941, occupied Thessaloniki on April 9 and Athens
on April 21. The Battle of Crete took place between May 20 and 30. On
May 31 the entire of Greece was under German occupation.
On June, the Axis divided Greece into three sectors: the Germans took
Athens, Thessaloniki and western Macedonia, Crete and a few other
islands; the Bulgarians eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and the Italians,
the rest.
The problems for the Jews in Thessalonike began immediately, and in
earnest: The day after the Germans occupied Thessaloniki they ordered
the closing of the Jewish newspapers: one was published in Ladino
and two in French. At the same time they began the publication of Nea
Evrope, a virulent pro-Nazi newspaper that will play a major role in
spreading poisonous propaganda against the Jews and the Allies. On
April 15 they arrested all members of the Community Council, and a
few days later more of their leaders. They also arrested the Chief
Rabbi, Dr. Zvi Koretz, whom they sent to prison in Vienna, and they
appointed Sabby Saltiel as president of the Community. Saltiel is
described as a "mild-mannered man and a non-entity". Now, having
their own man in charge of the community, they released the members
of the Council they had previously arrested. They forbid the Jews
from habituating in the cafes and pastry shops, took over their
hospital-literally throwing out in the streets the patients-looted the
community offices and confiscated stores and houses. Then on July 11,
1942, they ordered all males between the ages of 18 and 45 to gather
in Plateia Eleftherias (Liberty Square), where they were subjected
to all sorts of indignities, including beating, and were made to
register. Not even animals are treated in such an inhuman manner. This
event brought to surface the height and depth of the Nazi ability to
brutality and barbarism that will be amply demonstrated throughout
Greece (and Europe) in the future.
Ultimately, 3,000 Jews were sent to forced labor camps, where they
suffered untold hardships and many died from hunger, the cold and
exhaustion.
In December 1942, after firing Saltiel as president and arresting
his interpreter and stool pigeon, Albala, the Germans reestablished
the Community Council and appointed new members with Rabbi Koretz as
president. The members they selected were respectable citizens and that
gave the Jews a sigh of relief hoping that maybe, at last, things will
get better after all. Indeed, the main task and preoccupation of the
community and its leadership became the fate of the people in forced
labor, the alleviation of their plight and their release. Finally, they
were able to negotiate their release by paying 2.5 billion drachmas
to Dr. Martens, the Thessaloniki German commandant. Other events:
The destruction of the Jewish cemetery
The confiscation of businesses and factories
The squeeze for money that reduced the communityʼs ability to
continue other social programs, such as the feeding of the poor and
the young.
Then on February 2, 1943 an SD (Sichrheitsdienst) committee arrived
in Thessaloniki, headed by Dieter Wesliceny and SS Lt. Alois Brunner.
On February 6, they put in motion the mechanism for the final
destruction of the Jews. Now the Jews were forced to wear the yellow
Star of David and to live only in certain neighborhoods, actual
ghettos. They also created a Jewish Militia to keep order. These
measures, claimed the Germans through the mouth of Dr. Koretz, were
aimed at restructuring the Jewish community into a self-administering
body, located in an autonomous area of the city, with their own
mayor and chamber of commerce. In fact, deceit and absolute secrecy
of their plans made it possible for the Germans to mislead and
lure the Jews onto their own destruction. It also neutralized the
Christian populace of the city, thus making it easier for them
to carry out their plans. Unfortunately, the Jewish leadership,
and especially Rabbi Koretz, did not heed the urging of EAM (the
Communist led Resistance organization) to join the Resistance and
flee to the mountains. Instead, he dutifully obeyed German orders
and tried to ameliorate them with "good behavior". Dr. Koretz tried
to solicit the help of the quisling prime minister, Logothetopoulos,
who was sympathetic to them. However, the ardent anti-Semite governor
of Macedonia, Simonides, was facilitating the German plans, because
he claimed that the Jewish houses were needed to shelter the Greek
refugees from the Bulgarian occupied sector. An appeal made by
the bishop of Thessalonike, Ghennadios, was of no avail. Neither
did the appeal of Archbishop, Damaskinos, and the presidents of all
major cultural, professional and business associations of Athens and
Piraeus. Damaskinos Appeal, as it came to be known, is an important
historical document and an act of unique courage.
On March 6, 1943 the Jews were prohibited from exiting their ghetto
confines, while at the Baron Hirsch section-now converted into a
transit camp-the stage was set for the final act: From there, the
Jews would be loaded on trains that will carry them, under the most
inhuman conditions, to the German concentration camps, and their
death. The first convoy left on March 15, 1943. Consecutive convoys
followed, spaced a few days apart. By August 18, in just six months,
no Jew was left in what was an ancient and vibrant community. Of its
46,091 members sent to the death camps, only 1950 survived. Today,
there are only 1,200 Jews living in Thessaloniki, as some of the
survivors subsequently emigrated to America and Israel.
The fate of the Jews in other parts of Greece had its own
peculiarities. In the Bulgarian sector the Jews met the same fate as
in Thessaloniki: almost total extermination. Of the approximately 5,500
Jews living in the area, 4,215 were sent to Treblinka and to immediate
death. Things were different for a while in the Italian sector:
not only were the German orders completely ignored; but the Italians
actively helped many Jews to escape. However, the situation changed in
September 1943 when Italy surrendered to the Allies and switched sides
in the war. Then the German war machine began to implement their "final
solution" in what was previously the Italian sector. They thoroughly
succeeded in Ioannina with the sheepish collaboration of Cabili, a very
prominent member of the Jewish community, as well as in Arta, Preveza,
Chalkis, Corfu, Crete and Rhodes. In Corfu, the most despicable thing
happened, where the mayor and his cohorts, all Nazi collaborators,
clapped as the Jews were taken away, destined to their death camps. The
Cretan Jews were drowned while they were transported to Piraeus, and
a British submarine torpedoed their boat. In Athens, when the Chief
Rabbi, Elias Barzelai, was ordered by the Germans to submit the names
of the Jews, his abduction was engineered by EAM and Jewish members
of the Resistance, and was taken to the mountains. At the same time,
the Athens synagogue was set on fire, in order to destroy the records.
This sent a message to the Jews of Athens to hide and seek shelter
amongst the Christian populace or flee the country. EAM/ELAS actively
helped many Jews to find shelter and set up a mechanism for those
who wished and could afford it to flee to Turkey and from there to
Palestine. Only those who couldnʼt or trusted German intentions
and assurances, registered. At the same time, EAM circulated leaflets
warning those who would turn in any Jews that they will be executed
as traitors. They also published an appeal by Rabbi Barzelai for the
Jews to join the Resistance and flee to the mountains. At this time,
Archbishop Damaskinos did all he could to assist the Jews escape and
survive. Besides appealing to both Logothetopoulos and Altenburg,
Hitlerʼs representative in Athens, he formed a three-member
committee for the specific purpose to render assistance to the Jews,
to find ways to save them. It is a well-known fact that the Chief of
Police of Athens, Angelos Evert, saved many Jews by issuing false
ID cards. The Archbishop ordered the clergy to extend all possible
assistance to the Jews, including the issue of false baptismal papers
and hiding them in monasteries. Indeed, the efforts of the Greek
Orthodox Church were sincere, extensive, persistent, and courageous (in
contrast to the Catholic Church and the Pope). As a result, the Jews
who were sent to the death camps from Athens were less than a 1,000,
and this number includes many who had come to Athens for safety,
but were caught or betrayed. For it is a sad commentary that Jews
working for the Gestapo betrayed many Jews. In Patras, Larissa and
Trikkala, Jews fared "better", with the help of the local populace and
the Resistance. In Volos and Zakynthos, most Jews were saved thanks
to the brave efforts of their bishops. In Katerini, the Greek chief
of police, with the passive acquiescence of the German commander,
delayed the execution of the order to round up the Jews and, instead,
warned them to flee. Most were led to safety.
Nevertheless, the total number of Jews who survived the Holocaust
in Greece was merely 10,000. Those who perished, 62,573!! Indeed,
a very heavy toll and a tragic event in the annals of human history!
Orestes Varvitsiotes
(*) The material used in this article was obtained, among others, from
the following sources: The Jews of Greece, by Nicholas Stavroulakis:
Athens, Talos Press, 1990. The Jews of Ioannina, by Rae Dalven:
Philadelphia, Cadmus Press, 1990. War-time Jews: The Case of
Athens, by Alexander Kitroeff: Athens, ELIAMEP, 1995. In Memoriam
(Greek translation from the French), by Michael Molho: Thessaloniki,
1976. Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, (booklet in both English and
Greek) by Albertos Nar: Jewish Community of Thessalonike. Archbishop
Damaskinos, Years of Enslavement (in Greek), by Elias Venezis: Athens,
Estia Press, 1981. Thessalonike 1897-1997 (in Greek) by Demetrios
A. Drogides: Thessalonike, University Studio, 1996.