The History of The Jews of Salonika and The Holocaust: An Exposé

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust
The History of the Jews of Salonika and the Holocaust: An Expos1

By Paul Isaac Hagouel2 Introduction
The history of the Jewish presence in Salonika may be partitioned into the following chronological periods: A) From ancient times to 1492 CE, B) From 1492 to the occupation of Salonika by the German Armed Forces in April 9, 1941, C) The period of the German Occupation (April 9, 1941 to October 30, 1944) and D) From the date of liberation to the present. When did the Holocaust start and when did it end? How is the Holocaust defined? Certainly it is not only the chronicle and narration of miseries such as persecutions and murders inside gas chambers. Moreover, it is not inherently, and should not be harnessed as a pity producing mechanism. The persecution and physical annihilation of Jews by the Germans is only the culmination of the process and event that came to be known as the Holocaust. The term Holocaust incorporates all primal causes irrespective of how far back the past must be traced. Also included in the definition are actions or failures to react by any individual, group, society and/or state, that tolerates or worse, kindles activities that may lead to possible Holocausts of communitiesJewish or otherwise. Thus, the Holocaust is a function of both the past and the subsequent time span of the actual annihilation that was, simultaneously, the crux and the apex of the event.. Remembrancememory and its transmission are paramount both as a leverage for the admittance of any guilt and/or responsibility from the perpetrators, and as a catalyst for teaching humanity the traps of prejudice, racism and injustice. Per the partitioning on which this current expos relies, the history of pre-Holocaust Jewish Salonika is comprised of two chronological periods: ancient times to 1492 CE and 1492 to the 1941 commencement of German occupation. However, the Holocaust history of the Jews of Salonika itself is not so precisely partitioned. This history spans rather than being precisely bound. It starts prior to the German occupation and does not end on May 8, 1945 with the final liberation of all German concentration and death camps.
The History of Jewish Salonika up to the Annihilation A. From Ancient Times to 1492 CE
Starting with the first period of history but lacking any precise indications we assume that a Jewish presence was established with arrivals from Alexandria, Egypt around 140 BCE. Those Jews that settled the geographic area of modern day Greece came to be known as Romaniotesa distillation of a Jewish community of the Hellenistic and Roman era.3 They adopted the Greek language while retaining and incorporating elements of Hebrew and Aramaic as well as the Hebrew script. Their names were also Hellenized. The oldest and most insulated Romaniote Community up to the Holocaust (1944) was the one of Ioannina (or Janina) in the Epirus district.4 There exist early written proofs about a Jewish presence in Salonika (and elsewhere in Greece) by Strabo () and Philo Judaeus among others.5 Still, the written proof of a Jewish presence in Salonika as a result of the visit by Saul of Tarsus, better known as Apostle Paul, usually comes to mind. Apostle Paul preached at the synagogue during his stay in Salonika. The synagogue, according to tradition, was called Eitz Chayim (The Tree of Life).
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Paul Isaac Hagouel, hagouel@eecs.berkeley.edu
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For many centuries Salonika was initially part of the Roman Empire and later part of the Eastern Roman, Byzantine Empire. The city and its citizens were subject to the fortunes and misfortunes that befell the Empire. A particularly emotive episode of the first period (i.e. till 1492) is March 26, 1430: the day when Salonika fell to the Ottoman Turks. In terms of the citys Jewish inhabitants, they shared the same fate as their co-religionists from all over the Empire. Of first order, during the Roman era they enjoyed wide autonomy that was curtailed when Byzantium took hold with a usurpation characterized by the establishment of Christianity as the state religion. The gravity of Christianity in Salonika is discernable upon noting that Salonika is second only to Constantinople (stanbul) in the number and importance of Byzantine monuments, mostly Churches.6 This first period (specifically 1376) sees the establishment of the first settlement of Ashkenazi Jews. These persecuted souls arrived from Hungary and Germany, and their influx continued for the following several centuries.7 Even though restrictive measures were instituted against the Jews by a succession of Byzantine emperors overall, Jews were allowed to live in relative freedom and according to the laws and traditions of their religion as they continued to develop and enrich their unique heritage.8 They also arrived from Provence, from the mainland Italian Peninsula, as well as Sicily. This multitude of place origins was reflected in the names of their respective houses of worship that harked back to geographical origins beyond Salonika. The conquest of Byzantine Salonika by the Ottoman Turks in 1430 transformed in part, the character of the city. The new Muslim element of the population was, if not generally the most numerous, always the most privileged and hegemonic, institutionally and socially speaking. Despite this hegemony, Sultan Murat II introduced pragmatic administrative rules for the city to function. These included the granting of certain privileges such as communal autonomy and various tax exemptions to both Jews and Christians alike. Such changes primed the local Jewish population for the most pivotal event in its almost two millennia history: the settlement of the first contingent of perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 Jews from Spain. The word for Spain in HebrewSepharadis the eponymous word for the overarching categorization known as Sephardic Jews, the culturally generated distinction to which this first contingent of settlers belonged. These Jews were forced to either convert to Christianity or leave the Iberian Peninsula a few years after 1492. This exodus was a direct consequence of the Royal Edict of March 13, 1492 issued by the Spanish Catholics King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Thus, this Edict is also known as the Expulsion Edict.9 The settlement of those refugees in Salonika effectively concludes the first time period of the history of Jews in Salonika.
B. From 1492 to April 9, 1941

Spanish Jews settled in all seaside urban centers of the Ottoman Empire after Sultan Vayazit II extended them a welcome. One of the goals of the Sultan might have been to repopulate and revitalize Salonika, which by 1492 was in decline and depopulated. The invigoration of the dormant city by the new arrivals changed again its character. It was now imbued with the Sephardic tradition and Spanish language that uniquely defines its Jewish population up to the present day. The 16th and 17th centuries see, yet again, an influx of various Jewish groups coming from a multitude of places, among them Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Italy and North Africa.10 The dominant Sephardic element prevailed over all newcomers, Sephardic or otherwise. Cultural growth along with economic growth lasted until the beginning of the 17th century when new sea routes as
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well as the involvement of the Ottoman Empire in military campaigns brought economic malaise and cultural decline. The 17th century is marked by the appearance of Sabbetai Sevy (or Sabathei Tzevi, or Cevy) of Smyrna (modern day Izmir) declaring himself to be the long expected and awaited messiah, self appointed king of Israel and savior of the Jewish people. Jews all over Europe heeded his message since their yearning for deliverance from oppression facilitated the acceptance of his claim.11 The result for Salonika was the splitting of the Community into believers and non-believers. When the Ottoman authorities induced him to convert to Islam, a few hundred families followed him into conversion and thus created the complex minority of Judeo-Muslims, or Dnme (Turncoats). The converts are also known by their preferred name, ha-Mamim i.e. the Believers.12 Jumping ahead, this peculiarity of being outwardly identified as Muslims saved them from the Germans wrath since they were expelled from Greece as Muslims in the 1923 forced population exchange with Turkey based exclusively on religion. As was to be expected, this event split the Community with hundreds of families adhering to their belief in Tzevi. This turmoil, coupled with an economic crisis, ultimately forced the centralization of the administration of the Community (circa 1680) under the leadership of a single council comprised of three rabbis and seven secular members. The stagnation persisted up to around the middle of the 19th century. The Community and the city as a whole emerged from this lethargy and hibernation to its renaissance around that time. The Industrial Revolution, European Enlightenment, as well as the new socio-political conditions prevailing in the Ottoman territories are in part responsible for the reversing of the trend and the ushering of the new environment.13 From 1871 onwards the railroad connected Salonika with North West Europe and Constantinople-stanbul to the East. Modern western industrial products made their appearance, further invigorating via commerce, the interaction of the local distinct groups of the population. The main groups that lent the city its multicultural and multiethnic character were distinguishable either linguistically, by religious persuasion, or by geographic origin. A snapshot of the city would reveal Greek speaking Orthodox Christian Greeks (by ethnicity and origin), Muslims of predominantly Ottoman origin speaking Turkish and finally Jews, overwhelmingly Sephardic and speaking Ladino. All groups maintained their own exclusive customs.14 Typifying distinctiveness, the Dnme were also represented. Ultimately, exclusive communal identities ostensibly complicated the actualization of imperial citizenship and a general Ottoman identity.15 Attempting to pragmatically deal with such complications, the administration of the Ottoman Empire had granted some privileges to its subjects of non-Ottoman origin. Thus, it was in the name of Ottoman imperial citizenship that subjects of non-Ottoman origin were allowed to benefit from such pragmatic efforts as Capitulations.16 In a pointed way, such allowances did not signify a melting pot and even though this arrangement served the needs of the Sublime Porte for some time, it ultimately sanctioned the exact tensions wrought by the existence of various ethnic groups. This sanctioning foreshadowed the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th and the rise of various nation states. Narrowing our focus once again to the level of the city, it can be said that Salonika boasted a number of very wealthy Jewish families amidst a majority who were daily bread earners, living a hand to mouth existence, albeit while retaining their centuries old customs, their language and their traditions. Thus, next to the dozens of new schools created by the Community, the prominent factories, wholesale and retail shops named after their Jewish owners, the Community also maintained social welfare institutions in order to assist and support deprived, destitute and/or sick
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members. As part of this infrastructure there existed orphanages, health care facilities, and an old age home. Many newspapers circulated in Judeo Espagnol (i.e. JewishJudeo Spanish otherwise known as Ladino) and in French. Due to the presence of the Alliance Isralite Universelle French teaching and schooling became available.17 Furthermore, a Socialist Workers Federation by the name of La Federacin was created in 1909.18 The dawn of the year 1912 found a Community, Sephardic to its core, with elements of cosmopolitanism among its elite. Interestingly, in 1911 David Ben Gurion came to and resided in the city in order to attend the Ottoman Civil Servant Preparatory School (dadi) because, at the time, Palestine was still under Ottoman rule and he wanted to acquaint himself with the particularities of Ottoman administration.
Greek Salonika
The year 1912 is a demarcation point of the second period of Jewish Salonika (1492 1941). The outcome of the Balkan wars finds the modern Greek state, Hellas, victorious against the Ottoman Turks and Salonika in its fold.19 The incorporation of Salonika in the Greek State had the following immediate consequences: first, the overwhelmingnear totalmajority of the inhabitants of Jewish religious origin became Greek citizens. Second, Salonika became a border city of a nation state in contrast to its previous position up until then, that of a major urban center with a seaport in the crossroads of a vast hinterland of a multinational empire. This fact had long lasting economic as well as subsequently social and demographic repercussions. The impact and importance of Jewish inhabitants instantly becoming Greek citizens of the Greek-Hellenic State requires more subtle analysis and remains of paramount importance. Before 1912, the population was comprised of Jews (religiously and linguistically defined), Muslims (Turks and others), and Greeks identified as both a solid linguistic (Greek) and religious (Greek Eastern Orthodox Christian) groupaugmented by the fact of uninterrupted presence for millennia in the geographic region. All were nominally subjects of the sultan, albeit the non-Muslim populations were dhimms. Such a distinction suggested that they were subject to a reduced legal and social status on the one hand while being assured protected communal rights on the other.20 After the Balkan wars, Greece was a modern state with a constitution guaranteeing equality for all its citizens. From its very early beginning, Greece incorporated into Article 1 of its first provisional constitution of Epidaurus in 1822, full religious liberties. Full civil (political or otherwise) emancipation for all its citizens was enshrined with the 3rd Protocol of the Treaties of London in 1830.21 It is interesting to note that all successive Greek constitutions never recognized minorities; they only recognized that all Greeks are equal under the law. Thus, semantically, a Greeks adherence or non-adherence to one of the three monotheisms was inconsequential vis--vis equality under the law. A pedantic gaze at the grammar of naming illustrates such equality. In Greek grammar and syntax, like in English, the adjective precedes the noun that it defines or characterizes. Therefore, from 1912 onwards, the correct form to use when we refer to the Jewish inhabitants of the State of Greece who are Greek citizens is Jewish Greeks and not Greek Jews. Such usage is politically, grammatically, and constitutionally correct.22 Therefore, when we refer to non-Jews we should be using the term non-Jewish Greeks and neither simply Greeks nor simply Christians. We should keep in mind that although during the interwar years, the post World War I creation of many nation
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states exacerbated the problems of the minorities inside their respective national borders, this did not hold true for Greece in most instances.23 Now existing as a nation state with non-Christian Greek populations (mainly Jewish and Muslim) Greece understandably and expectedly embarked on an attempt at Hellenization of the newly acquired territory and especially of Salonikathe latter until 1923.24 The process accelerated right after the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the subsequent forced population exchange on a religious basis between Greece and Turkey. All of which was instigated by the defeat of Greece by Turkey in the coastal region of Asia Minor that included Smyrnazmir in 1922. Prior to this, in 1919, Greece had been awarded jurisdiction of this area inhabited for millennia by ethnic Greeks, following Turkeys defeat in the First World War.25 This nexus of events foregrounds the Dnme once more. Even though they were neither bona fide Muslims nor considered themselves to be so, they were perceived as such by the Greek state. Thus, they were subject to the population exchange faced by the rest of Greeces Muslimsexcluding those in Thrace. The countervailing component of this population exchange was the ethnic, linguistic and religious, Greeks or Ionians of Asia Minorexcluding those in Constantinople (stanbul) and the Islands of Imvros and Tenedos. Hellenization, visvis the Jewish inhabitants entailed compulsory education in the official language, i.e. Greek, compulsory military service, closing of the stores on Sunday instead of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and in general, a gradual inroad of the Christian Greek element to predominance in almost all spheres of activity, especially economic. This trend accelerated when the population imbalance became even more pronounced in favor of nonJewish Greeks after the influx of Asia Minor refugees. For a nation state with a population that was at the timecirca late 1920smore than 96 percent nominally composed of Christian Orthodox and Greek speaking inhabitants, managing to incorporate and accommodate the Jewish minority in the fiber of the state must have called for conscientiousness. As I mentioned above, the modern Greek state had incorporated in its constitution from the beginning, all those principles that guaranteed equal rights, civil and otherwise, equal treatment, and full emancipation. Official state or religious (Greek Orthodox) anti Judaism was both nonexistent and alien by contrast with for example, Romania.26 However, isolated individual manifestations of anti-Semitism did occur and still do.27 Hellenization of the Jewish population had the beneficial effect (intended or not) of turning second-class subjects of the Ottoman Empire into full-fledged and full-righted citizens of a modern state. If the German annihilation had not taken place who knows what the vibrancy of this populous Community today could have meant for the benefit of both itself and the whole nation. Maybe with the use of mathematical tools and virtual reality visualization simulation algorithms we might discern a hint of what could have been.28 Unfortunately the Hellenization process could only be applied to the progeny of the time. At the eve of the Second World War the majority of the Community members had only a rudimentary knowledge of Greek. After all, the duration between the constitutional events of 1913 and the Second World War was only 30 years. Therefore, their constitutional Greekness was not matched with the linguistic requisite, that of the fluent command of the official language.29 Thus they stood apart from the rest of the population in two obvious ways, first by their linguistic and cultural difference and, second, by their sheer numbers. This set of defining characteristics was unique to this Community and unparalleled by the Jewish Greek Community at large. The inter-war years were not conducive to the welfare of the Community. As the world at large faced financial and political turmoil, Greece faced a sudden population increase of almost 1,500,000 human beings (one fourth of the previous total) and as a result there ensued a struggle to
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absorb them and come to grips with this new social reality. The Jewish population was still reeling from the devastating effects of the 1917 fire that destroyed many Jewish neighborhoods and engulfed synagogues. Many emigrated for economic reasons, others due to isolated anti-Semitic acts e.g. the Campbell incident.30 Furthermore, the mandate of the Constitution (i.e. all Greeks are equal) was incapable from its conception of ensuring the acceptance and consideration of Jews by non-Jews. Pointedly, the mandate could sanction but could not enforce Jewish Greeks recognition as either identical equals or equals in their own right. This is a productive distinction and the state did not ensure with its misguided, injudicious and shortsighted decision to initially segregate the Jewish voters in Salonika from the Christians ones in separate polling stations, an act blatantly unconstitutional.31 Transubstantiation of the de jure incorporation into the national corpus to a de facto one did notand could notoccur overnight.32 This was a Community in transition.33 The eve of the Second World War found Salonika with a Jewish population of around 55,000 souls, a bit more than a fifth of the total population (See Figure 1). 34 At its religious helm was a non Greek and nonSephardic Chief Rabbi, the German born and educated Dr. Tzevi (Zwi, Cevy, Zevi) Koretz.35 The Jewish cemetery was a thorn in the plans of urban renewal and sprawl of this city whose original centuries old character has changed irrevocably by the settlement of the refugees. If we exclude the Jewish Greeks, the city was now totally homogenized in comparison with its previous multi-ethnic and multi-cultural image. Italy declared war on Greece on October 28, 1940 and fighting erupted on the Albanian front. Greece was victorious and thousands of Jewish Greek conscripts and officers battled valiantly alongside their non-Jewish (Christian) fellow Greeks.36 Hitler was compelled to assist his adventurous ally Mussolini and, on April 6, 1941, Germany invaded Greece from the North via Bulgaria.37 After fierce battles, they occupied the whole country. These events effectively conclude the fascinating narrative of the two millennia entrenched Jewish Salonika, bode a taste of the upcoming tumultuous upheaval of the Community, and mark the end of the second period in the history of Jewish Salonika. The declared aim of the occupier, if only thinly veiled, was the eventual annihilation of the Jews. A particular annihilation that in world history came to be known as the Holocaust: the Genocide of the European Jews. In less than three years time Jewish Salonika ceased to exist.
The Holocaust of Jewish Salonika C. From April 9, 1941 to October 30, 1944: German Occupation
The dawning of April 9, 1941 brings along the German occupier. This momentous event ushers the Community, brusquely, to the third time period of its historythe history of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika: April 9, 1941 to May 8, 1945. A priori it should be noted here that the period of German occupation (more precisely of regions occupied by either the Germans, or the Italians, or the Bulgarians) was characterized by extreme hardship and famine for the whole population, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Also, the events that took place and the procedures applied for the purpose of exterminating the Jewish Community of Salonika were repeated by the Germans. At a later date, with minimal variations, the extermination procedures for the Jews of Salonika provided a template for the annihilation of all other Jewish Communities in the rest of Greece. What makes Salonika stand apart is the fact of its sheer numerical strength and that it was the first Jewish community in Greece to experience the consequences of the implementation of the Endlsung (Final Solution) by the Germans (the Bulgarians deported Jewish Greeks first).38 Events and ideas that shaped European anti-Semitism and its subsequent genocidal strain in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries may have been foreign to mainstream Greece, but that fact did not impede the perpetrators in proceeding with their murderous plans.39
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Figure 1: Number of Jews in Salonika as presented in the Final Report on the Activity of the Rosenberg Special Assignment Detachment in Greece40
Upon their arrival the Germans imprisoned many notables and arrested the Chief Rabbi Dr. Koretz who was sent to and incarcerated in a concentration camp near Vienna. They appointed a new communal council headed by Sabbetai Saby Saltiel as president of the Community, a man of limited abilities but boundless ambition. For a span of almost 15 months nothing occurred, in terms of the severity that was akin to the life threatening or total hardship and complete destitution that was taking place in the Warsaw Ghetto. Still, the Jewish press was silenced, and Communal and private book collections were plundered and confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg Kommando (Special Assignment Detachment) along with all religious items of great historical value.41 In addition, the German occupiers proceeded in the outright plundering and pilfering of all merchandize in stores of Jewish ownership and expropriated the best houses for their use. The culmination of such actions and measures created the conditions for penury and destitution for a large part of the Jewish population. This period of relative calm and normalcy was shattered by an announcement from the German authorities published in the newspaper Apogevmatini (Afternoon). Edited by a collaborator,
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the announcement called all adult male Jews from 18 to 45 years old to appear for registration at Plateia Eleftherias (Liberty Square) on Saturday July 11, 1942. The subtext of the announcement revealed that registration of the pool of available men was done in the name of forced labor work. The picture that follows says it all (Figure 2).42 Nine thousand adults gathered in the square. The Germans did not allow them to cover their heads or drink water in the sweltering heat, made them stand for hours under the blazing sun, and some Germans even forced many to perform calisthenics. This was the first major omen of worse things to come.43
Plateia EleftheriasLiberty Square, Saturday, July 11, 1942 Figure 2. The first person from the right, the one wearing eye glasses and standing in front of the German soldier, is the late Sam Rouben from Oakland, California.
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Figure 3: Check #2 of Drachmas 134,000,000 in part payment of the ransom. This is the second of seven checks and it is signed by President of the JCT (Oct 29, 1942) Sabbetai Saltiel. It was countersigned by Max Merten as Head of the Administration & Economic Section (Abteilung) of the Salonika Aegean Command. The check was transferred to the Reich accounting office on November 4, 1942 deposited and paid in full at the Bank of Greece the same day.
After the completion of registration many were conscripted for forced labor in various parts of the country. Hard labor, harsh conditions and insufficient food coupled with the fact that most were already not in the best of health or acclimated to intensive manual exertion led to an accelerated attrition of the ranks by death and severe illness. This deplorable situation forced the Community to seek negotiations with the German authority as represented at the time by Dr.
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Maximilian Max Merten, Civilian War Advisor to the SalonikaAegean Command. The negotiations led to an agreement where the Community agreed to pay a huge ransom of 2,500,000,000 drachmas or around 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 current U.S. dollars, in order to extricate its members from further compulsory and onerous forced labor. The following figure shows the front side of a cashiers check payable to the order of the German Command (Befehlshaber) with a sum of 134,000,000 drachmas, from the Jewish Community of Salonika, signed by President Saltiel and dated October 29, 1942. The backside shows the signature of Max Merten and the official seal as well as the Bank of Greece stamp as paid. The date is November 4, 1942 (Figure 3).44 This check is the second one out of a total seven. This set of documents touches on another issue of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika, specifically that of the financial audit of the money, fortunes, etc. that were involved. To determine such losses conclusively, forensic and sleuth financial investigative methods most probably will have to be called upon. Such research is beyond the scope of this current expos. In the meantime Rabbi Koretz was released from custody during January 1942 and returned to Salonika where he regained his post as Chief Rabbi. During this period Dr. Pohl of the Rosenberg Special Assignment Detachment continued the plundering of archives, libraries and collections of Judaica both in Salonika and in nearby towns with a sizable Jewish presence and collections. He sent everything to Germany.45 The Soviets later captured these looted treasures and considered them war trophy, subsequently shipping all the archives to Moscow where they remain to this day. Dr. Pohls feeble punishment after the war was a year and a half (May 1945 to October 1946) internment by the U.S. forces. After the July 11, 1942 Platia Eleftherias event, the collaborationist local press newspapers Apogevmatini and Nea Evropi (New Europe)multiplied in frequency of appearance and degree of vitriol in terms of their editorials, articles and propaganda concerning the Jews. Along with the ransom, during the end of the year 1942 and continuing in 1943, the German occupier accelerated the expropriations, requisitions and seizures of all kinds of valuable merchandize from Jewish owned stores. The usual stratagem was to simultaneously incarcerate the owners for imaginary infractions. As for paper and cardboard, both very precious and hard to find commodities and useful for propaganda purposes (newspaper printing, flyers, journals etc.), they created a new corporation bearing the grandiose title of the German-Greek Paper Industry (Deutsch-Griechisch Papier Industrie) whose inventory was simply the sum-total of all the paper absconded from all Jewish print shops and warehouses. The German-Greek Paper Industry worked hand in hand with the German propaganda office in allocating paper to various individuals and entities, in whatever quantity and price. This way, they had full control on all printed matter and made life difficult for resistance printing. The year-end brought a calamity of another sort, that of the destruction of the centuries old Jewish cemetery with more than 500,000 tombs, most of them of priceless historical value. The Governor General of Macedonia at the time with the assistance of the German occupier succeeded in completely obliterating anything that might remind someone what existed there for centuries. The Aristotle University of Salonika has since been built on these holy grounds. This is both a very sad and shameful chapter in the history of the city as a whole.46 December 1942 also brought a change in the Community administration: The Germans demoted Saltiel and put Dr. Koretz at the helm of the Community.47 Thus Koretz assumed both posts, that of the President of the Community, while retaining the post of chief religious leader, that of Chief Rabbi. His native fluency in German facilitated his deliberations with his German masters. He was their persona grata and having experienced firsthand the treatment of the SS and the Gestapo in Vienna was eager to oblige. The day of reckoning was near. On the military war front things were not going very well for Germany and the other Axis powers. The New Year of 1943 finds General Paulus 6th Army
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encircled in the Cauldron of Stalingrad. Field Marshal Paulus surrenders to the Soviet Armed Forces on February 1st, 1943.48 This marked a turning point on two fronts: A turn for the worse for the Axis powers with defeat starting to loom very probable in the not so distant future and an intensification of Germanys war against the Jews where each single day that the German Reich remained undefeated has as outcome the addition of thousands of victims to the grand total.49 Salonika now had the dubious distinction of being the first major community destined for annihilation right after the military defeat at Stalingrad. The machinery of death was put into gear. The events follow one another in rapid succession, culminating, as we shall see, in the near total extinction of Jewish presence in Salonika and the extermination of more than 90 percent of its members. On Saturday, February 6, 1943, arrived the Special Assignment Detachment of the Reich Security Service in charge of ascertaining enemies of the Reich. The Detachment was headed by Dieter Wisliceny SS Hauptsturmfhrer (rank equivalent to that of Captain in the US Army) and his subordinate Alois Brunner, also an SS Hauptsturmfhrer. The organization of the leadership of the Special Assignment Detachment reveals that initially in their careers, Adolf Eichmann was subordinate to Wisliceny. However, Eichmann was ultimately more zealous and hard working and at some point in the course of time outranked Wisliceny. Thus, Adolf Eichmann, the technocrat bureaucrat genocidist par excellence wrought upon Salonika two of his best and most competent operatives. It is a bitter irony to state that Eichmann during his interrogation by Israeli police captain Avner Less and the infamous Dr. Max Merten in his testimonial affidavit for the Eichmann trial of 1961, both reproached and blamed Wisliceny for taking the initiative and acting outside orders. Such action is a paradigm of obfuscation where the superiors blame the inferiors for performing better than ordered. The circle of recriminations among the former Kameraden started with Wislicenys testimony, in 1946 during the Nrnberg Trials.50 There, Wisliceny blamed the others in the same way as Eichmann attempted to persuade the court and stood fast during his own trial. The facts that emerged prove conclusively that all of them worked diligently to bring their task to fruition. A document that I am presenting for the first time proves that the initiatives that Wisliceny took had as sole purpose the expediting of the resettlement to the East process (see Figure 4). The chain of events started with the call to Koretz to confer with the SD Detachment. This took place on Monday, February 8, 1943 and, immediately, he was handed the first order signed by Max Merten that introduces the German Nrnberg Racial Laws. The mockery of it is that the order was antedated to February 6.51 The order decreed that Jews should be distinguished as such, i.e. marked with a distinctive sign, and that they should concentrate and live in specific areasghettos. Wisliceny was empowered to enforce these directives and issued his implementation orders. These orders commanded that all Jewish shops should be marked as such and the distinctive mark for all Jewish Greeks but not non-Greek persons, aged more than five years should be the yellow Star of David. It was to be made out of cloth and sewn on garments and overcoats. Wislicenys order stipulated that, along with the garments distinctive mark, all Jewish Greeks should be issued a Community identity card numbered sequentially and identifying the holder as Jewish. The same number appearing on the ID should also be stamped on the cloth stars. Below is the authorization document for the release of cardboard for the printing production of 55,000 identity cards for the Jewish Community of Salonika with index identification number 2788 ab . Revealingly, the release was further authorized on top of the regular officer of the German propaganda office, by none other than Wisliceny (Figure 4).52 The print shop was the Imprimerie David Gattegno.
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This document substantiates the fact that 55,000 identity cards were printed. Considering that at most 1,000 would be misprinted and/or destroyed plus the fact that infants were exempt, we have a near certain indication of the numerical strength of the community on the eve of its obliteration. This number is also corroborated by the population table in the Rosenberg Report as shown in Figure 1. The tragedy is unfolding but, unlike in Antiquity, there is now a consensus that no redemption or catharsis will follow. The Propaganda Office directives stipulated that a surcharge (Pflichtgebhr) of ten percent should be levied for its services. That ten percent was arbitrarily augmented to 50 percent for works printed for the Jewish Community. However, Wisliceny pulled rank and took the initiative to waive the obligatory surcharge. Essentially, in order to expedite the hideous process, he waived part of the cost that his victims had to assume in order to be murdered. The index-identification number had to appear on all printed matter. Since the ID cards were the second item authorized, the following identification mark had to be clearly printed on the IDs: Gatt. Gen. No. 2788 B. Figure 5 shows a personal identification card issued by the Jewish Community in compliance with Wislicenys order of February 12, 1943. The index-identification number is easily discernible on the card which now belongs to the exhibit collection the Jewish Museum of Salonika. The SD authorities, along with the civilian advisor Max Merten continued to shower the bewildered and, most of all, frightened and alarmed population with further requirements to meet in order to keep them busy and disoriented. One of those was the wealth declaration that included filling out special forms with minute details such as full description (and value) of kitchen utensils and cutlery. Figure 6 shows the original instructions in Judeo-Spanish of how to fill out the declaration. The flyer forewarns those obligated to fill the forms that they should be very diligent otherwise they risk severe punishment by the German Authority. Actually this document, composed in Judeo-Spanish with Latin characters, also constitutes proof that, for at least some official Community announcements to its members, Greek was not used. Therefore, we can only deduce that even at the beginning of 1943, the spoken and understood language among the majority of the Jews of Salonika was Ladino. In conclusion, all of this bureaucracy, beside its sole purpose in registering and identifying the Jews as such and keeping them continuously on edge, proves that the German perpetrators relished the psychological alongside the murderous aspects of extermination. It might have been that bureaucracy served also as a psychological shield for disguising their horrid task as a mundane implementation of a predefined plan of resettlement. 53 These events, following one another in rapid succession, culminated in the announcement by the German Authorities and subsequently by Chief Rabbi Koretz that an order has been issued stating all members of the Community will be deported and resettled in the district of Krakw in Poland. This was the beginning of the end for the great Sephardic Community, the Mother in Israel (Madre en Israel) as it was known. The destiny of all had been decided and sealed. The malevolent intentions and deeds of the Reich on that day did not leave any niche for hope.
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Figure 4: Authorization for the carton release for the impression of 55,000 identity cards The Document is dated February 17, 1943, over-signed by Wisliceny
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Gatt is written in the lower left corner (Gatt stands for Gattegno) plus the number Figure 5: Personal identification card issued by the Jewish Community in compliance with Wislicenys order of February 12, 1943. Rabbi Koretz signs the card as President.
However agonizing and excruciating the evolving drama of the Jews of Salonika, our perspective would be incomplete if we did not acquire a general overview of the larger image and happenings in the whole of occupied Greece during that period. The consequences of the occupation were especially severe for Greece, a net importer of foodstuffs. If the British hadnt lifted the naval blockade for relief ships of the International Red Cross and other aid organizations, especially after the severe famine of the first year and a half, there wouldnt have been any Greeks left and no Hellenic nation. Employing a lens broad enough to encompass Jews of varying roles as well as non-Jews we can notice that reprisals for acts of resistance were also harsh.54 Proceeding with the goal of a more thorough description of occupied Greece, the genuine gravity of what deserves to be known about the Jews of Salonika vis--vis the Holocaust can be felt.
Jews of Spanish Nationality: Deportations, Concentration, Camps, Rescuers and Resistance Deportations
The first convoy of Jewish Greeks departed ostensibly for Krakw on March 15, 1943.55 The final destination was the concentration and death camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau near the Polish
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town of Owicim. All deportees were allowed to carry only a certain amount of Polish zoty with them, ostensibly for use in Krakw, Poland. These zoty were purchased in exchange for drachmas. They were strictly forbidden to carry with them precious stones, gold and Greek banknotes or foreign currency. They were required under penalty of severe punishment to deposit all these valuables at the ghetto offices before they left. Witness accounts and testimonies, among them my fathers, describe in detail their ordeal in the cattle cars, hermetically sealed for many days, during their long journey to extinction.56 Consecutive convoys followed, and in the space of two months the city became practically Judenrein (Jew free). Desperate attempts to approach the German authorities, by Metropolitan Genadios and the occupation Greek Prime Minister Rallis, and to intervene on behalf of their persecuted fellow citizens had no effect whatsoever. Since they infuriated his German masters, these attempts at intervention resulted in Chief Rabbi Koretz forced unemployment as president. He was relieved from his duties and incarcerated in the Baron Hirsch ghettothe place that acted as the proverbial springboard for the deportations and the liquidation of the Community.57 Table 1 shows the arrival of the convoys according to the Auschwitz camp records. Very few Jews, especially those with a command of the Greek language, managed to escape and hide. Unfortunately, even quite a few among these escapeesagainst the best advice of their nonJewish acquaintances and friends as well as their own gut feelingdecided to follow their elders to the unknown while hoping for the best. Some Christian Greek families sheltered others at the penalty of death if discovered. Unfortunately, other bystanders saw an opportunity to share in the spoils and pilfering of property and assets left behind.58 This page of history, the daily events of the tumultuous period before and during deportations, has yet to be researched. The best approach is to state the facts and present archival material and documents. The researcher has to try to resuscitate the minute details of events and daily happenings of the era and, of paramount importance, to convey the intensity of it all.59 To the best of my knowledge, very little research has been done on comparative Holocaust and on the effectiveness of the bureaucracy of genocide in the various countries where the Final Solution was implemented and carried out. Such a dearth is likely a manifestation of what Hannah Arendt described very aptly in The Banality of Evil.60 The documented presentation of the Holocaust in the various European countries as found in Dawidowicz, in Raoul Hilberg and, pictorially, in Schoenberner and in Milton, describe and depict, in a rather concise manner, how the annihilation process was carried out in each country.61 From these sources alone we surmise that the implementation procedures, including the bureaucratic ones, differed from country to country and that many were improvised in particular localities. Ever still and as example, the process steps, not the end goal, were different in Athens as compared to Salonika. A study of the deportations and subsequent annihilation of the Jews of Greece and especially of the Jews of Salonika is presented in the book by Margaritis Undesirable Fellow Countrymen: TsamidesJews.62
Concentration and Death Camps

Returning to the doomed souls who traveled north in the trains of death, we should point out a few facts: first, the Jewish Greeks had another dubious honor, that of being located the farthest away from the death camps. This had as a result a very long journey in abhorrent conditions that lasted for many days and claimed the lives of many even before arrival at the camp. Second, unbeknownst to all at the time, those selected for slave labor had to confront the hardships for two full years in order to survive the War.63 Lastly, they knew no German, Yiddish, Polish or other camp languages, a fact that hindered communication. In addition, they were not acclimated to the extreme climate of the region, especially the bitter ice-cold winters so foreign in Mediterranean countries.
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Sephardic Horizons
Figure 6: Instructions on how to fill the wealth declaration forms, March 1, 1943
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Table 1 Official records of the total of Salonika Jews deported to the German Concentration & Extermination Camps Auschwitz-Birkenau Records from the Archives of the Concentration Camps Auschwitz-Birkenau Convoy Date of Arrival Persons 1st 20/3/1943 2,800 2nd 23/3/1943 2,800 3rd 25/3/1943 1,901 4th 30/3/1943 2,501 5th 3/4/1943 2,800 6th 9/4/1943 2,500 7th 10/4/1943 2,750 8th 13/4/1943 2,800 9th 17/4/1943 3,000 10th 18/4/1943 2,501 11th 22/4/1943 2,800 12th 26/4/1943 2,400 13th 28/4/1943 3,070 14th 4/5/1943 2,930 7/5/1943 1,000 15th 8/5/1943 2,500 16th 16/5/1943 4,500 17th 8/6/1943 880 18th 18/8/1943 1,800 Total 48,233 19th 2/8/1943 441 Total of Displaced Persons: 48,674 Destination: Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Date of Departure In 1945 the Jews who returned numbered 1,950 Percentage of losses greater than 96% Note: Some convoys may have picked up more people after Salonika
All the convoys that left Salonika had Auschwitz-Birkenau as their final destination apart from one. Leaving in August 2, 1943 with 367 Spanish Jews (permanent residents of Salonika) and a few notables (among them Rabbi Koretz) the convoy departed for the Bergen-Belsen camp situated near the cities of Hannover and Celle in Germany. We will present the saga and fate of those Jews substantiated with documentary evidence below in the section: The Spanish Jews of Salonika. Approximately 44,000 Jews were deported from the Hirsch Transit Camp in Salonika. Two thousand five hundred more Jews from surrounding Communities were also deported bringing the total to 46,500 souls. The fate of the overwhelming majority upon arrival is well known: After the selection process to separate the fit for slave labor (and those destined for torture-medical experiments) from the rest, the last ones, comprising the majority of the transport, were immediately gassed and subsequently burned in the crematoria.64 Sevillias, Menashe and Handali give vivid and detailed descriptions of the ordeal, all of them being victims and eyewitnesses who survived to tell their story. Sevillias was arrested in Athens in March 1944 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. His testimony presents the sequence of events pertaining to the entrapment and subsequent deportation of the Jews in Athens during spring 1944. The opus by Michael Molho describes in detail both the deportations from all parts of Greece as well as the travails of Jewish Greek slave inmates at the concentration camps. It also describes the horrible medical experiments performed by the German camp torture-physicians using many Jews and Jewesses from Salonika and the rest of Greece as guinea pigs. A treatise from a researcher at the Auschwitz State Museum offers many details specifically about the Jewish Greeks at Auschwitz.65 The Chronika 2006 commemorative issue on the Holocaust of the Jewish Greeks includes an English supplement.66
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There are quite a few other sources; each one only adds a few more details to the main facts.67 A commemorative volume on the Holocaust of all Jewish communities of Greece was presented at a moving event on Capitol Hill organized by the Embassy of Greece on June 21, 2006.68 Another general reference (of many) on the subject of the World War II Holocaust of Roma, Jews and others is Time Lifes The Apparatus of Death.69 As for myself, I was able to extricate information from my father Leon Konzentrationslager (KL), Auschwitz No. 118633, a survivor who was liberated on January 27, 1945.70 It is interesting to note that both The Times London and The New York Times published the news pertaining to the fate of the Jews of Salonika during the War. First, a Times article in May 1943 described in detail how the Jews were deported from Salonika.71 Then, a February 1944 NYT article reported, Jews in Salonika Virtually Wiped Out.72 A follow-up article again in The NYT reported, 48,000 Greek Jews are sent to Poland.73 Finally, a November 1944 NYT article reported, Most Salonika Jews Killed.74 It is only logical to conclude from the above information that there was no excuse for anyone living in neutral countries such as Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey at time, to claim ignorance in regards to the annihilation of Jewish Greeks.
Rescuers
The history of the Holocaust of the Jews of Greece would be incomplete if no mention was made about the gallant efforts of Christians to save their Jewish brethren. After all, I owe my existence to the rescue of my mother (in Athens) by her female saviors Zo Morou-Folerou and Danae Kadoglou-Pavlidoudeclared righteous by Yad Vashem in 1999. Many Christian Greeks sheltered whole Jewish families or helped them to escape to Athens or to the surrounding countryside. However, the family bond and loyalty being strong, many young persons although forewarned and offered either shelter or escape, chose to accompany their elders to Krakw. Archbishop Papandreou Damaskinos, Archbishop of Athens and the whole of Greece, is universally recognized for his representation to the German authorities in March 1943 and for his sermon cum proclamation urging Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. Among other things he stated that, Our holy religion does not recognize any distinction of superiority or inferiority based on race or religion. These are words with everlasting universal appeal. Archbishop Damaskinos was recognized and honored for his efforts and deeds on behalf of his fellow Jewish countrymen and for being instrumental in rescuing and saving many, especially in Athens.75 While the War was still raging, especially the one against the Jews, the Palestine Labor Federation thanked the Greek people for aid to Jews.76 A bright light in this gloom is the miracle of the island of Zakinthos where all its Jewish inhabitants were spared thanks to the efforts of the Metropolitan and the Mayor. However, this case was the exemption to the rule. Occupation coupled with the constant threat of capital punishment for aiding Jews played a major role in ones decision to help, subconsciously or not. It is an undisputed and documented fact that Athens, with a Jewish population only a tiny fraction of that of Salonika, had a disproportionate number of Christian rescuers and Jews rescued. One reason might be that the Community, being tiny was dispersed and fully integrated with the rest of the population of the big city. Furthermore, Jews in Athens were almost totally Hellenized. When the Greek people declared a revolution against the Ottomans on March 25, 1821 and the First National Assembly at Epidaurus established the Hellenic State on January 1, 1822, the first free areas included part of the Peloponnese and Athens.77 Salonika became Greek only in 1912. On the other hand, the sheer number of Salonika Jews, the older generations inadequacy in fluent Greek, and the natural tendency to congregate amongst themselves did not facilitate or promote integration with and dispersion among the rest of the population. This situation was not conducive to forging friendships
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and acquaintances with the Christian fellow-countrymen or neighbors. The non-Jewish population considered them, by and large unwittingly, as plainly Jews and not Greeks or at least Jewish Greeks. This is evident even from official Greek documents that address them as Jewish fellowcitizens and reserve the term Greek people for the rest.78 The point is that even though no offence whatsoever was intended, this prevailing attitude did not help the Christian Greeks to consider the Jewish Greeks as Greeks.79
Resistance
Last but not least, many ask if there was Jewish resistance. First of all thousands of Jewish Greeks, as we have seen, fought valiantly against the Italians and Germans alongside their Christian Greek fellow-countrymen. Quite a few joined the Resistance. The Sonderkommando revolt at Birkenau was organized and lead by a Jewish Greek inmate, an officer of the Greek Army caught in 1944, the year that the Germans swept the rest of Greece for Jews to deport.80 The near total annihilation of the Jewish population of Salonika and likewise of the rest of Greece brings this chapter of Jewish history to a forced and abrupt termination.81 The liberation of Salonika, when the last German soldier left the city on October 30, 1944, marked the beginning of the current phase of the Jewish presence, albeit drastically reduced. Time will show that numeric inferiority might be offset by other characteristics. The evidence till now is encouraging.82 Before we leave this tumultuous era for the Jewry of Salonika and the whole of Europe, we will sidestep and follow the fate of Jewish Spanish nationals of the city during the period 1943-1945. This chapter is a paradigm of uprooting and upheaval, albeit with a happy ending, i.e. survival as well as a return to Greece via Spain where it all originated centuries ago.
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The Spanish Jews of Salonika The Chronicle-Narrative of the Spanish Jews of Salonika
A special group of Jewish inhabitants of Salonika were the non-Greek nationals. Of these, the major group was the Spanish nationals and then came the Italians. These were Spanish citizens but they were not allowed to enter Spain automatically. They had to renew their certificate of nationality (the certificate was issued by the Spanish Consulate of Salonika) every year.. As a group they were exempt from the racial laws that were applied to their Jewish Greek coreligionists, i.e. they did not have to wear the yellow star or live in the ghetto. Spain was a neutral country albeit favorably predisposed towards the German Reich and the Axis Powers. Spain had achieved relative calm with the end of its Civil War only a few years prior. General Franco was the leader of the state, and the monarchy was abolished. This was immediately manifested with the change of the coat of arms that was printed on the front of the certificate of nationality (see Figure 7). As long as Spain was both neutral and friendly towards Germany, Spanish Jews were relatively safe. However the tempo of the sequence of persecutionswith deportations accelerating in 1943 and the unmitigated German appetite for more Jews to relegate to Special Treatmentincreased. Spains reluctance to accept large numbers of its undesirable non-resident citizens risked being construed by the Germans as carte blanche to do as they pleased with the Jewish Spanish nationals in its fold. Nevertheless, after much bureaucratic deliberation among the pertinent German and Spanish authorities, the Germans finally deported the Spanish nationals to BergenBelsen (August 2, 1943) and housed them in separate barracks. After further deliberations among the Spanish government and the Germans, they were finally freed and allowed to travel to and enter Spain via France (all 367 of them). Their sojourn in Spain was brief, just a few months in Barcelona, and then they were shipped to Casablanca on June 14, 1944.83 With the assistance of UNRRA they were sent to Palestine. They were finally able to return to Greece after August 9, 1945.84 We will attempt to visualize their odyssey by retracing some instances of their lives during these three years (19431945). This is a virtual journey for us, but a very real one for them, fraught with rigor and privation and most of all the threat of extermination hanging on top of their heads as long as they were in the custody of the Reich. This we achieve by following the story of David Jacob Gattegno and Rachel Gattegno, using as a temporal and location fixing compass, a set of pertinent archival documents. The couple David Gattegno and Rachel Gattegno (born Frances) hailed from a family that lived for centuries in Salonika. David Gattegno owned a print shop that specialized in quality printing. They were both Spanish nationals and permanent residents of Salonika. They renewed their certificates of nationality annually and the 1941 Certificate of David prominently displayed the new Franco era coat of arms (see Figure 7). The German authorities stamped the certificate with the following logo: Bescheinigung der Spanischer Angehrigkeit i.e. Certificate of Spanish Citizenship (see Figure 7a). Thus, Spanish citizens were identified as such by the Occupation Authorities and distinguished from the Jewish Greeks. They were exempt from the Nuremberg Laws which were being enforced upon their Greek national brethren starting mid February 1943.
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Figure 7: Front of the 1941 Certificate of Nationality of David Gattegno The Certificate was issued at Salonika by the Spanish Consulate
Figure 7a: Magnification of the German Stamp that adds the German equivalent of the Document Title of Certificate of Spanish Citizenship
We are now following the itinerary of the Spanish Jews by riding the passport of the Gattegnos and some other pertinent documents of the era as a proverbial vehicle.85 The Germans drew a list of all Spanish nationals of Jewish origin who belonged to the Jewish Community of Salonika. Figure 9 shows part of the twelve page 1943 German document listing the Spanish Jews of Salonika.86 I have included only the names of the Gattegnos without loss of generality. Note that in the last column it is written when their Spanish Nationality ID was issued (Compare it with the above Figure 8).
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Figure 8: Details of the 1941 Certificate of Nationality of David Gattegno (insideback) The Certificate was issued on July 8, 1941. It identifies David Gattegno as a printer. (The Germans had entered Salonika on April 9 of the same year.)
The Gattegnos like the rest of the Spanish nationals were making preparations for the journey to the unknown. They applied for a husband-wife common passport at the Spanish Legation in Athens. Their passport was signed by Consul Sebastin de Romero Radigales whose name appears in the historiography of the Spanish Jews of Salonika and who remained, for some years after Liberation, the Consul (Figure 10). The Gattegnos wrote a letter to Paul Frances, Rachels son from a previous marriage, who had managed to leave Greece earlier. The letter described their situation and predicament, mentioning among other things, that they were allowed to take with them 5,000 Swiss Francs. The letter was dated Thursday, May 27, 1943.87
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Figure 9: German Legation legal advisor von Thaddens letter accompanied with the full list all Spanish Nationals of the Jewish race who belong to the Jewish Community of Salonika as of April 30, 1943. Bear in mind that by that date, out of the total 19 convoys to Auscwitz-Birkenau, 13 had already left. (Only the Gattegnos are included without loss of generality).
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Figure 8: Page 1 The Passport was issued by the General Consulate of Spain in Greece
Figure 9 Page 2 The passport was issued on May 25, 1943 Page 3 Personal data of the passport holders
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Page 4 Page 5a
Page 5b
Figure 10 Signature by the Consul General of Spain, Sebastian de Romero, May 25, 1943 Authorization-Permission by the Consulate General of Spain in Athens for the holders to enter Spain for one time only from the border crossing at Irun (opposite Hendaye France) (July 6, 1943) Entrance stamp in Spain (Port-Bou opposite Cerbre France and not Irun), February 10, 1944 (note the 7 months period that has elapsed)
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Page 6
Page 6a Page 7
Figure 11 AuthorizationPermission from the Bank of Greece to export foreign currency (2,000 Swiss Francs or the equivalent in other foreign banknotes (currencies)) June 7, 1943. The export permit is valid for 15 days. Second entrance stamp in Spain (Port-Bou), February 10, 1944 Authorization-Permission from the Bank of Greece to export foreign currency (3,000 Swiss Francs or the equivalent in other foreign banknotes (currencies)) June 9, 1943. The export permit is valid for 15 days.
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Figure 12: Count List (Devisenzhlung) of foreign currency, gold and jewelry belonging to Jewish Spanish Nationals being deported to Bergen-Belsen confiscated by the German Authorities one day before the departure of the 19 th convoy (destination Bergen-Belsen) July 31, 1943. The person responsible for collecting the valuables and completing the list was Dieter Wisliceny. Note that according to the Authorization-Export Permissions by the Bank of Greece (passport pages 6 and 7) David Gattegno was allowed to take out a total of 5,000 Swiss Francs with him. (Without loss of generality I include only David Gattegno).
Dieter Wisliceny claims that David Gattegno deposited only 30 Swiss Francs while (as we know) he had permission to carry and export up to 5,000 Francs (Figure 11). Given this discrepancy, the options are as follows: 1 David Gattegno took only 30 Francs with him. 2 David Gattegno was carrying a larger sum but was able to conceal it despite the threat of severe punishment if found. 3 Wisliceny, along with the rest of his detachment, profited from the loot and reported altered tallies to the Reich Finance Authorities. The most obvious correct answer to this multiple-choice question is option three, suggesting thievery. 88
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Figure 13: A note, dated December 2, 1943, declares that the Judenaktion in Salonika resulted in the confiscation of 22,300,000 Drachmas, 40,185 US Dollars and 55,345 Swiss Francs, plus what they seized from the Jewish Spanish Nationals.
There exists a gap in exit and entry stamps. First of all, they were hoarded on a train and deported on August 2, 1944, conveying that there were no niceties such as border stampings exiting Greece, entering Yugoslavia, and then the Reich to Bergen-Belsen. The journey in its entirety does not include exit stamps from the Reich or entry into a fully occupied France and dumping at the FrenchSpanish frontier at Cerbre (Figure 15) for subsequent entry into Spain and then the final destination, Barcelona (Figures 10, 11, 14 and 15).
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Page 5 (stamp) Page 6 (stamp)
Figure 14 Entrance Stamp in Spain (Port-Bou) February 10, 1944 Second Entrance Stamp in Spain (Port-Bou) February 10, 1944
Page 8
Page 8a Page 8b Page 9
Figure 15 Authorization by the Spanish Consulate General in Athens for the pass holders to enter Spain without having to pay any custom duties or levies for the import of their personal belongings due to the fact that they always resided abroad (i.e. in Greece and not Spain) July 6, 1943 One orthogonal Spanish Stamp dated February 2, 1944; A faint digit 3 after the digit 2 is discernible in magnification A small round Stamp of the Customs of PortBou French exit visa by the Vichy Police at the border town of Cerbre, Rgion de Montpellier, opposite Spanish Port-Bou, February 10, 1944. Note the Vichy Coat of Arms on the stamp
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Page 10 Page 11
Figure 16 Spanish stamp, April 4, 1944 Gratis Extension of the validity of the passport at the Spanish Consulate General in Palestine at Jerusalem, July 4, 1945 (Note the gap with no exit or entrance stamps from Spain to Casablanca and then on to Palestine, a time period of more than a year).
A New York Times article dated February 17, 1944 reports that 365 Jews Reach Spain.89 The text follows,
MADRID, Feb. 16The Spanish Foreign Legion announced today that 365 Spanish-speaking Jews descended from those expelled from Spain by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in 1492 had been brought to Spain after negotiations with Berlin freed them from a German concentration camp at Bergen Belsen. Thousands of these Spanish Jews lived in Salonika and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. They speak a type of Spanish little different from that spoken in the time of Isabella and Ferdinand. A note by the Foreign Ministry said those repatriated expressed their unanimous thanks and satisfaction for the Spanish Government's help in getting them out of the German concentration camp.
Figure 17: Food ration card issued to the Gattegnos in Barcelona
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Figure 18b: The outside back cover of the passport was stamped with the note UNION OF POLISH INMATES (in Greek after the return)
Page 12
Inside Back Cover
Figure 18 Entrance stamp to Greece and stamp (Timbre) consular fees levied at the Port of Piraeus on August 26, 1945 due the lack of Greek Consular attestation (in Jerusalem) Various stamps, February, March and April 1944 (Barcelona Spain)
There exists another gap in exit and entry stamps: No exit stamp from Spain to Casablanca exists nor is there an entry stamp to Palestine (at the time under the League of Nations British Mandate). Figure 16 bears the extension of the validity of the passport issued by the Consulate General of Spain in Palestine and located in Jerusalem. Figure 17 shows a food ration card issued to the Gattegnos in Barcelona. Figure 18 bears the entry stamp into Greece at the Port of Piraeus on August 26, 1945. Thus, this modern Odyssey differs from the Homeric one in the sense that the preoccupation of its unsung heroes was to return to where they had started. Their Troy and Ithaca was one and the same: Salonika.
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Sephardic Horizons
D. From October 30, 1944 (Liberation) till today Liberation

The last Germans left Salonika on October 30, 1944. A few tens of Jews appeared again in public. In a city that boasted the largest and most solid Sephardic Community of 55,000 souls before the War, its current Judenrein (Jew free) status was hard to swallow. It would be months before other escapees and camp survivors would start arriving. Many never returned, preferring to emigrate to Palestine and mainly to the United States of America. Many of those who returned later also chose to emigrate. Their birth city was suddenly foreign and hostile to them.90 Greece would be in turmoil for the next four and a half years, engaging in a fratricidal civil war. The central government in Athens, even though fully absorbed with civil strife, did find time to enact legislation to remedy the burden incurred by its Jewish citizens. These laws forced the restitution of properties to their rightful owners or their living relatives even though the measure vexed vested interests of those who had been either administering temporarily abandoned Jewish property or had usurped them. The fact is that even though the Greek State had passed the Law on Jewish Properties in January 1946, a full three years later (January 1949) the Law was still not implemented.91 The tragic fact was that those usurpers, adding insult to injury, had even organized themselves into an association in order to better promote and protect their rightsthe epitome of chutzpah. Nevertheless, the Greek State stood firm and the Law was implemented, albeit with some delay, for the relief of the surviving Jews. The victims and the survivors demanded justice, the least to which they were entitled. How was justice served for the Jews of Salonika? What ever happened to the perpetrators? The following chapter tackles briefly, the fate of the perpetrators.
Adolph Eichmann, Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, Max Merten

Another chapter of the post-liberation history of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika (and the whole of Greece) is the fate of the principal perpetrators that we encountered in the narrative above. These are Adolf Eichmann, Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, and Max (Maximilian) Merten. The fate of Eichmann is well known; he was tried in Israel, found guilty for crimes against humanity, condemned to death and executed.92 Dieter Wisliceny was tried in Nuremberg after the war and gave a testimonial affidavit (See Endnote 51). Greece, to the best of my knowledge, never made a formal application to demand his extradition and make him stand trial for his complicity in the mass murder of more than 60,000 Jewish Greeks. Wisliceny was tried again in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, at the time part of Czechoslovakia. In his trial he was accused of complicity in the mass murder of Jews from Slovakia, Greece and Hungary and of being a member of the SS and the SD, organizations branded as criminal by the Nuremberg judgment. He was sentenced to death on February 27, 1948 and executed by hanging two hours later. It is interesting to note that one day earlier the Communists had taken and assumed unlimited power. Maybe this is the reason why his execution went unmentioned in the press.93 Alois Brunner still evades apprehension. If he is still alive in the year 2013 he is 101 years old. He is purported to reside in Damascus, Syria. He has been tried many times in absentia and has been condemned to death in French criminal courts for his role as the Commander of the Drancy Transit to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp outside Paris in the genocide of the Jewish French and other Jews in France.94 Not only was he never tried in absentia in Greece for his sinister role in the annihilation of the Jews of Salonika, but repeated appeals by the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece to successive Greek ministers of justice requesting the formal charging and criminal prosecution of Alois Brunner for his crimes and ask for his extradition always receive the following reply,
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History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust Greece can not request the extradition of the German Criminal of War Alois Brunner because, due to the two laws that were passed in 1959 by the Greek Parliament all criminal prosecution against German War Criminals has been suspended [discontinued] and all rights and jurisdiction of the Hellenic State to prosecute and bring to trial and judge the German War Criminals who operated on her soil has been transferred to the German Court Authorities since 1959 forthwith and for eternity95
The most interesting case concerns Max Merten: echoing the political climate of the year 1957 and being aware of the absence of any and the reluctance of the Greek State to charge German war criminals on its own initiative, he decided that it was of no personal risk to visit Athens in order to appear at the Greek Court as a defense witness for his former interpreter Meissner. However, Jewish Greeks from Salonika noticed him, and the police promptly arrested him. He was tried in 1959, found guilty, and condemned to 25 years incarceration. However, as previously discussed, the Greek Parliament passed Law 3933/1959 that suspended immediately all criminal prosecutions of German war criminals and transferred forthwith all jurisdiction to the German criminal system. A few days later, the Greek Parliament passed the Legislative Decree 401/1959, extending the benefits of the law to those already tried and serving their sentence. This was blatant manipulation as such an extension concerned only Merten. Several days later, the Federal Republic of Germany sent a special airplane to pick up Merten. In Germany, Merten was eventually acquitted from all charges in 1961 due to a lack of evidence.96 Justice had been served.97 If all of this was not enough, there exists present day anecdotal evidence that speaks to a flagrant disregard for justice vis--vis Merten. A doctoral dissertation, presented and approved at the University of Mannheim in 2003, almost exonerates Merten from all guilt.98
Modern Community: Jewish Museum of Salonika

The Jewish Community of Salonika managed, out of the ashes, to rebuild the Jewish life if not of the city itself, at least for the benefit of its surviving members and progeny. My authorship of this piece is evidence of regeneration. The Greek State, on the occasion of Salonika becoming the cultural capital of Europe in 1997, erected a state memorial as a tribute to the 55,000 Jewish Greeks of Salonika who perished in the German work and extermination camps.99 The unveiling of the memorial was carried out by then President of the Hellenic Republic Constantinos Stephanopoulos in 1997. A few years later, more than 63 years after the Plateia Eleftherias Square assembly and more than 60 years after the liberation of Greece, the memorial was moved to its rightful placethe southeastern corner of the aforementioned square, facing the sea. And it was here that the Hellenic Republics current president, Carolos Papoulias, came for a second time, to lay a wreath on the occasion of the state visit to Greece by the President of the State of Israel Mr. Moshe Katsav in February 2006. The Community, after healing the wounds of its remaining members and having solidly reestablished all those institutions that guaranteed a plethora of services for the needs of its members such as schooling for the children, religious services, care for the sick and those in need, as well as cultural activities, embarked in a bold path of making its unique culture known to the whole world. Among its endeavors towards achieving this goal we may count the establishment of the Jewish Museum of Salonika in 1998 by the Community, then headed by Mr. Andreas Sefiha.100 Currently, President David Satliel has initiated an ambitious ongoing project, that of the digitization of the Community Archives. This project would assist research tremendously. During the last decade many scientific symposia and conferences have been organized by the Community and held at Salonika having as themes the many aspects of the Jewish life in Salonika and of Jewish Salonika. The Community and especially the museum is often host to visiting scholars, scientists and researchers from the world over. It has the ambitious goal of becoming both a depository and a fountain of knowledge beside its primary role, that of serving as the cradle of our heritage.101
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Effectively, with these remarks, our framework is now paralleled by the wake of the daily life of the Community. Notwithstanding the optimistic tone of 21st Century Salonika, it is and will always be impossible not to compare all events of its Jewish component, past, present and future using as a yardstick the enormity of the Catastrophe. We must all learn from this event, each hers or his own lesson, using hers or his own framework. An ancient Greek adage says (There exists no evil without some good). I really want, very much so, to believe that this adage is true.
Conclusions
I do not believe that during my lifetime I will reach the definite conclusions with regard to the Holocaust. What I attempt to achieve is to formulate, after deep study and thought, tentative lessons from the Holocaust. Thus, a lesson that I draw has to do with the following Sephardic proverb that my father used to say: Si no yo para mi, quien para mi? Si no ahora, cuando? (If I do not take care of myself who will? If not now, when?). In colloquial English, if we fail to fend for ourselves, there is little chance for outside help. There exist shining exemptions that reaffirm our faith in humanity, but they are just exemptions. And here lies the challenge and in my humble opinion, the main lesson: no one should ever again submit to coercion. She or he should fight to the end if their life is doomed. Furthermore, everyone should strive to become the kind of righteous person, like those who saved Jews, towards other humans in peril of annihilation. No effort should be spared nor is any effort insignificant. From all of the above, I conclude that the Salonika Jewish Holocaust is very particular and implores radical research methods. One might be the mathematical analysis limiting process: The Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika has to be approached with an undertaking of a scrupulous study of events before and up to the Holocaust (upper limit) and of events starting from the present and going back to the Holocaust (lower limit), all correlated with the genocidal events of 1941-1945.102 Now the upper limit is common in historiography, but the Holocaust, being a most highly uncommon event, demands an exceptional and singular approach to research. The lower limit will only be reached if we succeed to correlate all post-Holocaust events with Jewish content to the events of the Holocaust era. For example, what factual conclusions may we draw from the post-Holocaust attitudes shown by the surrounding Community towards its fellow Jewish countrymen? How might these relate to events during the Holocaust? Are we allowed to judge past events in the light of and against current ones or lack of actions? Are we to use as a yardstick the ancient Greek adage, All previous events are judged according to the last one?103 The quest for answers, unfortunately, leads to more queries that themselves warrant additional answers. It is bitterly ironic that even though the consequences of the unfolding of the Holocaust are known, all the facts surrounding it are not. If we performed a Gedanken experiment and, as a hypothesis, each one of us assumed the identity of a camp inmate who survived but lost all his family, what kind of conclusion, if any, do you believe we would reach? In my humble opinion, it is impossible for us to reach the conclusion. There exists an alternative and that is to channel our energy and efforts to further Holocaust and genocide research for the historic record and to better equip and strengthen humanity in order to be able to rein in the manifestations of its innate inhumanity.
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to thank once more Judith Roumani and express my appreciation for granting me the opportunity and motivation to revitalize and enrich with new research my work of the Jews of
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Salonika and the Holocaust. I feel both obliged and happy for having this opportunity to thank my wife Nelly for her patience all these years, especially for her patience towards the countless days I spent physically close to her, but mentally connected to my computer accessing databases or using search engines as well as reading numerous books, articles and various other publications. Her support during my talks and presentations at various venues, especially in Salonika, Sofia and Skopje was of paramount importance. There are also quite a few people with whom I interacted throughout this process. I want to thank especially, my cousin Professor Guy Benrubi M.D., for stimulating discussions and exchange of ideas and for sharing his deep knowledge and insights. I also thank Fruma Mohrer, Chief Archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, for going out of her way to show me priceless archival holdings pertinent to my research. I thank Ambassador A' Mrs Photini Tomai Constantopoulou, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Director of the Service of Historic and Diplomatic Archives of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Head of the Greek Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, for her genuine support over the years and for including me in the official MFA delegation that visited the special military archives in Moscow, on February 2010, to study particular folders of Salonika Jewish Community archived there.
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References Bibliography Audiovisual Notes

1
I start by wholeheartedly thanking Dr. Judith Roumani for her encouragement to engage in the necessary supplemental research for this work. I also thank her for agreeing to publish the narrative of my findings in the online academic journal Sephardic Horizons. This supplemental research and its narrative expand upon a 2006 endeavor of mine that employed the same title. Since then, two things occurred. Both necessitate a timely update of the contents irrespective of scope.. First, new publications, data, archival material, etc., have surfaced. Second and with greater personal resonance: Further reading, study, pertinent films and documentary viewing, and research as well as my recent pilgrimage to Auschwitz and Birkenau camps in Poland have reinforced my earlier convictions, corroborated my interpretive syntheses and refined particularly important topics. I will incorporate such personal resonances throughout the text corpus in the name of further enriching the narration and the affluence of details.
2
Born in Athens, Paul Hagouel holds a BE (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from New York University (1973) and a PhD in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California at Berkeley (1976) and is a retired engineer living in Salonika. He has published 35 papers in the field of electrical engineering (semiconductors) as well as on the history of the Jews of Greece, the Holocaust, and anti-Semitism. He is also a lecturer on the Holocaust in Greece and is the National (Greek) Delegate to the Academic Working Group (AWG) of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) - http://holocaustremembrance.com.
3
When Salonika was founded more than two millennia ago it was named after the sister of Alexander the Great (or so we were taught in school in Greece). The official name of the city is Thessaloniki, however when it was part of the Ottoman Empire its name in Turkish was Selanik. The French used to call the city Salonique, the Americans Salonika or Salonica. I believe it was much easier for all of them to abbreviate the name. I am sure that if the official name was shorter they would have kept it. Albertos Nar, Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Texsts (1998); Albertos Nar, Social Organization and Activity of the Jewish Community in Thessaloniki, Queen of the Worthy, Thessaloniki, History and Culture Vol. I (1997): 266-295, http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/Contributions/20010704_Nar.html
4
Steven Bowman, private e-mail, November 6, 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioannina#Jewish_community, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniote_Jews.

5
Gunbla, The Rise and Decimation of the Greek Jewish Community: 2 000 Years of Jewish Presence in Greece, Tripod, http://gulnbla.tripod.com/; Jewish Encyclopedia, Philo Judaeus, Jewish Encyclopedia.com: the unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12116philo-judaeus; Wikipedia, Strabo, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo.
6 7
Nikos Papahatzis, Monuments of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki: Molho, 1960).
Jacques Basnage sieur de Beauval and Thomas Taylor, The History of the Jews, from Jesus Christ to the Present Time (London: T. Bever and B. Lintot, et al., 1708).
8
Paul Isaac Hagouel, The Passion of the Christ and of theJews, BHMA: The Greek Canadian Tribune, 2006, http://www.academia.edu/4216061/_._._._2006_.
9
Ruth Porter and Sarah Harel-Hoshen eds., Odyssey of the Exiles: The Sephardi Jews 1492-1992 (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defence Publishing House, 1992); Howard M. Sachar, Farewell Espaa: The World of the Sephardim Remembered (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).
10 11
Steven Bowman, private e-mail, November 16, 2006.
Ibid; Esin Eden and Nicolas Stavroulakis, Salnika, A Family Cookbook (Athens: Talos Press, 1997); The Story of Sabbatai Zevi [Cevi], Messiah of Smyrna, New York Times, November 8, 1931; Theodore J. Bent, A Peculiar People, Longmans Magazine 11, no. 61 (November 1887): 24-36.
12
Marc David Baer, The Double Bind of Race and Religion: The Conversion of the Dnme to Turkish Secular Nationalism, Comparative Studies in Society and History 46, no. 4 (2004): 682-708; Marc David Baer, Globalization, Cosmopolitanism, and the Dnme in Ottoman Salonica and Turkish Istanbul, Journal of World History: Official Journal of the World History Association 18, no. 2 (2007): 141-170; Marc David Baer, The Dnme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009).
13
Dimitrios Stamatopoulos, From Millets to Minorities in the 19 th-Century Ottoman Empire: An Ambiguous Modernization, in Citizenship in Historical Perspective, (Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2006), 253-273.
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14
Michael Molho, Usos y costumbres de los judos de Salnica, Sefarad 7, no.1 (1947): 93-121; Michael Molho, Traditions and Customs of the Sephardic Jews of Salonica, ed. Robert Bedford, trans. Alfred A. Zara (New York: Foundations for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, 2006); Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000); Andrew Apostolou, Greek Tragedy-Apostolou Reviews Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower, Commentary 120, no.1 (July/ August 2005): 75-77; Andrew Apostolou, Review Essay: Mother of Israel, Orphan of History: Writing on Jewish Salonika, Israel Affairs 13, no.1 (January 2007): 193-204.
15
Michelle Campos, Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth Century Palestine Stanford University Press, 2010.
16 17
Ibid, 7.
The Alliance Isralite Universelle was a network of French sponsored schools established throughout the Middle East in the late nineteenth century. Their existence was predicated on the belief of French Jews that Jews living in the Middle East needed to be modernized through education.
18
Ibid, 1; Rena Molho, The Jews of Thessaloniki, 1856-1919: A Particular Community (Athens: Themelio Publishers, 2000 (Greek)); Joseph Nehama, Histoire des Isralites de Salonique, vols. 1-7 (Thessaloniki: Communaut Isralite de Thessalonique and World Sephardi Federation, 1935-1978); Joshua Starr, The Socialist Federation of Saloniki, Jewish Social Studies 7 (1945): 323-336; Abraham Benaroya, A Note on the Socialist Federation of Saloniki, Jewish Social Studies 11 (1949): 69-72; H. Sukru Ilicak, Jewish Socialism in Ottoman Salonica, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 2, no. 2 (September 2002): 115-146; Devin Naar, With Their Own Words: Glimpses of Jewish Life in Thessaloniki before the Holocaust, 2006, The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.
19
Ellinika Grammata, The National Integration, 1909-1922: From the Goudi Coup up to the Asia Minor Catastrophe 10 volumes series on the Modern Greek History, no. 6 (2003) ( Greek); Issue A No. 229, Validation of the Treaty of Peace, Government Gazette of the Kingdom of Greece, www.et.gr. (French and Greek).
20
Glnihal Bozkurt, An Overview on the Ottoman Empire-Jewish Relations, Islam 71 (1994): 255-279; Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arabs Lands in Modern Times (New York: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1991), 4.
21
http://norfid.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/nomos-epidaurou-proswrinon-politeuma-ths-ellados-b-e8nikhsuneleusis-astros-1823.pdf; House of Commons, The London Conferences 1830 No. 25 & Protocol No. 3 of the Conference held at the Foreign Office on the 3 rd of February 1830, Papers Relative to the Affairs of Greece; Protocols of Conferences Held in London (London: J. Harrison, 1830).
22
N.M. Gelber, An Attempt to Internationalize Salonika 1912 -1913, Jewish Social Studies 17 (1955): 105120; Boris Furlan, Nationality in the Balkans, Antioch Review 3, no.1 (March 1943): 97-106; Steven W. Sowards, Lecture 17, Nation without a State: The Balkan Jews, http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect17.htm ; David Starr Jordan, The Balkan Tragedy, Journal of Race Development 9, no. 2 (October 1918): 120-135.
23
Erzsebet Szalayne Sandor, International Law in the Service of the Protection of Minorities Between the Two World Wars, Minorities Research-6, http://epa.oszk.hu/00400/00463/00006/7.htm; R.W. Seton-Watson, The Question of Minorities, Slavonic and East European Review 14 (1935): 68-80.
24
Rena Molho, The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and its Incorporation into the Greek State 1912 -1919, Proceedings of the Conference: Thessaloniki After 1912, November 1-3, 1985, 285-301 (Greek); Rena Molho, The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and its Incorporation into the Greek State 1912 -1919, Middle Eastern Studies 24 (1988): 391-403 (English, revised).
25
House of Commons, Treaty of Peace with Turkey, Signed at Sevres, Treaty Series No. 11, 1920; Greece Attempts to Impose the Sevres Treaty (Map), New York Times Current History 14, no.2 (May 1921): 347-352; House of Commons, Lausanne Conference on Near Eastern Affairs 1922-1923, Records and Proceedings and Draft Terms of Peace [with map] No. 1, 1923; House of Commons, Treaty of Peace with Turkey and Other Instruments, Signed at Lausanne on July 24, 1923, together with Agreements between Greece and Turkey signed on January 30, 1923, and Subsidiary Documents forming part of the Turkish Peace Settlement [with map], Treaty Series No. 16, 1923.
26
The Rev. M. Gaster Chief Rabbi of the Sephardi Communities of England, The Jews in Roumania, The North American Review 175. DLII (November 1902): 664-675.
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27
Rena Molho, Popular Anti-Semitism and State Policy in Salonika during the Citys Annexation to Greece, Jewish Social Studies 50, no.3-4 (Summer-Fall 1988): 253-264; Mark Mazower, Minorities and the League o f Nations in Interwar Europe, Daedalus 126, no.2 (Spring 1997): 47-63.
28 29
Paris Papamichos Chronakis, private communication, 2006.
Eyal Ginio, Learning the Beautiful Language of Homer: Judeo -Spanish Speaking Jews and the Greek Language and Culture between the Wars, Jewish History 16 (2002): 235-262.
30
Aristotle A. Kallis, The Jewish Community of Salonika under Siege, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 20, no.1 (Spring 2006): 34-56; Steven Bowman, The Jews in Greece, Textures and Meaning: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies (2005).
31
Dimosthenis Dodos, The Jews of Thessaloniki in the Elections of the Greek (Hellenic) State, 1915-1936 (Athens: Savalas Publications, 2005 (Greek)).
32
This parallels in a way the civil rights saga in the USA. It has been reported that after the unanimous Supreme Court Decision on Brown vs. Board of Education that struck down segregation in public schools as unconstitutional, President Eisenhower said that you can not change the hearts and minds of people with laws. , Charles Jay Ogletree, All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (New York: N.W. Norton & Company, 2004).
33
Devin Naar, With Their Own Words: Glimpses of Jewish Life in Thessaloniki before the Holocaust, The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, 2006.
34
Sonderkommando Rosenberg, Abschlussbericht ber die Ttigkeit des Sonderkommandos Rosenberg in Griechenland (Athen, Bundesarchiv, 1941), 14.
35
Albertos Nar, Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Texts (1998); Albertos Nar, Social Organization and Activity of the Jewish Community in Thessaloniki, Queen of the Worthy, Thessaloniki, History and Culture I (1997): 266-295, http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/Contributions/20010704_Nar.html
36
My father Leon was mobilized with the rest of the reserves. He fought on the Albanian front and he was lightly wounded by a grenade shrapnel.
37
It is tragically ironic that the participation of thousands of Jewish Greek soldiers in repelling the Italian attack and furthermore, contributing to the Italians defeat forced Hitlers decision in attacking Greece and sealed the fate of its Jewish Greek inhabitants. Since in genocide, only the result counts (the annihilation of the targeted group) and not intentions or otherwise, Italy is also a culprit of genocide.
38 39
Nicholas Stavroulakis, The Jews of Greece, An Essay (Athens: Talos Press, 1990).
Abba Eban, Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984); Josef Bard, Why Europe Dislikes the Jew, Harpers Monthly Magazine 154 (December 1926- May 1927): 498-506.
40
Sonderkommando Rosenberg, Abschlussbericht ber die Ttigkeit des Sonderkommandos Rosenberg in Griechenland (Athen, Bundesarchiv, 1941), 14.
41
Michael Molho, In Memoriam: Hommage aux victimes Juives des Nazis en Grce, 2nd ed. (Thessalonique: Communaut Israelite de Thessalonique, 1973).
42 43
Sam Rouben, private communication, 1974.
Harry D. Dinella, "The Holocaust in Northern Greece: The War Against the Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki," (PhD dissertation, George Mason University, 2009). In ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
44
Evangelos Hekimoglou, The Lost Checks of Merten: The Ransom Paid for the Buy Out of the Obligatory Labor of the Jews of Thessaloniki and its Fate (1942-1943), The City of the Thessalonicians 18 (September 2005): 4059 (Greek); Evangelos Hekimoglou, private communication, 2005; Ibid, 2006; Seven checks prove that a ransom of 1.5 billion drachmas that was paid by the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki during the period 1942-1943 can be traced to the Treasury of the German State (Reich), Website, Newspaper TA NEA On Line, Lambrakis Press, http://ta-nea.dolnet.gr/print_article.php?e=A&f=18360&m=N24&aa=1, (accessed 2005 (Greek)-now only via subscription); Alternate link by Evangelos Hekimoglou: http://www.academia.edu/2257914/_The_lost_checks_of_Max_Merten_-_in_Greek_ , (The lost cheques of Merten, Offprint from Thessalonikeon Polis 18 (September 2005), pp. 40-59)
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45
Barbara SpenglerAxiopoulou,Das Kleine Jerusalem an Der gis: Eine Erinnerung an das Jdische Saloniki, Griechische Gemeinde GttingenEllnvikn Koivotnta Gttingen, http://www.oocities.org/giannaris/Teyxos5/Sprengler-Axiopoulou.Salonikh.htm ) (accessed 1998 (German); Maria KhnLudewig, Johannes Pohl 1904-1960, Judaist und Bibliothekar in Dienste Rosenbergs: Eine Biographische Dokumentation, (Hanover: Laurentius, 2000 (German)).
46 47
Michael Molho, El Cementerio Judo de Salnica, Sefarad 9, no.1 (1949): 107-130.
Community with a Capital C refers to what is called a Federation in the USA. The Jewish Community of Salonika is a Legal Public Entity i.e. a State Entity (it is Designated as a NPDD . : Legal Person (Entity) under Public Law.) According to the Law any Jew (Greek or otherwise) is automatically a member of the Community after 6 months of residence. Thus, the Community does not exclusively represent all Jews inhabiting Salonika nor does it possess the authority to decide who is or is not a Jew. I reserve the term community with a lower case c to denote the community at large irrespective of membership in the Community. Official Government Gazette, Law No. 2456/1920, Concerning Jewish Communities, www.et.gr (Greek).
48
Time-Life Books, The Road to Stalingrad (Alexandria, VA: TimeLife Books, 1991); Antony Beevor, Stalingrad, The Fateful Siege: 1942 1943 (New York: Penguin Books, 1999).
49 50
Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews, 1933 1945, 10th ed. (New York: Bantam, 1986).
The Nizkor Project, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Session 47, Nizkor.org, http://www.vex.net/~nizkor/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-047-04.html; The Nizkor Project, Shofar FTP Archive File, http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/ftp.py?people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts//Te stimony-Abroad/Max_Merten-03; Jochen von Lang, Eichmann L' Interrogatoire (Paris: Belfond, 1984); Web Genocide Documentation Centre, Affidavit of Dieter Wisliceny: Document UK-81, The University of West England, Bristol, http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Wisliceny.htm.
51
Michael Molho, "In Memoriam: Hommage aux victimes Juives des Nazis en Grce," 2nd ed. (Thessalonique: Communaute Israelite de Thessalonique, 1973).
52
Ledger of Paper and Cardboard Approval Release Forms 1942 1943, Propaganda Department, Private Archives, Saloniki.
53
Thomas Blass, Psychological Perspectives on the Perpetrators of the Holocaust: The Role of Situational Pressures, Personal Dispositions, and Their Interactions, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 7, no.1 (Spring 1993): 3050.
54
Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995); Steven B. Bowman, The Agony of Greek Jews, 19401945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009).
55
As mentioned in the main text, occupied Greece was partitioned into three zones: The first comprised the biggest landmass, including Athens, and was occupied by the Italians until September 1943 when it came under German occupation. The second comprised key areas of military importance and was kept by the Germans. This zone included Thessaloniki. The third comprised Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace and was ceded to Bulgaria. Within its jurisdiction fell the cities of Alexandroupolis, Komotini, Xanthi, Kavala, Drama and Serrescities with sizable Sephardic communities. Actually, these Jewish Greeks had the dubious honor of being the first to be rounded up by Bulgarian occupying forces during the night of March 3 4, 1943. They were subsequently deported and handed over to the Germans in Vienna for transport to and annihilation at Treblinka; Paul Isaac Hagouel, The Annihilation of Jewish Greeks from Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in context and perspective: Facts of the Past, Lessons for the Future (Lecture, Facing our Past Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, October 5-7, 2012). In Academia.edu, http://www.academia.edu/2003347/The_Annihilation_of_Jewish_Greeks_from_Eastern_Macedonia_and_Thrac e_in_context_and_perspective_Facts_of_the_Past_Lessons_for_the_Future ; Paul Isaac Hagouel, Balkan Jews in the 21st Century: Bridge to Friendship and Unde rstanding (The Holocaust in the Southern Balkans) (Paper, Conference Proceedings of the Scientific Forum 70 years from the deportation of Jews from Skopje, Bitola & tip at the Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje March 12, 2013). In Academia.edu, http://www.academia.edu/3683003/The_Holocaust_in_the_Southern_Balkans_Balkan_Jews_in_the_21st_Centu ry_Bridge_to_Friendship_and_Understanding
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56
I know Jackie Handeli personally and we had various discussions on those issues; Yaacov Handeli, From the White Tower to the Gates of Auschwitz, ed. Shifra Paikin, trans. Martin Kett and Shifra Paikin (Jerusalem: Yaacov (Jackie) Handeli, 2011); Errikos Sevillias, Athens, Auschwitz, trans. Nikos Stavroulakis (Athens: Lycabettus Press, 1983); Menasche Albert, Birkenau (Auschwitz II): Memories of an Eyewitness: How 72,000 Greek Jews Perished (New York: Saltiel, 1947); In particular, Leon Hagouel's testimony, KL Auschwitz Nr. 118633, Albert Nar, Erika KounioAmarilio, Oral Testimonies of Jews of Thessaloniki about the Holocaust (Thessaloniki: Paratiritis Publications, 1998 (Greek));Albert Nar, In Enclosed Trains: Recitations of Jews of Thessaloniki, The Tree: Special Issue: The Train, no. 73-74 (Winter 1992): 109-117 (Greek).
57
Minna Rozen, Jews and Greeks Remember Their Past: The Political Career of Tzevi Koretz (193343), Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society 12, no.1 (Fall 1995): 111-166.
58
Andrew Apostolou, The Exception of Salonika: Bystanders and Collaborators in Northern Greece, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 14, no.2 (Fall 2000): 165196; Weekly Political Intelligence Summary No. 218 of 8th December 1943, Political Intelligence Summaries, The National Archives London, TNA No. FO 371/36617-0013.
59
Alexandros Kitroeff, Documents: The Jews in Greece, 19411944: Eyewitness Accounts, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora XII, no.3 (Fall 1985). In Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/greece1083.html; Erika Kounio-Amarilio, From Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Back: Memories of a Survivor from Thessaloniki, trans. Theresa Sundt (Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2000).
60
Wolfgang Seibel, The Strength of Perpetrators--The Holocaust in Western Europe, 1940 1944, Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions 15, no. 2 (2002): 211240; Franklin G. Mixon Jr, W. Charles Sawyer and Len J. Trevio, The Bureaucracy of Murder: Empirical Evidence, International Journal of Social Economics 31, no. 9 (2004): 855867; Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem - A Report on the Banality of Evil, (New York: Penguin Books, 1992).
61
Raoul Hilberg, La Destruction des Juifs dEurope (Paris: Fayard, 1988 (French)); Gerhard Schoenberner, Der Gelbe Stern: Die Judenverfolgung in Europa 1933 bis 1945 (Hamburg: Rtten & Lning Verlag, 1961 (German)); Sybil Milton, Images of the Holocaust: Part I, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 1, no.1 (1986): 27 61; Sybil Milton, Images of the Holocaust: Part II, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 1, no.2 (1986): 193-216.
62
George Margaritis, Undesirable Fellow Countrymen: TsamidesJews (Athens: Bibliorama Publications, 2005 (Greek)).
63
My father, Leon Hagouel (KL AuschwitzBirkenau Hftling) narrated to me his experiences during the journey to Auschwitz as well as his near misses with extermination in the camp. He was liberated by the advancing Soviet Armed Forces on January 27, 1945. 64 Daniel Bennahmias, private communication, 1974; Rebecca Camhi Fromer, The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1993); Rebecca Camhi Fromer, The House by the Sea: A Portrait of the Holocaust in Greece (San Francisco: Mercury House, 1998); Albert Nar, Folk Songs about the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki, The Streetcar A Vehicle 4, no.1 (Autumn 1996 (Greek)): 189198.
65
This was sent to the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and translated into Greek. The bound book is unpublished and the languages are Greek and German. It can be found at the premises of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Manager Danuta Czech, Treatise on the Greek Jews at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Auschwitz State Museum, Owicim, Poland.
66
Central Board of Jewish Communities of GreeceKIS, Treatise on the Greek Jews at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Chronika (2006). In Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece: http://www.kis.gr/files/chr_olokautoma_english.pdf
67
Gail Holst-Warhaft, The Tragedy of the Greek Jews: Three Survivors Accounts, Review Essay, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 13, no.1 (Spring 1999): 98108; Mark Mazower, Greece's Slaughtered Jews, Times Higher Education Supplement, August 16, 1996.
68
Alexs Menexiads and Evraik Neolaia Hellados, To Holokautma tn Hellnn Evrain: Mnmeia kai Mnmes = The Holocaust of the Greek Jewry: Monuments and Memories (Athna: Kentriko Isralitiko Symvoulio Hellados, 2006 (Greek)).
69
Time-Life Books, The Apparatus of Death (Alexandria, VA: Time Life Books, 1981).
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70
The early liquidation of Polish Ghettos and the deportation of Jewish Poles to Treblinka, Beec, Majdanek, Sobibor and various other smaller death camps had as sole purpose, the immediate extermination of all upon arrival; The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland Published on Behalf of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 7, 1943, The National ArchivesLondon, TNA No. FO 371/34361-0005; It was with the development, growth and enlargement of the AuschwitzBirkenau Camp complex, as well as the attached satellite industrial establishments, that the German Reich and the SS realized the value of slave labor and selections were instituted to that effect. This is one reason why so few Jewish Poles (those destined for immediate extermination) survived in contrast to Spring to Summer 1944 death camp arrivals, the Jewish Hungarians. As later arrivals, varying destinies including slave labor or immediate extermination marked these Jews. Furthermore, those spared immediate death had to endure the hardships of their incarceration for a shorter duration compared to the duration that the Salonika Jews had to endure in order to survive the war; this story is based on the real life story and experiences of Salamo Arouch, a Jewish Greek from Thessaloniki and middleweight boxing champion in the Balkan countries. Captured by the Nazis in 1943, Arouch was sent to Auschwitz where he was forced to fight over 200 opponents for the entertainment of the SS Officers. His survival and the survival of his family and others in his barracks depended upon his success in these fights, Andrzej Krakowski, et al., Triumph of the Spirit, DVD, (Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2002); Imre Kertsz, and Sorstanlasg (Athens: Kastanioti Publications, 2003); Lajos Koltai, et al., Sorstanlasg, VHS (New York: Thinkfilm, 2005); aspects of these documents demonstrate the registration sequential numbering of the Thessaloniki Jews destined for slave labor (Numbers from 109000 to 119000). As well as a description of their situation and how many still survive, Copies of the Annexes to Memorandum on Anti-Jewish Atrocities in Hungary (Situation of Jews in Countries Under Nazi Rule and in German Occupied Hungary), July 19, 1944, The National Archives-London, TNA No. FO 371/42811.
71
From our own Istanbul correspondent, Jews Deported from Salonika Crush in Cattle Wagons, The Times, May 26, 1943.
72
A.C. Sedgwick, Greek Guerrillas Cease Civil Strife: Rival Bands Stop Fratricidal WarJews in Salonika Virtually Wiped Out, New York Times, February 11, 1944.
73
48,000 Greek Jews are Sent to Poland, New York Times, May 1, 1944. Most Salonika Jews Killed, New York Times, November 6, 1944.
74 75
Eric Silver, The Book of the Just The Silent Heroes who Saved Jews from Hitler (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991); United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia: Greece, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., http://www.ushmm.org/greece/eng/archbish.htm; Martin Gilbert, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004).
76
Details from Jewish Telegraphic Agency Bulletin Noting Items about German Concentration Camps, Deportation of Hungarian and Dutch Jews and Refugee Camp in Tripolitania, July 13, 1944, The National ArchivesLondon, TNA No. FO 371/42809-0015.
77
The Greek Revolution 1821 1832: The Fight for Independence and the Establishment of the Greek Hellenic State, History of Modern Hellenism 1770 2000 3, no.10 (2003 (Greek)); Samuel G. Howe, M.D., The Greek Revolution, Art V: An Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution, North American Review 29, no.1 (1829): 138199.
78
Abraham J. Peck, ed., Copy of Letter of the Greek Government Office of Information: Addressed to the World Jewish Congress in New York, April 27th, 1948, vol. 9 of Archives of the Holocaust: American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990).
79
Adamantia Pollis, The State, the Law, and Human Rights in Modern Greece, Human Rights Quarterly 9, no.4 (November 1987): 609; Stephanos Stavros, The Legal Status of Minorities in Greece Today: The Adequacy of their Protection in the Light of Current Human Rights Perceptions, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 13, no.1 (May 1995): 132.
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80
Photini Tomai-Constantopoulou,Greeks in Auschwitz Birkenau, in Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Papadopoulou, trans. (Athens: Papazisi Editions, 2009); Constantin Pilavios , The Revolt of the Greek Jews: A Documentary from the Book by Photini Tomai-Constantopoulou Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau, posted June 17, 2009, http://vimeo.com/5207246; Paul Isaac Hagouel, Greece-Auschwitz-Birkenau: Christians and Jews (talk, Society of Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki, October 4, 2010). In Dropbox, https://www.dropbox.com/s/j71k8fowncyz1qk/Greece_Auscwitz_BirkenauChristians_%26_Jews_%282010%29.pdf; Avraam Benaroya, The Movement of Resistance of the Jews of Greece Against the German Oppression, Lynn GazisSax trans., JewishGen, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Thessalonika/thev2_552.html; Steven Bowman, Jews in Wartime Greece, Jewish Social Studies 48, no.1 (Winter 1986): 4562; Steven Bowman, Jewish Resistance In Wartime Greece (London, Portland, OR: VallentineMitchell Publishers, 2006); Rene Levine Melammed, The Memoirs of a Partisan from Salonika, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender 7 (2004): 151173; My father in law, Sam Yeshoua (Issoua) 19262005, was conscripted for forced slave labor at the Lianokladi Railroad junction works near the city of Lamia. He managed to escape and he joined and fought with the guerillas for some time. He was the only survivor of both branches of his extensive family, both maternal and paternal.
81
Cecil Roth, The Last Days of Jewish Salonica: What Happened to a 450 Year-Old Civilization, Commentary, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-last-days-of-jewish-salonicawhat-happened-toa-450-year-old-civilization/.
82
Richard Ayoun, The Judeo-Spanish People: Itineraries of a Community, trans. Albert Garih (Paris: Design Graphic France, 2003).
83 84
Michael Molho, In Memoriam 2nd ed. (Thessalonique: Communaut Israelite de Thessalonique, 1973 (French)).
Haim Avni, Spanish Nationals in Greece and their fate during the Holocaust , Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance , ed. Livia Rothkirchen, VIII (1970); Bernd Rother, Spanish Attempts to Rescue Jews from the Holocaust: Lost Opportunities, Mediterranean Historical Review 17, no.2 (December 2002): 4768.
85 86 87
David Gattengo, Gattegno 19431945 Spanish Passport, Private Archives. Jerusalem, Israel, List of Spanish Nationals in Salonika, 30/04/1943 , YadVashem Archives.
I am named after Paul Frances. My other name, Isaac, belongs to one of my fathers brothers who, after having suffered during the aforementioned forced slave labor in various localities in Greece, was gassed almost immediately upon arrival at AuschwitzBirkenau since he was in such pitiful condition; The Gattegnos, Letter to Paul Frances, May 27, 1943, Private Archives.
88
Jerusalem, Israel, List of Currencies Held by Spanish Nationals in Salonika, 31/07/1943 , Yad-Vashem Archives; Peter Padfield, Himmler (New York: MJF Books Fine Communications, 1990); Time-Life Books, The SS (Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1988).
89 90
365 Jews Reach Spain, The New York Times, February 17, 1944.
Hal Lehrman, Greece: Unused Cakes of Soap, The Pattern of Jewish Fate Repeats Itself, Commentary 1 (1945/1946): 4852; Maurice Amaraggi, Salonika: City of Silence, DVD (Jerusalem, Israel: Ruth Diskin Films, 2006).
91 92
Greece is Accused on Jewish Holdings, The New York Times, January 14, 1949.
Avner W. Less, Interrogating Eichmann, Commentary 75, no. 5 (May 1983): 4551; Homer Bigart, Eichmann Accused of Shipping Salonika Jews to Death Camps, New York Times, May 23, 1961.
93
The Wiener Library, The Fate of Wisliceny, Executed in Bratislava on February 27, 1948 , The Wiener Library Bulletin XVII, no.2 (April 1963): 27.
94
Mary Felstiner, Commandant of Drancy: Alois Brunner and the Jews of France, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2, no.1 (1987): 2147.
95
Jacob Shiby, The Holocaust Memory, The Annihilation of the Jews of Thessaloniki and Historical Objections, review of The Alois Brunner Affair. The Executioner of the 50000 Jews of Thessaloniki, by Spyros Kouzinopoulos (Thessaloniki: Ianos Publications, 2005), May 22, 2005. In To VIMA, http://tovima.dolnet.gr/print_article.php?e=B&f=14469&m=S04&aa=1: only by subscription now-alternate link in Greek: http://www.parapolitiki.com/2009/12/blog-post_20.html).
96
If only for moral reasons, the Greek Parliament voted Law 3949/2010 which in its last Article (No. 22) abolished the previous two shameful laws (i.e. Law 3933/1959 and its ancillary sister Law Directive 4016/1959.
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97
Samuel Hassid, The Trial of Max Merten in the Changing Mirrors of Time and Place , University of Haifa, https://sites.google.com/site/geokerk/thetrialofmaxmerteninthechangingmirrorsoftimeandplace (2002).
98
Wolfgang Breyer, Dr. Max Merten ein Militrbeamter der deutschen Wehrmacht im Spannungsfeld zwischen Legende und Wahrheit, Universitt Mannheim, http://bibserv7.bib.unimannheim.de/madoc/volltexte/2003/77/ http://bibserv7.bib.uni mannheim.de/madoc/volltexte/2003/77/pdf/Dissertation.pdf.
99
Tony Molho, Celebrating Salonika, The Times Literary Supplement, April 12, 1996.
100
Nicholas Stavroulakis, The Jewish Museum of ThessalonikiMuseo Djidio di Salonik: Jewish Museums In Europe, European Judaism 36, no.2 (Autumn 2003): 3440.
101 102
The Jewish Museum of Salonika, www.jmth.gr.
Richard Courant and Fritz John, Introduction to Calculus and Analysis Volume I (1989; repr., Berlin; Heidelberg; New York [etc.]: Springer-Verlag, 1999).
103
Wikipedia, Demosthenes, Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes.
Links to presentations by the author: Greek https://www.dropbox.com/s/i58leisp25s0ras/Hagouel-Hol_USConsulate_2008_color_show.pps English https://www.dropbox.com/s/yttkjrxyq642k9f/Hagouel_Holocaust_WCUPA_2006_show.pps
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The History of The Jews of Salonika and The Holocaust: An Exposé

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History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

The History of the Jews of Salonika and the Holocaust: An Expos1

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

B. From 1492 to April 9, 1941

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Concentration and Death Camps

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Page 5 (stamp) Page 6 (stamp)

Page 8a Page 8b Page 9

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Figure 17: Food ration card issued to the Gattegnos in Barcelona

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Inside Back Cover

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

D. From October 30, 1944 (Liberation) till today Liberation

Adolph Eichmann, Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, Max Merten

Modern Community: Jewish Museum of Salonika

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

References Bibliography Audiovisual Notes

Steven Bowman, private e-mail, November 6, 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioannina#Jewish_community, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniote_Jews.

Nikos Papahatzis, Monuments of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki: Molho, 1960).

Steven Bowman, private e-mail, November 16, 2006.

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Paris Papamichos Chronakis, private communication, 2006.

Sam Rouben, private communication, 1974.

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

Michael Molho, El Cementerio Judo de Salnica, Sefarad 9, no.1 (1949): 107-130.

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust

The Jewish Museum of Salonika, www.jmth.gr.

Wikipedia, Demosthenes, Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes.

Links to presentations by the author: Greek https://www.dropbox.com/s/i58leisp25s0ras/Hagouel-Hol_USConsulate_2008_color_show.pps English https://www.dropbox.com/s/yttkjrxyq642k9f/Hagouel_Holocaust_WCUPA_2006_show.pps

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