The importance of Greece, within those terms that define The Holocaust, cannot be over stated. For more than 2 Millennia, in over 2 Centuries, for some 2,250 years, Jews struck out for Greece and made their presence felt. Prior to what we see as the dawning of Christian civilisation, Jews and Greeks shared much that neighbourliness could promote. In later years, a schism between Rome, and the Orthodox Church, offered many Jews a sanctuary away from the Christian philosophy of hatred toward them. The effect of theology within religious teaching, did nothing to dispel the discourse which placed Judaism at the centre of all that conflicts rational thinking and radical thought. The Jews had taken on the role of Christ killers, and without regard to the bible teaching that the Christian god had sent his Son to die, and Christ willingly accepted his role.

Therefore, the story of Greece in The Holocaust must be carefully written as it too belongs to a Hitlerite malignancy whose aim was to destroy all and any Jew wherever they were found. When Hitler invaded Greece on April 6th 1941 he had a further 75,000 to 82,875 Jews to add to his murderous resolve. We have to see Hitler’s Weltanschauung as subsidiary to The Final Solution when we consider here alone, 6,469 Jews were still being deported as Germany approached total defeat. We recognise, that even between March 1944 and April 1944 as the end to Hitler’s Worldview was looking ever more certain, the concentration on The Jewish Question was his concentrated effort. All told, there are 67,000 Greek Jews in total, and as many as 70,000 Greek Jews who were Slaughtered during the period of The Holocaust. We have to recognise that with barely 10,000 Greek Jews finally able to return, is as devastating as it is real. Please consider in this also, and that while any analysis of contemporary figures would suggest that more than 66% of Greek Jewry lived in Salonica, the resulting catastrophe must be swayed by such is the evidence. And in accepting this statistical appreciation of Jewish losses, we recognise there were some 82,875 Greek Jews who were also under the yoke of Nazi oppression.

Going back, Jewish life in Greece is older than Christianity itself and represents the most continuous, and earliest of all the Jewish Community’s in the whole of  Europe. Here, as The Final Solution approached them, the Jewish Community within all of Greece stood at as many as 82,875 Jewish souls. Though this was prior to, and expanding its community during World War II, both birth rate and death rates are conflicting. Hitler though, still took what he envisioned in The Final Solution to encompass Greek Jewry and their sought-after annihilation. Hitler clearly recognised, and at The Wannsee Conference on January 20th 1942, this is made clear and that a further 69,600 of Greece’s Jews were earmarked for Destruction. The vast bulk of these, more than 69,221 Greek Jewish People, were Slaughtered within Birkenau. Estimates invariably differ as to the consequences for Jews within Hitler’s line of view, a catchment vastly expanded. Tragically we realise that in total, there were between 60,000 to 65,000 Greek Jews who were murdered during the period of The Holocaust. These included the Salonika Jews when the deportation of Salonika’s Jews toward Birkenau began on March 15th 1943.

The Northern Greek city of Salonika had the largest Jewish population in Greece and numbered some 56,000 Jewish People. When, in April 1941 Salonika fell to the German occupiers, who along with their allies, had invaded all of Greece. Between these axis groups, the northern part of the country was occupied by Germany, the southern areas were controlled by Mussolini’s Italian forces and the region of Thrace was attached to the Bulgarian occupation. All of Salonika fell under the German zone of occupation. Within a week of the German arrival, the German authorities began to implement anti-Jewish policies and directly persecuted the Greek Jews. The Nazis arrested Jewish Greek leaders, confiscated Jewish Lands, Properties, Goods and Valuables. All significant artefacts were looted and shipped back to Germany and in July 11th 1942, public humiliation of the Jews of Salonika was compounded when 9,000 Jewish males of ages of 18 and 45 were assembled in Liberty Square. Many were severely beaten as they were being detained and exited their Country for Labour gangs for the Reich.  Some 2,000 Greek Jews were also forcefully removed to these labour units and were engaged in activities assigned to them by the Wehrmacht.

During February 1943, the Nazis began the Ghettoization of Salonika’s Jews in readiness for their transportation to The Death Camps. These deportations began on March 15th 1943, and between then and August 1943, over 45,000 of Salonika’s Jews were transported toward Birkenau for final treatment within the Gas Chambers. A month later, after the Italian surrender, Germany took immediate control of the whole of Greece, worsening then the predicament for all of Greek Jewry. As with many of Salonika’s Jews, some of Greek Jewry, who sought to evade capture, fled the Country, or remained to join Partisan groups, and continually struggled to Survive.

By now Thrace was under the control of the Bulgarian authorities which managed to deport more than 4,000 Jews during the Spring of 1943. On Saturday July 11th 1942, and in Salonika, a decree ordering all Jewish Males, aged between 18 and 45 years were to gather at the Plateia Eleftheria, Liberty Place for extraction, supposedly toward enforced labour. Their registration, amidst rumour and counter rumour, did not give the Jewish People of Salonika much solace. About 2,000 of Salonika’s Jews were assigned to this enforced labour, working for the occupying German Army.

In February 1943, one of Eichmann’s aktion commanders, SS Standartenfuhrer Alois Brunner, issued orders to the German authorities to concentrate Salonika’s Jews of Salonika in two ghettos, one in the east of Salonika and the other to the western, in the Baron de Hirsch quarter. Here, the Jews were to be assembled alongside the de Hirsch railway station, for transportation to the Death Camp at Birkenau and were immediately gassed upon arrival. Others of Salonika’s Jews were deported to the Death Camps at Sobibor and Treblinka, while still other of these Jews, who had been afforded a release through the international passport exchange, were delivered toward Belsen for exchange deals.

At the end of August 1943, after more than 450 years of Jewish persistence and life, Salonika was declared free of Jews, or Judenrein, in the Nazi colloquialism of Annihilation and Destruction. Of the 56,000 Jews who had lived there, more than 80% of these had been Murdered during the period of The Holocaust. In September 1943, Germany occupied the entire territory of Greece after Italy surrendered to the Allies. They then proceeded to round up and deport the remaining Jews. For those Jews, who had found themselves in the Italian zone of occupation up until this point, and who had remained relatively safe, this all changed.

Some Jews holding identity papers or visas from neutral countries were not deported, while some hundreds of others were able to escape to the nearby mountains, where many joined partisan units. Others went into hiding for themselves and their Family’s or were given shelter by their non-Jewish neighbours. By the end of the war there were fewer than 2,000 Jews who had survived in Salonika and that was not to be the end for Salonika’s Jewish heartache. When these few survivors returned from the camps, they found their homes occupied by Greek families reluctant to return their property to the Jews.

At this time, Jews had lived on Ioannina, for approximately 2,100 years and in 1940, when Greece entered World War II, the young of Ioannina Jews and no-Jews, served valiantly. In April 1941, Ioannina came under the Italian Zone of Occupation, as part of the Nazi division of the spoils. Initially, Ioannina was occupied by the Italians, and Jews did not experience very much discrimination until Italy surrendered in September 1943. After that, and once the Germans took over, and while Jewish leaders adopted a submissive policy of responding to Nazi demands, harsh treatment of the Jews here too took on a ritual, systematic and brutal approach. In March 1944, however, the president of the Jewish community in Ioannina, Dr. Moses Koffinas, was arrested. While detained, he learned of Germany s plans to deport all Jews, and he smuggled a note out to Sabetai Kabelis, a prominent member of the Jewish Community Board, advising the Jews to flee. Unfortunately, Kabelis chose not to relay the warning to Ioannina s Jews, and on March 25th 1944, the entire Jewish community of 1,860 people, including Kabelis himself, was transported to the Birkenau extermination centre. Of the 1,960 Jews of Ioannina deported, more than 1,800 would remain within the confines of the Death Camps.

We are thus required by the science of History, to elicit only those facts which are pertinent to our overall search. In the background, while the supposition of theories can be practiced, so as to broaden our approach, it is clear we must maintain an integrity which protects the value we place upon the honesty we seek. For us then to gather further the evidence that is to be gained, we limit to surmise actions which might have delivered differing outcomes. We arrive at conclusions which are formulated alongside that integrity which is kept intact by the study we investigate. We can suppose, in particular here with the case of Greece, that if Mussolini hadn’t ventured into taking on Greece, on October 28th 1940, and while there are 12,000 Greek Jews who resist the Italian offensive, Greek Jewry is now to be more widely threatened.

When Hitler and his Axis allies then invaded Greece on April 6th 1941, to bolster the Italian position, then the Greek Jews, wherever they are met, are driven from their homes, and eventually existence. Hitler now had a further 75,000 Jews in sight of his resolving solution. On April 9th 1941, Hitler now occupies Salonika, and Bulgaria joined in occupying parts of the Greek province of Thrace, to its Eastern edge where 1,250 Jews lived. Most of these provincial Greek Jews were resettled to Treblinka. The decimation of entire Jewish Community’s and here in Thrace while the assault was extortionate, it was ameliorated in many ways by the Bulgarian presence. Here too we might surmise, that if Hitler had gone ahead with his earlier plan to invade Russia, earlier than the June imposed date he launched Operation Barbarossa, a differing scenario might have been presented. We would be writing a different story and the fate of even more of World Jewry would have been lost.

There are those historians amongst us, and in varying and diverging groups, who feel that Greek Jewry is underrepresented in the narrative of The Holocaust. That is quite possibly true, as we certainly concentrate on areas, more recognisable to whole swaths of the European Continent. But here is where an aim meets with a desire to recall and recollect, and then the progression through key dates presents us with the growing awareness and fatal dilemma for Greek Jewry. On January 20th 1942 for instance, the Wannsee Conference was Convened which suggested that there were still some 69,600 Greeks Jews to be targeted and eliminated. On July 11th 1942 some 9,000 of Salonika’s Jews are detained and while some 2,000 of these Jews are forced to labour for the Wehrmacht, the remainder of these Salonika Jews are eventually expelled toward Birkenau’s gas chambers.

On December 1st 1942 the first deportations of Jews from Greece to the killing centres are to begin and on February 25th 1943 the first transports of Jews from Salonika are dispatched to Birkenau. On March 15th 1943 the deportations of Jews from all over Greece is underway with the deportations from Salonika continuing and over 69,000 Greek Jews will be eventually lost. The deportations also begin of Thracian Jewry. On March 20th 1943, the first deportations of Salonika’s Jews arrive at Birkenau. There are a couple of specific time spans by which the occupying nazi forces planned to remove all Greek Jews toward Birkenau, with some arriving in Sobibor and Treblinka. These dates fall between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943, and for all of Greek Jewry, which had been in existence since before Christ’s passage into Jerusalem, it is a devastating blow. On June 8th 1943 some 880 Jews of Salonika arrive at Birkenau and 572 are immediately gassed.

On March 15th 1944 the more thorough comb through of Greece for the expelling of Jews toward Birkenau has seen some 69,221 Jews of Greece being Gassed, Murdered. Then, and as it became ever more apparent that Hitler’s Weltanschauung was shrinking, and defeat approached even more rapidly, that second timeframe between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944 presented the Greek Jews of The Final Solution with a resolve Hitler’s destroyers were quick to capitalise upon and exploit. As part of The Auschwitz Protocol, on Friday April 7th 1944 we are made aware:

“..Cautious estimate of ..number of ..Jews gassed ..Birkenau ..April 1942 ..April 1944 by Country of origin Greece 45,000 Jews. ..Total 1,765,000 Jews.” The Auschwitz Protocols.

On June 6th 1944 the Jewish population of Corfu of some 1,800 Jews are transported to Birkenau and on June 22nd 1944 a further 435 more of these Corfu’s Jews are resettled in Birkenau, after they refused to work on the Sonderkommando. These were immediately gassed alongside 1,165 of their fellow Jews from that same Corfu transport. On July 23rd 1944 1,700 of Rhodes Jews are resettled to Birkenau and on November 5th 1944, when British troops land in Salonika, the very terms of The Final Solution of The Jewish Question are terminated.

On July 15th 1947 General Hellmuth Felmy, the commander of Army Group Southern Greece is tried for War crimes before the Nuremberg Tribunal. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, but his sentence was reduced to 10 years in 1951. Major General Wilhelm Speidel the military commander in Greece between 1942 and 1944 is also tried for War Crimes before the Nuremberg Tribunal and is sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. He is released in 1951. General Kurt Ritter von Geitner, as Chief of Staff of the military commanders in Serbia and Greece is also tried before the Nuremberg Tribunal on War Crimes but is acquitted.

“..threw us into cattle wagons with a very small window ..no water ..no food. About 13 days later we arrived in Birkenau.” Naki Bega.

Also, and in relation to all of the Greek Jewish Community’s we look to the likes of:

Aegion, we know that 1 Jew was Murdered, and we also know this is Zakhar Aser.

Arta, 320 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd  1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Athens, Jews have lived in the City for 2,000 years and of the 3,500 Jewish Community 1,500 of these Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944, many of them Jewish refugees from the deportation in Salonika. While many escape by boat to Turkey. Thanks in no small part to the Greek Orthodox Church’s Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, and the Chief of Police Angelos Evert, some 2,000 Jews were saved from extermination. The Archbishop openly opined that no difference existed between Greeks.

“..There is neither Jew nor Greek amongst us. We are all Greeks.” Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou.

For such a statement, SS Gruppenfuhrer Jurgen Stroop threatened to have the Greek prelate and religious leader shot.

Chalcis, 155 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Chios, (Kos) On July 20th 1944, the Jews of Kos were taken by boat, alongside Jews from Rhodes and taken to the Greek mainland prior to their eventual resettlement in Birkenau.

Corfu, The Jews had lived on the Island for over 800 years. The Nazis did not take control of the island until 1943, after Italy’s capitulation. Immediately the Nazis issued laws and restrictions for the Jews, ably assisted by a collaborative mayor. Of these 2,000 Jews, 1,800 of them are transported toward Birkenau on June 6th 1944 and 200 of Corfu’s Jews were saved by the local Corfu non-Jewish Community. This transport was to be gathered and concentrated first, in Salonica. From there, these Jews were transported North toward the Birkenau annihilation centre. On June 20th 1944, upon arrival in Birkenau, 1,600 of these Jews of Corfu were immediately gassed upon arrival. Ironically, a further 200 of these Jews, who are finally detailed to the Sonderkommando, are given a temporary reprieve.

“..2,000 Jews lived here before The Holocaust ..today there are only 60 of us left.” Zinos Vellelis.

Corinth, Jews have lived in Corinth since the earliest days of the spread of Christianity, which battled with their Jewish Cousins for status in the Community. Prior to World War II there some 400 Jewish People here, and all of that ended with The Holocaust.

Crete, on June 6th 1944 260 Jews were boarded on a ship that was scuttled near Polegrandos. All aboard drowned. Only 7 Jews of Crete, in hiding on the Island, survived. As many as 280 Jews did not Survive.

Cyprus, for over 2,000 years Jews have lived on the Island and maintained a haven of sorts for many Jews, those resident on the Island, and those escaping the murderous attention being paid to all of Greek Jewry.

Dedeagatch, 137 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Didimoticon, 867 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 March 22nd 1943.

Drama, 589 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Florina, 336 Jews are transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Heraklion had 6 of its Jews shot here on June 6th 1943

Ioannina or Yannina Jews are in evidence here since about the 4th Century before Christendom and despite its losses, remains the longest and most persistent Jewish Community within Greece. Under Italian supervision, all changed once Italy surrendered in September 1943. Once the Nazis took control the Jews came under increasingly more and more penalties for living. On March 25th 1944, the entire Jewish community of 1,870 Jews were transported toward Birkenau. Those who Survived in hiding or who returned numbered just 181 Jewish People.

Kalamata, 4 of it Jews were Murdered.

Kastoria, the Jewish Community had existed here for over 800 years and there were some 900 Jews living in Kastoria in 1940. However, between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944 763 Jews were transported toward Birkenau, concentrated in Salonika prior to their final resettlement. The story of their final transportation is replete with horror, detained within an abandoned school for days on end, deprived of food and water they were subject to the vagaries of bestial Nazi activity. Many of the Females, some very young Girls were raped by Wehrmacht soldiers. Barely 35 Jews finally survived from Kastoria.

Katerina, 3 Jews were shot, and other Jews were deported between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Kavalla, 1,484 March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Komotini, 878 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Lamia, 1 Jew was Murdered here.

Larisa, there were 394 Jews transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Neaorestea, 194 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Paranestion, 19 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Patras, 213 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Pireas, 167 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Preveza, 235 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Salonika, (Thessaloniki) there were some 45,000 Jews living here, and their brutal treatment was conducted from the middle of 1942 onwards. Then, and between March 15th 1943 and August 1943 the vast majority of both Salonika’s Jews and Jews from all over Greece, in excess of 46,000 Jews, were collected here, and every 3 days, they were transported North toward Birkenau. By the end of the war, fewer than 2,000 Jews survived in Salonika.

Rhodes, for some 2,300 years, the Jews have lived on the island and had the oldest functioning Synagogue in all of Greece. Under Italian occupation, and until the Nazis took in September 1943 life for Rhodes Jews was a picture of calm. There were some 2,000 Jews living on the island, and from July 20th 1944 their presence was removed from the island, the last Jewish resettlement exercises from all of Greece. Only 151 from Rhodes Jews managed to survive The Holocaust.

Salamis, between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944 6 Jews were removed toward Birkenau and destruction there.

Samothrace 3 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Sarzhshaban, 12 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Souflion, 32 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Thasos, 16 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Thrace, in the spring of 1943, more than 4,000 Jews from Thrace were deported by the local  Bulgarian officials, in collaboration with Hitler’s plans.

Trikala, 160 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Veroia, 329 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Volos, had been populated by Jews for some 900 years prior to Nazi occupation. There were over 880 Jews living here and many survived due to the strong resistance movement being active here. Chief Rabbi  Moshe Pessah, assisted by the Greek Orthodox prelate Archbishop Joachim Alexopoulos and the National Liberation Front, the EAM found safety in Pelion, their mountainous villages providing adequate safety and shelter. However, some 237 Jews were still removed toward Birkenau between March 23rd 1944 and April 2nd 1944.

Xanthi, some 526 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Xeres, (Seres) 471 Jews were transported toward Birkenau between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943.

Zakynthos, or (Zante), is recognised that of all the 275 of Zakynthos’s Jews, All survived The Holocaust due to the intervention of both Metropolitan Bishop Demetrius Chrysostomos and the local Mayor, Loukas Karrer. Together, they issued documentation which presented no distinction between Greek nor Jew and in 1944 they were presented with a demand to provide a list of those Jews present on the Island. Karrer produced the list, and Chrysostomos presented this to the Nazis. On that list were 2 names, Demetrius Chrysostomos and Loukas Karrer. The Bishop reiterated their position: –

“..Here are your Jews. If you choose to deport ..Jews of Zakynthos ..you must also take me ..and I will share their fate.” Bishop Demetrius Chrysostomos.

The Jews of Zakynthos took to the Mountains and hid amongst the island’s other locals in those mountainous villages till safety. The case of the Jews of Corfu, all 1,800 of them, proved significant at the time as all of these were being transported aboard a ship and towards Birkenau. The ship deporting these Jews were due to pick up all the Jews of Zante and as it was recognised that the transport was too full, the ship bypassed Zakynthos. Of course, this did not preclude the actions of those locals though who intervened on behalf of this close-knit Jewish community.

“..as long as I live ..Jews of Zakynthos will not be taken” Alfred Lueth.

Here, while the 275 Jews were to be saved by local intervention, we also recognise a Wehrmacht Colonel, Alfred Lueth, a member of Felmy’s Army Group Southern Greece whose assistance was influential. Lueth had informed the island’s Jewish Community leader Yaakov Mordo of his commitment.

“..island’s commander ..a good Austrian ..avoided following ..deportation order. ..manoeuvred ..circumvented ..found pretexts ..excuses to delay ..action ..stating to his superiors that local authorities ..Metropolitan Bishop ..Mayor ..Prefect ..Police Commissioner ..and ..entire public opinion were against deportation. Colonel Lueth himself acted decisively against ..deportation of Jews.” Jewish Greek Community ‘In Memoriam’.

Ziliahovo, between March 3rd 1943 and March 22nd 1943 some 18 Jews were transported to their destruction in Birkenau.

This does not conclude the destruction for the Jews of Greece as Survivor’s returned, attempted to move toward Israel and died trying.