Greek Jewish History

Disguising their true instrument by and using Chief Rabbi Koretz as their instrument by appointing him president of the Community, the Germans claim that their end goal is the restructuring of the Community into a self-administered entity, located in an autonomous area within the city, with its own mayor and Chamber of Commerce. They also appoint a Jewish Militia (Juden Ordnunspolizei), and Jewish citizens are ordered to fill out detailed questionnaires about their assets.

On March 6, 1943, the German occupying authorities prohibit the exit of the Jews from the Ghetto confines, while at the Baron Hirsch neighborhood (thereafter a transit camp), the stage for the final act of the tragedy is being set. It is there that the human herds will be lead, ready to be delivered for slaughter. The first rail convoy departs on March 15 for the extermination camp of Auschwitz / Birkenau. Consecutive convoys, a few days apart from each other, will carry in a few weeks time, the Jews of Thessalonica, piled in cattle rail cars, of extermination.

At this point, we should stress the admirable stance of those non-Jewish compatriots, who, at the risk of their own lives, offered sanctuary to many Jews. The Church, the National Resistance movement, and the State Police set the example, followed by ordinary people offering help and shelter whenever possible, revolting in horror to the crime being committed, even though, at that time, nobody-not even its very victims - could grasp its actual magnitude.

One cannot forget the repeated initiatives of the head of the Metropolitan see of Thessalonica, Gennadios, against the deportations, and most of all, the official letter of protest signed in Athens on March 23, 1943, by Archbishop Damaskinos, along with 27 prominent leaders of cultural, academic and professional organizations. The document, written in a very sharp language, refers to unbreakable bonds between Christian Orthodox and Jews, identifying them jointly as Greeks, without differentiation. It is noteworthy that such a document is unique in the whole of occupied Europe, in character, content and purpose.

Out of the 46,091 Jews that were deported to the extermination camps, only 1950 returned alive, I.e. approximately 4%.