by Chrysanthi Archontidou
The portrait of his family, the letters from his mother during the Occupation, his relationship with art and "Art" and his contribution to the cultural life of Thessaloniki
In 1943, around 43.000 Jews were transported from Thessaloniki to the Nazi camp of Auschwitz. Of these, less than a thousand returned alive, a devastating blow to the Jewish population of Thessaloniki and a black spot on the map of Greek history.
Members of the Saltiel family were among these souls. A family that has a long history in the city, up to the present day, with significant participation in the cultural life of Thessaloniki and in the field of art.
Maurice Saltiel, son of Isaac Saltiel and Sarah (Sarina) Saltiel, was born on May 31, 1922 in Thessaloniki. A well-off Sephardic Jewish family, with a two-story house and shop on Megalou Alexandrou Street (now Ionos Dragoumis) in Alcazar.
Isaac Saltiel had, together with his two brothers, a wholesale fabric store on the corner of Vilara and Katholikon streets, with two branches, one on Venizelou street and one on Vardaris. He was not a religious man, he rarely went to the Synagogue, mainly on major holidays. He was an intelligent, nervous and active man, a commercial genius.
The mother, Sarah (Sarina) Saltiel, née Serrero, was a very beautiful woman, ideal for her time, cultured, a teacher, talented, with a rare voice. She had graduated from the French School of the Alliance Francaise, which was then located in Aristotelous Square and her family was not rich, but it was aristocratic. Isaac had heard her sing at a baptism, fell in love with her, proposed to her and somehow, they were married in March 1921. At home, they spoke French and Spanish-Hebrew, the languages that Maurice also learned from an early age.
Maurice was an only child, who attended Delasalle, the Valagianni School and later the 2nd Boys' High School. He studied Economics at the University of Athens, while from an early age he took violin, piano lessons and improvised. On the traditional celebration of the year, his birthday, Maurice would prepare a short piece on his violin and play it to the people who gathered at the house, while his mother accompanied him on the piano.
The family traveled in the summer to major cities in Europe, from Czechoslovakia to France and Austria, attending operas and listening to concerts. Maurice got to know Europe until the summer of 1936, when the Metaxas dictatorship found the family in a Slovenian spa town, at which point European travel stopped.
This is a very loving family, with grandparents, David and Rachel Saltiel, being an integral part of it. “I loved my grandfather the most, I don’t know why, although my grandmother adored me and took care of me,” Maurice himself confesses in his unpublished book.
In 1942, Maurice returned to Thessaloniki from Athens, where he was studying. His parents had already left their family home on Megalou Alexandrou and, by order of the Germans, were transferred to an apartment with his grandparents and a Marcos family.
The first mass measures against the Jews of Thessaloniki began to be implemented more than a year after the German invasion. On July 11, 1942, all male Jews between the ages of 18 and 45 were summoned to Eleftherias Square to register for forced labor, where they were humiliated and tortured.
"This was the beginning of the end," says Maurice in his unpublished book.
Maurice Saltiel: The Escape to Athens
The Saltiel family quickly decided that it was best for Maurice to escape to Italian-occupied Athens, a decision to which he agreed.
He first went via a small railway that led from Thessaloniki to Stavros, Chalkidiki. From there, he continued by mule to Neochori, Chalkidiki, where he was hosted by his classmate, Vasilis Papamoschou. Some suspected him and Vasilis advised him to return to Thessaloniki.
Η Maurice's wife, Helen Saltiel, recounts today in Parallaxi the story of his escape to Athens: "His father made sure, by giving him enough money, that Maurice dressed as a railway worker and boarded a train from Thessaloniki to Athens. His anxiety was, as he had told me, the continuous blockades made by the Germans. From Larissa onwards, because the Italians were in control, things were easier.
When he arrived in Athens, he was initially hosted at the home of his friend Sotiris Faltsis. He took out a fake ID with the name Sotiriadis. There, the neighbors recognized him as not being from the area and that he was obviously Jewish. After a complaint to the Gestapo that a family was hiding a Jew, the Germans searched the house where he was hosted. Maurice managed to escape and went to another apartment, with a cousin of his.
When things became even more difficult, the daughter of the house where he was staying at the time suggested a fisherman with a boat who could smuggle him to Egypt. Maurice gave the fisherman many pounds and they made an appointment for breakfast to smuggle him out. Maurice went, but the fisherman never showed up, he deceived him. During that time, when he was in Italian-occupied Athens, he lived hunted, from one house to another, so as not to give any reason."
Maurice continued to hide, now in the house of Sotiris Faltsis' grandmother, Katina Kalogirou, until October 1944, when the Germans withdrew.
Maurice's letters to his mother during the Occupation
Throughout the period that Maurice lived in Athens, he corresponded with his mother, who daily expressed to him her news, concerns and worries regarding how things were going in German-occupied Thessaloniki.
Maurice treasured the letters in an old folder titled “My Mother’s Letters.” Between May 17, 1942, and March 21, 1943, Sarina Saltiel sent 28 letters to her son. We do not know how many letters she sent him in total. These letters were published in 2018 in Léon Saltiel’s book “Don’t Forget Me” and constitute the largest part of the collection of letters from three mothers to their sons during that period. Sarina’s letters were translated from French into Greek by Maurice’s wife, Helene Saltiel.
"Maurice did not want to talk about the shocking event of the Holocaust. He always talked about his mother, he said that she was a rare woman, beautiful, knowledgeable in music, a beautiful voice, a humanitarian and loving mother. But nothing more than that. He had difficulty talking about this story, it was a great trauma that did not heal until the end," she confesses.
Sarina took the letters that Maurice sent to his mother with her on the trip to Auschwitz.
Through Sarina's emotionally charged letters to her son, we see the period of persecution in Thessaloniki from a different and unique perspective, through the eyes of a mother who has been separated from her son and her unknown future.
Sarina, in her initial letters, describes the family's daily life, but there is always a breath of hope, writing characteristically: "I hope the next letter will be more pleasant" / "I hope that when you finish your studies we will all meet again."
As time passed, the problems she described in her letters became more and more numerous, culminating in the moment when the family was taken to the ghetto. The ghettos were set up in the Baron Hirsch camp, a Jewish slum opposite the Thessaloniki Railway Station. The Saltiel family was always supported by Maurice's friends, Yannis Triantafyllidis and Sotiris Faltsis, something she herself reiterates in her letters.
The families waited in the ghetto for a few days, until they were transported in animal wagons, 80-100 people, to Auschwitz, a journey of days, without water and food, in miserable sanitary conditions.
Here are some phrases from her last letters:
"It is impossible for me to communicate. We are locked in the ghetto […]. What can I tell you except that we are going through very critical moments. We no longer hope except in God. We hope that we will not lose our minds."
"I write these lines to you with eyes full of tears and a heart frozen with terror. It's been over two months that our slow agony has been gradually growing stronger, the work of an experienced sadist."
"Now the worst thing is displacement. Our blood freezes every moment, our hearts beat to break."
"What can I tell you except that we are slowly losing our minds. Three missions have already gone […]. We are still here, dying every moment from so many emotions. We have tried everything but we have achieved nothing. This may be the last letter I write to you […]. My heart is breaking, Sarina."
This was the last letter that Sarina Saltiel wrote to her son, on March 21, 1943.
Isaac and Sarina were deported with the 4th expedition on March 23, which carried 2.800 people and arrived at Auschwitz after five days. The father was ill and was sent to the gas chambers.
No one from the Saltiel family returned.
"The last letter I received was like a testament. I remember reading it in my room on Ithakis Street in Athens. It was the first time I cried in my life. I hoped, I hoped that I would see my parents again," Maurice wrote in his unpublished book.
Leon Saltiel, author of "Forget Me Not", analyzes in Parallaxi the story behind the writing of the book and the conclusions we draw about the Saltiel family, through Sarina's letters to Maurice:
“At that time, I was doing my doctoral thesis at the University of Macedonia, with research and a focus on the Holocaust in Thessaloniki. I was interested in seeing what people perceived, thought and lived during that period. In an exhibition that I had curated at the Holocaust Museum in Paris, a letter from Maurice’s mother, from the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, was on display. It intrigued me because it was dated March 1943. I asked the Museum to give me the letter and that’s how I met Ms. Saltiel, who was very kind to entrust me with the original letters.
In the book, which includes letters from three mothers writing to their sons from the Thessaloniki ghetto, Sarina's piece is the longest and perhaps the most well-written, as Mr. Saltiel explains:
"It is the one that has more poetry of speech and detail of narratives, even though Sarina and the other two mothers did not write for publication, they wrote love letters to their children. Through her letters, we see that Maurice's mother, like the entire family, was of a high intellectual level, they went on trips to major European countries for recreation and baths. Sarina herself, during the Occupation, went to many cultural events, whether it was cinema or concerts, something that was rare for the time, due to poverty and difficulties.
What makes the Saltiel family interesting is the relationships they had with Thessaloniki society. Maurice goes to Athens before the persecutions begin and stays there until the end of the war. In Athens, he stays with the grandmother of a non-Jewish classmate of his, which shows the degree of integration of the family into Thessaloniki society. At the same time, his mother continues to see her son's classmates and friends, who keep her company in Thessaloniki. To those who supported and helped the Saltiel family, Sarina repeatedly tells Maurice that they have an obligation to them. In her last letters, Sarina does not mention the names of her son's friends, as as the restrictions increase and they understand that the noose is tightening, they live in fear that the police will open letters.
When I met Maurice's friend, Sotiris Faltsis, in his old age in Thessaloniki, he had told me characteristically that he did not remember the moments that Sarina mentions in her letters. “What was important to her was not important to me,” he had stated characteristically.
Another thing we understand from the letters of Maurice's mother is the tenderness and love, through the maternal advice she gives Maurice, such as "not to be lazy" and "to read". We also see in depth the daily life of the family back in Thessaloniki, where when the father closes the shop and stays at home, he loses his main work and does not know what to do with his time, as he is not involved in housework. He loses his social role in a way.
The book “Don't Forget Me” was presented at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, in the “Maurice Saltiel” hall.
"The presentation was even attended by the then mayor, Yannis Boutaris, who also wrote the prologue to the book. It is very rare to present a book that refers to real events and people, in a room named after one of these people. It was something very symbolic for me," emphasizes Mr. Saltiel.
Maurice's return to Thessaloniki – The relationship with trade and art
In 1946, Maurice returns to his city, Thessaloniki, without any of his own people there anymore.
He made the decision to reopen, on his own, his father's import shop on Vilara Street, which he maintained for several years.
"When Maurice returned to Thessaloniki, he had a difficult transition, because he felt alone in his own city. The only person he had as support was a cousin of the same age, who had survived in Athens, and his childhood friends. It was a more psychological burden than a financial one, as the buildings that the family had remained. However, the house they lived in had been taken over by another family, who refused to return it. In fact, the father of this family was a well-off man, who owned a hotel and after much pressure, he gave Maurice a room there," explains Ms. Saltiel.
Despite the effort to breathe new life into his father's store, Maurice's great inclination and love was for art, which was his only refuge after the war.
As Ms. Saltiel analyzes: “Maurice felt the need to open his father’s shop, mainly for emotional and not financial reasons. From the first moment he arrived in Thessaloniki, he began to deal with the cultural issues of the city. He met with professors at the University, with people like the lawyer Michalis Tsitsiklis and Yannis Triantafyllidis, an architect-urban planner, who was concerned with the urban planning problem of the city. With these people, the thought was born that Thessaloniki needed the creation of an intellectual life and an institution that would promote music, painting, visual arts and speech events.”
A few years later, in 1970, Maurice closed his father's shop for good, a decision that ultimately cost him nothing. "In the end, he realized that he had no inclination for commerce, his nature was artistic," emphasizes Ms. Saltiel.
"I remember a conversation my father had with a customer that touched me at the time. He told him that I was a good boy, but I didn't want to be a merchant. It touched me then. Today I know that he was absolutely right," Maurice had written characteristically in his anecdotal book.
When "Art" was born
Post-war Thessaloniki lacked events that could create an artistic audience, informed and aware, worthy of the quality of the city.
Maurice's house, at that time, became a small artistic center, where musicians gathered every Sunday to play and listen to music, sing and discuss musical and artistic topics.
During 1951, Maurice intensified his cultural activity in the city, with activities such as concerts for pupils and students at the Royal Theatre and the regular weekly column of artistic news in the newspaper "To Fos", together with Michalis Tsitsiklis.
After meeting with collaborators who belonged to the avant-garde of the time, Manos Hatzidakis, Spyros Vasiliou and Dora Tsatsou, Maurice and Michalis Tsitsiklis, began to think more seriously about establishing an artistic association in Thessaloniki. The discussions involved Yiannis Triantafyllidis and Linos Politis, who enthusiastically accepted to participate in this movement.
"They addressed University professor Linos Politis, philologist Dimitris Maronitis, archaeologist Manolis Andronikos and other intellectuals of the time and important factors in the spiritual life of our city," as Ms. Saltiel explains.
In an effort to expand the gathering of local artistic forces, the Valagiannis and Schinas Alumni Associations are also invited to participate. Eventually, Nouli Zahara participates, as president of the Schinas alumni. Other art lovers and friends join them, completing the first 25 founding members.
At a meeting of the main founding members in the office of the director of the Ionian Bank, Ioannis Drakos, the final name of the association was given, with the decision that the title would be "Art", with the subtitle "Macedonian Artistic Society".
The idea, therefore, for the establishment of "Art" began to be conceived within the musical circle that gathered in Maurice's house since 1946 and was completed with the connection of this circle with the University of Thessaloniki and specifically with the professors of the School of Philosophy, Agapitos Tsopanakis and Linos Politis.
Maurice Saltiel dedicated a large part of his life to the vision of "Art". He himself had artistic impulses from a very young age, which served as a springboard for the rest of his life, helping him to deal with the trauma of the Holocaust and the loss of his family.
"In those years, the whole city considered that the soul of art in Thessaloniki was Maurice. He was a man whose interests were art, culture and of course family and friends," explains Eleni Saltiel.
In addition to the enormous contribution of "Art" to the cultural life of Thessaloniki, Maurice Saltiel was a personality inextricably linked to the artistic world of Northern Greece.
From 1952 to 1981 (with the exception of the period 1961 – 1965) he served as a member of the Board of Directors of "Techni", its vice-president and general secretary, with a huge share in its long-term and successful activity.
It is worth mentioning that in 1974 he became a member of the Board of Directors of the State Theatre of Northern Greece, with which he disagreed with the actions of the management and eventually resigned.
On his initiative, in 1975, the Coordinating Committee of Cultural Associations of Northern Greece was created, of which he was appointed secretary.
In January 1977, he began publishing a series of articles entitled "The Cultural Problems of Thessaloniki" in the newspaper Thessaloniki.
During the period 1977 – 1978, together with Chrysanthos Christou, they organized exhibitions and art classes in almost all the cities of Northern Greece.
In 1981, while he was a member of the Board of Directors of the NTNG, he took the lead with articles and other actions in the establishment of a School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki.
In April 1986, he published a series of articles entitled "Cultural Issues of Thessaloniki" in the newspaper Thessaloniki.
In September 1987, he became a member of the Board of Directors of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, from which he resigned a year later for health reasons.
Maurice passed away on February 26, 1998, four years after the stroke he had suffered.
Meeting Eleni Nikolaou
His acquaintance with his life partner and companion, Eleni Nikolaou, naturally took place at "Art". Both of them were at that time people who served various forms of art, with Maurice participating with actions, initiatives and actions in the cultural issues of Thessaloniki, including the "Macedonian Artistic Society".
Eleni Nikolaou worked at PPC, loved singing, dancing, music and had a strong artistic streak herself.
The couple met in 1960.
"At that time, I was a student at the State Conservatory and I often attended the events of "Techni". Its offices were housed for nine years in Maurice's shop and so, together with a classmate of mine from the Conservatory, we went to sign up as members. I attended all the events and Maurice and I met on one of the excursions of "Techni". There, we showed the sympathy we had for each other and slowly our relationship and love, which at that time was completely platonic, developed. In 1963 we got married, the same year I gave birth to our eldest son, Simos. After four years, our second child, Aris, was born," recounts Ms. Saltiel.
Their relationship was characterized by a deep love for each other – both for art. “With Maurice we played chamber music, he played the violin and I accompanied him on the piano. I was also in the “Art” atmosphere and I was very lucky because I had the opportunity to meet great people, like Hadjidakis and great professors, like Linos Politis and Dimitris Maronitis. I was lucky that alongside Maurice, I met so many remarkable people and intellectuals of that era, from a human and friendly side,” she explains.
The son of Eleni and Maurice, Simos Saltiel, is currently an accomplished graphic designer, following in the artistic footsteps of his parents. He studied graphic design and photography in Chicago and New York. From a young age, he had artistic concerns, was involved in music and participated in three bands. He is also a photographer and has been exhibiting his work since 1982.
Eleni Saltiel actively participates to this day in the city's Jewish communities, aiming to not let History and Maurice be forgotten from the collective memory.
She is one of the founders of the Choir of the Israeli Community in Thessaloniki, which deals with traditional music, Sephardic, Jewish and Greek songs.
“We hold concerts, events, musical events about the Holocaust inside and outside the community club, located in Vasileos Heraklion. After the death of Maurice, I was asked to help at the Jewish Museum, which at the time was only historical, in a small space. When Thessaloniki became the cultural capital, the Museum moved to the excellent building that is located today, on Agios Minas Street. I worked there voluntarily for 20 years, learning more things every day and getting to know people, old Jews of Thessaloniki, who had left before the Holocaust, in the great fire of 1917. It was a unique experience.
Now something very important is being organized, since a group from the University's School of Philosophy made a proposal to the Ministry of Culture to conduct research on Maurice and "Art", with the aim of creating a volume on "Art" as well as Maurice's autobiography. We have already started the collaboration and it will be something excellent. Also, it is planned within the next few months to hold an exhibition at Teloglion, which will include the entire collection of paintings by "Art", whose cycle closed last year. It is an opportunity to highlight what "Art" is, its activity and its importance in Thessaloniki", she concludes.
As for the role of art in highlighting the black page of the Holocaust in Thessaloniki, Ms. Saltiel emphasizes:
"Art in general has greatly helped to highlight the Holocaust, with many references and events, promoting the idea of not forgetting and of hearing the real truth, because unfortunately, to this day there are doubters."
Leon Saltiel analyzes anti-Semitism in today's Greece as well as the enormous role of education and awareness of the Holocaust with the aim of not repeating the mistakes of history:
"Unfortunately, anti-Semitism is a very old disease that has plagued the world and human civilization since ancient times, unfortunately to our days. And again, after the Holocaust, humanity did not learn and these phenomena continue. In every era, anti-Semitism changes guise to express the needs of the period. There is always an excuse to blame the Jews for the suffering of each period.
After the events of October 7 in Israel, with the Hamas attack, we have seen an increase and explosion of anti-Semitism, throughout Europe but also in Greece, as all statistical studies show. In our country it remains quite widespread, but not violent.
Education is one of the main means of combating anti-Semitism. Part of it is education about the Holocaust, not only to combat anti-Semitism, but to build resilient societies, with greater equality, democracy and the rule of law. When we read in Sarina Saltiel’s letter “I am searching my conscience to find what I have done wrong and I cannot find it”, we see a huge cry for peace. The woman, without knowing it, understands that she is going to die and wonders why she has to suffer this, while all she wants is to be with her family.
"Because as societies, we tend to repeat the mistakes of the past and not learn from History, these letters are a huge lesson. The love that runs through these letters from mothers to their children calls us all to reflect and work for a better society."
Bibliography
Saltiel, L. (2018). Forget Me Not: Three Jewish Mothers Write to Their Sons from the Thessaloniki Ghetto. Alexandria Publications.
Greek Literary and Historical Archive (2008). The Child of "Art" and of Art: Memory of Child Maurice Saltiel. Thessaloniki. Editorial: Dimitris Ioannou, Panagiotis Pistas, Eleni and Simos Saltiel
*The photos are taken from the two books above.
SOURCE: parallaximag, 12.7.2025