of APE correspondent F. Karavitis
With the program "Karya 1943. Jewish Forced Labor and Holocaust in Greece" and the exhibitions of the same title in Berlin and Athens illuminates, more than 80 years later, a "blind spot" in the history of the Nazi occupation in Greece.
The writer Giorgos Vafopoulos likens it to "dental hell". The site of martyrdom for around 400 Thessalonian Jews is now being highlighted, to remind that many aspects of the Occupation period still remain dimly lit in the collective memory.
The Documentation Center for Forced Labor is located in the Schönweide district in the east of Berlin, right on the site of the forced laborers' quarters during the Nazi period.
3.000 forced labor camps operated in the German capital alone. In total, at least 26 million men, women and children were used against their will as labor during the Nazi period, while 8,4 million of them were transported to work in Germany, always under torturous and inhumane conditions.
The buildings remain unchanged and, despite the intervening years and change of use, the atmosphere retains something eerie reminiscent of that era. In the low, simple buildings - containers, reminiscent of a camp, the "political" workers of the Third Reich were piled up.
It is one of the most shameful chapters in German history, often downplayed in comparison to other Nazi atrocities.
In one of them it is hosted by 6.9.2024 and until 30 March 2025 the exhibition "Karya 1943. Forced Labor and Holocaust in Greece". A "twin" exhibition will open on October 17 at the Benaki Museum and the Jewish Museum of Greece. In both cases, the exhibitions are accompanied by extensive educational programs, as the aim of the organizers is mainly to inform young people.
The exhibition focuses on the description of the conditions of the period for Greece, highlights the personal stories of the forced laborers and invites the visitor to participate, using digital media and interactive applications. The historian, key scientific collaborator of the Forced Labor Documentation Center, Jason Chandrinos, and Iris Hax, his colleague at the Center, have edited the exhibition, with the aim of enhancing its pedagogical dimension as much as possible.
"Hell on Earth"
“You had to work hard, 12 hours a day. They treated us so badly that I thought Karya was hell on earth." The words of Isak Koenka, who stayed in Karya of Fthiotida from March to August 1943, are printed on one of the columns seen in the exhibition. Many of the forced laborers were later transported to the Auschwitz concentration-extermination camp. Some of them called it a "place of recreation", in relation to Karya...
Karya is a small railway station in mountainous Fthiotida. It was built in the period 1906-1907. The Karya project is part of the overall expansion of the Greek railway network by the Wehrmacht. The occupying troops needed the Athens-Thessaloniki line, as it was the main transport axis of the country, particularly valuable for the transport of soldiers, ammunition, but also looted goods that had to leave the country. In addition, the British navy was stationed in the Ionian.
The technical works were undertaken by the paramilitary organization Todt (OT), which in 1942 began work to expand the network, in 1943 installed construction managers in Greece and proceeded to requisition 3.000 Jews from Thessaloniki, who were deported to the forced labor camps of Thebes, Lianokladi and Karya.
The crime record album
The stories of the Karya workers would probably remain forever in the dark, since the survivors of the concentration camp were sent to Auschwitz and very few were able to survive the two hellholes.
In 2002, however, Andreas Assael, collector, researcher and son of survivor Fred (Joseph) Assael, found at a Munich flea market photo albums of Todt Organization officer Hans Ressler from Karya and other construction sites - camps of the time.
In the photos, Andreas Assael recognized his father, one of the few who survived.
The album formed the basis of research, the results of which were presented in 2019 at the Forced Labor Center in Berlin.
This in turn, in collaboration with, among others, the Jewish Museum of Greece, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Osnabruck, prepared the educational program that accompanies the exhibitions, which are under the auspices of the Minister of Culture Linas Mendoni and the Deputy Minister of Culture and Media, Klaudias Rot.
"Today you reach out to us and that means you trust us. This trust of yours is a great responsibility for us. We must honor her by making sure that in the future we never allow this history to be downplayed," said Ms. Roth, addressing the descendants of Karya survivors during the opening of the exhibition in Berlin.
Among them was Andreas Assael, who with his research retrieved the history of Karya and offered it to the collective memory.
A tireless researcher of the period, he repeats, over and over again, the story he discovered: his anxiety to spread it, to have as many people as possible learn it, is evident.
"I studied the photos from Karya for so long that when I visited it I already knew the place," he says almost enthusiastically, as he shows APE-MPE a photo of the Jews of Thessaloniki, as they stand in Eleftherias Square awaiting their fate. “Here, my father. He always wanted his trousers well pressed,” she says tenderly.
It refers to Vafopoulos, who had referred to the forced laborers of Karya in his work, without knowing exactly what he was talking about.
The train passed the construction site and the passengers could see the bony, tortured men staring blankly at them.
Mr. Assael believes that most of the men - about 400 - who were in the Karya camp were thrown into a mass grave in a ravine in the area.
“Life was awful. Very little food and 12 hours of hard work a day. Karya was hell on earth", one reads in the testimony of Isaac Koenka, hosted in the exhibition.
The mission of the workers was essentially to "break" an entire mountain for the extension of the railway line.
Anyone who was injured, or could not work due to exhaustion, was shot without much thought. The Nazis considered him expendable anyway.
At least 400 died in Fthiotida.
The few "lucky" survivors tried to live with the trauma, most of the time without talking about it, like Sam Nahmias.
Ο Alberto Sassoon's grandson and his great-granddaughter, 15-year-old Errika Sassoon, tell his story.
The grandfather had never spoken about Karya: he only expressed himself when Andreas Assael spotted him with his photos.
"Karya's story gives us a life lesson: about the power of man, but also about the ultimate and highest point of human nature," says Erica Sasson, referring to the Morikis family, who took the risk of hiding the Sam Nahmia in Lamia.
Errika speaks passionately about her great-grandfather's story. "My generation has an obligation to keep alive the historical memory of the period. Especially as the survivors leave, our responsibility grows."
