Mair Maisis, a native of Chalkida, is the guardian of the Jewish memory of his city. Halkida has the oldest Jewish settlement in Europe and the Jewish cemetery, which Mair Maisis takes care of bit by bit as his second home, has the oldest graves of many centuries. It is a place steeped in stories lost in time.
He himself passionately guides anyone who comes to learn about the past of Chalkida. When Mair Mais was a child, he experienced the brutality of the Nazi occupation and lived through unspeakable tragedies. He is the pre-eminent scholar of the Jewish history of his city and his research has been recorded in books that are reference points for Greek Jewry. I read his new book with the same emotion and great respect that his face exudes.
Mair Maisis is himself a part of the history of Chalkida, which is why his new book entitled "Memories 1940-1945" is a testimony from the depths. His family appears in Chalkida as early as the 16th century and his ancestors rest in the historic Jewish cemetery. But his new book, which is a collection of various memories and testimonies from the dark period of the war, rescues evidence that concerns Greek history more broadly, as it comes to light not only stories of martyrdom, but also the situation that prevailed in Chalkida and the mountain massif of Dirfi, in whose villages many Jews of the city had found refuge.
Mair Maisis is possessed by the anxiety to hand over to the common body of historical memory the Jewish martyrs of Chalkida and also to bring to our knowledge the important Jewishness of the city. A struggle that is multifold important as the number of people with living memory of the tragic events of the Occupation and the Civil War is dwindling. Those mentioned by Mair Maisis will be remembered: the tragic Simos, the unfortunate Menti, the fearless Sarrika...