ARTICLE BY LEON SALTIEL: Thoughts on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023 - Central Jewish Council of Greece, coordinating body of the Jewish Communities of Greece

January 27, 2023 National Holocaust Remembrance Day today, and we commemorate the 80.000 Greek Jews, and 50.000 Thessalonians, exterminated by the Nazis in the death camps during World War II.

1. When the Italians invaded Greece in October 1940, Greek Jews fought bravely alongside their Christian fellow citizens. According to the available data, around 13.000 Jews served in the ranks of the Greek army, with over 500 killed at the front and close to 4.000 wounded. One of those who fell dead was Nathan Benveniste. Jack Soustiel, my grandfather's "Uncle Jackos," had the difficult task of informing Nathan's brother Chaim, also a soldier, with this letter:

It is my lot to inform you that your beloved brother Natan has fallen heroically fighting for the country. Of course, the pain is great, but it is mitigated by the thought that he fell fighting for the freedom and independence of our beloved Greece (...) You have a greater resolve to throw yourself into the fight (...) With all our hearts we must to exclaim: (...) Long live Greece. Long live the army.1

In addition to the battlefield, Pericles Kortsaris collected, through the pages of the Thessaloniki press of the time, more than 900 named contributions of Greek Jews who patriotically and generously contributed money, supplies and other services to the national effort during the Albanian Epic .2

Unfortunately, as my research has shown,3 this experience of common struggle for the homeland did not translate into solidarity for the persecuted Jews of Thessaloniki by their fellow citizens during the Holocaust.

2. Dr. Cecil Roth, professor of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, described in an article his experiences of visiting post-war Thessaloniki in the summer of 1946.4 There Roth writes of the "horrific experience of visiting this morgue of historical memories." Among other things, someone gave him a shoe sole cut from Jewish parchment. It is none other than the holy parchments of the Bible, the Old Testament, written by hand on leather and with special rules, which are the basis of the Christian religion. From the Holy of Holies to the sole of a shoe...

3. Some years later, in June 1948, the Greek ambassador in The Hague, N. G. Lelis, having attended the opening of a Holocaust memorial in the Netherlands, sends a letter5 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, with which "let me to submit the opinion that Greece also erected a similar monument in memory of the Greek-Jews of Thessaloniki". And he continues: "This gesture will not only perpetuate the tribute of the Motherland to its children who were cruelly killed, but will also highlight forever the self-sacrifice with which the Nation, burning under foreign occupation, rose in defense of the Jews of the country. In addition, it will be appreciated by the millions of Jews everywhere, especially in the United States, especially not in Palestine after our pro-Arab demonstration, which was forced due to unavoidable political reasons.6".

Six months later, the answer comes from the General Administration of Northern Greece. To it are added "opinions of the various actors of Thessaloniki on the issue".

Both the Municipal Lords, as well as the Commercial world and the Journalistic circles heard a similar thought with discomfort, accepting it only if reasons of more general political expediency impose it. Unfortunately, there is a feeling of hatred and loathing among the people of Thessaloniki against the Jews, perhaps caused by the attitude of the latter, which was considered suspicious and hostile, against the Greek Administration and everything Greek. This feeling continued even after the liberation, so they would have thought that the disappearance of such a large number of Israelis of Thessaloniki would change this feeling of hatred into a feeling of pity and sympathy for the Jews who were left behind, not exceeding 2000 persons.

The letter concludes with the hope that "over time there will be a change of attitude towards the local Israeli element, in which case the erection of a monument to the fallen Israelis will be considered the result of a spontaneous will and a manifestation of sympathy for an inhumanly disappeared compatriot of the Greek citizens". This monument will finally be erected in 1997, on the occasion of the European Capital of Culture.

4. Many questions and few answers. Of course, Greece has also made significant progress regarding the memory of the Holocaust in recent years. We owe it not only to those who perished but also to the new generations, who seek a more peaceful and united future. Let today's Remembrance Day be an occasion for reflection and consideration for the Greece of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And why not, isn't it time to rename a central avenue in Thessaloniki as Jewish Martyrs Street?

*Leon Saltiel is a PhD in modern Greek history at the University of Macedonia, focusing on the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki. His book "The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 1942-1943" won the 2021 International Holocaust Research Book Award from Israel's Yad Vashem Foundation.

REFERRALS:

1. Macedonia, March 2, 1941, Pericles Kortsaris, "The Greek Jews "for the struggle of the motherland", The Athens Review of Books, Issue 146, January 2023, https://athensreviewofbooks.com/arxeio/teyxos146/5223- oi-ellines-evraioi-yper-tou-agonos-tis-mitros-patridos.

2. Pericles Kortsaris, “Appendix: The Names of Greek Jews Who Contributed,” The Athens Review of Books, January 2023, https://athensreviewofbooks.com/paremvaseis/5215-parartima-ta-onomata-ton-ellinon-evraion- pou-syneiseferan.

3. Leon Saltiel, The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 1942–1943 (Routledge, 2020), Timos Fakalis, "In light of the dark secrets of Thessaloniki: How they exterminated the Jews of the city", Ethnos, 29 April 2020, https://www.ethnos.gr/greece/article/102761/stofostaskoteinamystikathsthessalonikhsposexontosantoysebraioysthspolhs.

4. Cecil Roth, “Last Days of Jewish Salonica: What Happened to a 450-Year-Old Civilization,” Commentary 10 (1950), 49-55.

5. Historical Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1951, file 139/1/1/1. Thanks to Philip Carabot for flagging this correspondence and providing the copies.

6. It refers to Greece's vote against Resolution 181 of the UN General Assembly in November 1947, on the partition of Palestine, which led to the establishment of the state of Israel.

SOURCE: www.iefimerida.gr, 27.1.2023

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