The Holocaust: Greece


Figure 1.--

The indigenous Jewish communities of Greece was the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. It was in Greek comminities (in modern Greece and Turkey) that St. Paul preached the Gospel to Jewish communities. More Jews settled in Greece (at the time part of the Ottoman Empire) after their expulsion from Spain. The NAZIs succeeded in almost entirely destroying these communities. Mussolini seized Albania in 1939. Without consulting Hitler, he launched an invasion of Greece, which had a Fascist Government, in 1940. The Greeks not only resisted the Italian invasion, but drove the Italians back into Albania. The Italian invasion was a miscalculation of imense proportions. It rurned a neutral Fascist Government into a regime sympathetic to the British. This and subsequent events in Yugoslavia forced Hitler to postpone the invasion of the Soviet Union and secire his exposed southern flank in the Balkans. The Germans defeated the Greek and British armies and occupied Greece (April-May 1941). Greece was divided into three zones of occupation. Bulgaria annexed Thrace. Germany occupied Greek Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, Piraeus, and western Crete. Italy occupied the remainder of the mainland and the islands. Where Jews resided in these different occupation zones to a large degree determined their subsequent fate and their possibility of escape.

Greek Jews

The indigenous Jewish communities of Greece was the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. It was in Greek comminities (in modern Greece and Turkey) that St. Paul preached the Gospel to Jewish communities. More Jews settled in Greece (at the time part of the Ottoman Empire) after their expulsion from Spain. The Greeks masacered virtully the entire Jewish population whemn they revolted from the Ottomans (1821). For a time there were no Jews in Greece other than those who had converted. As a result of the Balkan Wrs, however, the Greeks acquired Thessaloniki with Salonica and its substantial Jewish community. The NAZIs succeeded in almost entirely destroying these communities. At that time, the Germans occupied Greece, there were about 76,000 Jews in the country. Most or about 55,000 were in Salonika in the German occupation zone. There were 6,000 Jews in western Thrace under Bulgaria and 13,000 Jews in the Italian zone. The process of the Holcaust was thus affected by which occupation zone the Jews lived.

Axis Invasion (October 1940-April 1941)

Mussolini seized Albania in 1939. Without consulting Hitler, he launched an invasion of Greece, which had a Fascist Government, in 1940. The Greeks not only resisted the Italian invasion, but drove the Italians back into Albania. The Italian invasion was a miscalculation of imense proportions. It rurned a neutral Fascist Government into a regime sympathetic to the British. This and subsequent events in Yugoslavia forced Hitler to postpone the invasion of the Soviet Union and secure his exposed southern flank in the Balkans. This was further underscored with the Yugoslavs refused Hitler's efforts to brong them into the Axis (March 1941). An irate Hitler was forced to intervene in the Balkans (April 1941). The Germans easily defeated defeated the Yugoslav, Greek, and British armies and occupied Greece (April-May 1941). While the NAZI Blitzkrieg was another stunning victory, Hitler eventually found himself facing a roaring insurgency requiring the commitment of a substantial firce to control.

Anti-Semitism

Unlike many European countries, there was not a strong tradition of anti-Semitism in Greece. I am not positive why this was, but suspect that it was partly die to the many years of Ottomon rule. The Greeks when they revolted from the Ottomans masacered the Jewish population (1821). Nor was anti-semitism a major concern with the Italians. It was the German occupation administration, the SS, and the German army that brought ant-semitism to Greece. [Manzower].

Occupation Zones

There were three Axis occuopation zones in Greece for the Germans, Italians, and Bulgarians. Greece was divided into three zones of occupation. Bulgaria annexed Thrace. Germany occupied Greek Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, Piraeus, and western Crete. Italy occupied the remainder of the mainland and the islands. Where Jews resided in these different occupation zones to a large degree determined their subsequent fate and their possibility of escape. The NAZIs completed the extermination of Jews in the German and Bulgarian occupation zones by the summer of 1943. One estimate indicates that at least 54,533 Greek Jews were sent to Auschwitz, despite the protests of many Greek leaders. Most of these Jews were murdered. In total, the Germans confiscated 280 million drachmas ($1.5 million) in cash from Greek Jews, plus property. Between 60,000 and 65,000 Greek Jews died in the Holocaust, though there were a number of Jewish communities that at least partially survived the war. In 1945, the total Jewish population in Greece was 10,000.

German Occupation Zone

The Germans in their occupation zone immediately enacted anti-Jewish policies. The first Jewish community to be targeted by the NAZI was in Thessaloniki. The Germans occupied the city on April 8, 1941. The Germans worked to enflame anti-Semitic sentiments among the Christian Greek populations. They revived several anti-Semitic publications which had been suppressed during the Metaxas dictatorship. The NAZIs on April 15, arrested the council of the Jewish community and replaced it with more compliant Jews. The Nazi Jewish Affairs Commission, a.k.a. the Rosenberg Commando, in June 1941 began confiscating Jewish libraries and valuable art work owned by Jews and sending it to Germany. By the winter of 1941-42, German policies of shipping food to Germany had caused wide-spread famine from Thrace, eastern Macedonia and the Bulgarian territory pour into Thessaloniki and Athens. Food became very difficult to obtain and starvation and typhus became rampant. The NAZIs largely ignored the problem, but would often pull Jews out of these starving throngs. There were summary arrests and executions. About 60 Jews died daily. The NAZIs in July 1942 arrested 9,000 Jews of Salonika to perform forced labor. The NAZI Administrator in Salonika, Max Merten, during October 1942 demanded a ransom to release these men. The 1.9 billion drachmas that the Jews paid totally virtually all the community’s wealth. This included jewelry, antiques, cash and anything else of value. The NAZIs apparetly had the treasure on a fishing boat that sank. (Incredibly Merten returned to Greece after the Wat to look for the boat. He was arested and found guilty, but returned to Germany wher he was released for lack of evidence.) NAZI authorities on December 6 sized the Jewish cemeteries of Thessaloniki and pillaged them. The Rosenberg Commando demanded in early 1943 that authorities begin applying the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. Greek Jews had to wear a Star of David on their clothes. Jewish stores and residences had to be identifiefd. At about this time, the NAZIs et up three ghettos where Jews could be concentrated. Jewish organizations had to close. NAZI authorities required Jews register their belongings. The NAZIs on March 15, 1943 began deportations from the gettoes to the death camps in Poland. Over the next 3 months, the NAZIs deported 45,649 Jews were sent from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Very few of the people in these transports survived.

Bulgarian occupation zone

Some Bulgarian Orthodox Church priests and nuns as well as and the Bulgarian public attemted to help the Greek Jews. The Bulgarian authorities, acceeded to NAZI demands. The Bulgarian Government on November 12, 1942, the Bulgarian government stated that it "readily accepts the proposals of the German government to carry out the general evacuation of the Jews from Bulgaria" (Stavrolakis). That same month, the Government instituted the Germam Nuremberg Laws, forcing Jews to wear a Star of David, submit a record of family wealth, live in proscribed areas and abide by a 5:00 pm curfew. A Bulgarian Commission in January 1943 confiscated Jewish valuables. Bulgarian authoritie on March 4, 1943 arrested all Jews in the Bulgarian Occupation zone. About 200 managed to escape. The other 4,100 were deported to Treblinka where they were murdered.

Italian occupation zone

Jews in the Italian occupation zone had a much better chance of surviving. Few Jews were aware of the dimensions of the Holocaust or the Polish death camps. Many Jews in the Italian zone were families that have lived in Greece since before the Christian era. The much larger Jewish population in Thessaloniki included large numbers of Jews related to Spanish Jews. Many were convinced that they would mot suffer the same fate as the Jews in Thessaloniki. Italian authorities tried to help Jews. Authorities assisted hundreds of Jews reach Athens where it was easier to hide. The Italians issued 300 false identity papers. The Orthodox clergy hid more than 250 Jewish children. Jews in Athens were well integrated into the city’s life. They were not concentrated in any one neigborhood and were thus difficlt to locate. were externally no different from their Christian neighbors. The situation of the Jews in the Italian zone changed on September 8, 1943. On that date the Italians surendered to the Allies who had begun landing in southern Italy. The Germans in Greece began arresting Italians and interning Italian solfiers. The Germans at the same time began actions against the Jews in the Italian zone. The Rosenberg Commando arrived in Athens on September 20. They demanded the names and addresses of all Jews residing in Athens as well as a list of the Greeks who were assisting Jews. They set up a Jewish Council under Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai to comply with these demands. The Athens Jews destroyed the community records so that people could not be easily located. They also helped Barzilai escape to the partisans. The NAZIs on the eve of Yom Kippur, October 8, 1943, ordered the eorganize the Jewish community under direct NAZI control. Jews were ordered to register within 5 days. By the end of he month, however, only 200 Jews has complied and registered. Jews in Athens escaped by boat or joined partisan camps in the mountains. Others converted to Christianity, making it asier to hide. Those that remined into Athens went into hiding. Many were eventually forced to register. Some needed ration cards to obstain food which was very scarse. Others were concerned about endangering the Christians that were hiding them. About 1,500 Jews in Athens had registered by March 1944. The NAZIs rounded up about 800 Jews on March 24-25. They were deported to Auschwitz. The NAZIs during summer 1944 deported about 3,500 Jews from other Greek cities to Auschwitz.

Individuals


Shlomo Venezia

Shlomo Venezia was a Jew born in Thessaloniki. He was deported with his parents to Auschwitz-Birkenau (1943). The killing macinery was running at full speed. He survived the initial selection due to his youth and good health. His parents were selected for death and were gassed immediately. Separated ftom his parents and not knowing of thgeir fate, volunteered for work on the Sonderkommando in Birkenau, not really understanding what the work would entail. The work of the Sonderkommando was to deal with those who were destined for the gas chambers - preparing them to go in, helping them to undress, shaving their heads, shepherding them in, and finally removing their tangled corpses and carrying them and then loading them into the ovens of the crematoria. The Sonderkommando were themselves consigned en masse to the gas chambers, on a regular basis, to make sure that there were no survivors to report on what was going on. Venezia's account is the only known existing complete report from a witness who survived the Sonderkommando. He writes, "During the first three weeks I was constantly stunned by the enormity of the crime, but then you stop thinking."

Aftermath

The Greek Government of George Papandreou in 1944 after the departure of the NAZIs was the first European government to return confiscated Jewish properties. The property of Jews that had been murdered was aded to a common fund to assisst Jews impoverished by the war. A royal decree in 1949 established the Foundation for the Welfare and Rehabilitation of the Jewish Community in Greece. The decree permitted Jewish survivors and their heirs to submit court claims for restitution or compensation.

Sources

Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-1944 (Yale University Press, 1993), 437p.







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Created: March 15, 2003
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