The Holocaust In Thessaloniki

This new account of the Holocaust in Greece elaborates on the involvement of Christian society in the persecution of Jews.

Following the Axis invasion of Greece, the Nazis began persecuting the country’s Jews much as they had across the rest of occupied Europe, beginning with small indignities and culminating in mass imprisonment and deportations. Among the many Jews confined to the Thessaloniki ghetto during this period were Sarina Saltiel, Mathilde Barouh, and Neama Cazes—three women bound for Auschwitz who spent the weeks before their deportation writing to their sons. Do Not Forget Me brings together these remarkable pieces of correspondence, shocking accounts of life in the ghetto with an emotional intensity rare even by the standards of Holocaust testimony.

The Library of Holocaust Testimonies is a series of accounts of the experiences of those who suffered under the hands of the Nazis during the attempt to carry out the final solution, or, the extermination of the Jews in Europe.

Presents the memoirs of three eminent members of the Jewish community of Salonika. The advocate Yomtov Yacoel (or Giomtōv Giakoel) tried in 1942-early 1943 to negotiate with Nazi civilian representatives on the issue of Jewish forced labor and other issues; he died in 1944 in Auschwitz. Dr. Isaac Aaron Matarasso describes (in 1948) the ghetto of Salonika and deportations to the Nazi camps. His manuscript includes statistics on the deportations from Salonika, the number of Jews from all of Greece who perished in the Holocaust, three investigations into the fate of some Salonikan Jews during the Holocaust, and an investigation into medical experiments in Auschwitz, as well as the study by Mentes M. Molho "Assets of Jews of Salonika" (pp. 212-231). The businessman Salomon Mair Usiel describes (in 1953) the attempts of the Community Council to alleviate the fate of Salonika's Jews in 1942-43; after the war he was accused of collaboration with the Germans. All three authors also describe the first Nazi anti-Jewish measures in Salonika (the census of Jews, confiscations of Jewish property, resettlements, etc.). Pp. 1-22 contain an introduction by Bowman.

The book narrates the last days of the once prominent Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the overwhelming majority of which was transported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in 1943. Focusing on the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki, this book maps the reactions of the authorities, the Church and the civil society as events unfolded. In so doing, it seeks to answer the questions, did the Christian society of their hometown stand up to their defense and did they try to undermine or object to the Nazi orders? Utilizing new sources and interpretation schemes, this book will be a great contribution to the local efforts underway, seeking to reconcile Thessaloniki with its Jewish past and honour the victims of the Holocaust. The first study to examine why 95 percent of the Jews of Thessaloniki perished—one of the highest percentages in Europe—this book will appeal to students and scholars of the Holocaust, European History and Jewish Studies. Recipient of the 2021 Vashem Yad International Book Prize for Holocaust Research. "In view of the important contribution that this study makes to the understanding of the Holocaust in Thessaloniki in particular and, more broadly, in Greece, [...] the International Committee for the Yad Vashem Book Prize decided to award the 2021 prize to Dr. Leon Saltiel."

A gripping tale of survival in Nazi-occupied Greece... In April 1941 the Nazis invaded Thessaloniki, Greece. Within two years, the city's Jews were shipped by cattle cars to the Auschwitz death camp. Approximately 56,000 Jews lived in Thessaloniki before the occupation and only 1,800 survivors eventually returned after the war ended. There were just three Jewish families that survived because of the courage and kindness of Greek citizens who risked their lives by hiding them in their homes. Among the survivors were Andrew "Andreas" Algava, who was three years old at the time, and his family. They were five of the 56,000 Jews who lived in Thessaloniki.Algava, who moved to the United States at the age of seven, has written a gripping account of his experience as a survivor titled 600 Days in Hiding. His family's memoir stands beside such classics of Holocaust literature as The Diary of Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel's Night, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, and Nechama Tec's Defiance.

The book narrates the last days of the once prominent Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the overwhelming majority of which was transported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in 1943. Focusing on the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki, this book maps the reactions of the authorities, the Church and the civil society as events unfolded. In so doing, it seeks to answer the questions, did the Christian society of their hometown stand up to their defense and did they try to undermine or object to the Nazi orders? Utilizing new sources and interpretation schemes, this book will be a great contribution to the local efforts underway, seeking to reconcile Thessaloniki with its Jewish past and honour the victims of the Holocaust. The first study to examine why 95 percent of the Jews of Thessaloniki perished--one of the highest percentages in Europe--this book will appeal to students and scholars of the Holocaust, European History and Jewish Studies. Shortlisted for the 2020 London Hellenic Prize.

Touted as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans," the Mediterranean port city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) was once home to the largest Sephardic Jewish community in the world. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the city's incorporation into Greece in 1912 provoked a major upheaval that compelled Salonica's Jews to reimagine their community and status as citizens of a nation-state. Jewish Salonica is the first book to tell the story of this tumultuous transition through the voices and perspectives of Salonican Jews as they forged a new place for themselves in Greek society. Devin E. Naar traveled the globe, from New York to Salonica, Jerusalem, and Moscow, to excavate archives once confiscated by the Nazis. Written in Ladino, Greek, French, and Hebrew, these archives, combined with local newspapers, reveal how Salonica's Jews fashioned a new hybrid identity as Hellenic Jews during a period marked by rising nationalism and economic crisis as well as unprecedented Jewish cultural and political vibrancy. Salonica's Jews—Zionists, assimilationists, and socialists—reinvigorated their connection to the city and claimed it as their own until the Holocaust. Through the case of Salonica's Jews, Naar recovers the diverse experiences of a lost religious, linguistic, and national minority at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East.