Return
to INDEX
Samuel H.: Merten's trial - 16.2.2001
Thanks to a friend in Greece, I have obtained a copy of the minutes of Merten's
Greek trial (well, the exact words of each deposition are not contained, but it
is more than enough). My impressions: a. The worst part of it is the decision
NOT to allow a civil case. The Accusing Attorney (Vasilikos Epitropos) was the
first to demand that the representative of the jewish community be NOT included
(although he was willing to allow individual jews to be present), whereas the
defense attorney asked for the exclusion of all civil plaintifs. The request of
the defense was actually granted and civil plaintifs were excluded from the trial.
b. From the witnesses called - important ones are the testimonies of i.Simeonidis
(Minister of N. Greece of the Occupation Government). ii. Douros (chief of the
Organization for the Management of Jewish Properties ODIPI) iii. Hrysohoou (p.63)
In Fleischer's book - appears like the one who according to german archives has
suggested that jews should be used for forced labor - something not totally consonant
with his testimony. In the trial he appears as a resistance group leader subbordinate
to the Middle East Headquarters) iv. Digkas - known ex-Venizelist politician v.
Burchhardt (sorry if I retransliterate the name incorrectly from Greek), represenative
of the Red Cross who has been expelled during occupation by the germans. Strangely,
in this trial he appears as a defense witness - his opinion being that the anger
against Merten is due to his high visibility during occupation, as apposed to
Gen. Krensky who wasa invisible (p. 137) vi. From the testimony of Solomon Cohen,
one can see that the known anti-semitic journalist Fradis was in connection with
Merten and involved with the confiscation of paper from his factory. vii. Many
witnesses testify on people being saved from executions due to Merten's intervention.
Also that Merten helped protect Greeks from Bulgarian attrocities. c. In his apology,
Merten (whose signature appears in most of the orders concerned with the expulsion
of jews from Salonika) claimed to have nothing to do with these expulsions which
were organized by Wiszliceny and Brunner. Maximum he might have written those
documents (they say "it is ordered" (es wird angeordnet) not "I order" as would
be the case if he had responsibility). He said that he was not present in the
Plateia Eleftherias events - he had arrived in Greece somehow later (although
he he is contradicied by Argyropoulos and Hrysohoou). That he had no real prerogatives
in Salonika - except for food supplies of the population. That he had indeed intervened
with the German Army to stop executions - but this does not prove that he had
the authority to order exceutions. That the money he had taken from the jews to
buy their forced labour was not pocketed by himself, but used to pay other workers
(contradicted by the greek witness) and to organzied kitchens for kids (some greek
witnesses spoke about that). Strangely, on p. 164 he claims that from a friend
of his in the Ministry of Interior in Berlin he knew of the orders to EXTERMINATE
jews - although this is not consonat with what he writes further down on the same
page that he did not know they were sent to be exterminated in Poland. Also starngely,
he speaks of a good relationship with Metropolit Gennadios of Salonika (who has
been given the title of the righteous of nations by Yad Vashem) who even asked
him to follow the "Anastasi" from his stand . He claims that upon the intiation
of the anti-jewish measures in early 43 he asked Gennadios whether by resigning
from his post he could show his opposition, but Gennadios told him that this would
be an act of cowardice. He said he had nothing to do with the destruction of the
Jewish Cemetery and its looting. And he even defended his translator Meissner
- who had been accused of many things by his own defence witnesses. d. He was
found guilty of 13 charges - but since the punishments he was sentenced were co-extensive,
he was sentenced to 25 years (he had already spent a little bit less than 2 years
in jail). Well, I leave the rest to everybody's judgement. Please note that from
the germans involved - Gen. Krensky was not even brought to trial for anything.
That Merten was set free shortly thereafter (see Spiliotis' article). That germany's
justice system completely exonerated him. That his attorneys in Germany were Heinemann
(later Minister of Justice and Federal President) and Possner (later Minister
of Justice of Nord-Rhein Westfallien), who in some sources are described as "big-shot
lawyers", but in other sources as german jurists dedicated to the freeing of the
german justice system from the cold war burden of Adenauer's era (In our city,
Haifa, in Israel, Heienmann has given his name to an Institute in Haifa University
working towards the promotion of peace). I am sure we all agree though that something
is wrong somewhere: for the murder of the appr. 70,000 jews in Greece, nobody
paid any price !!!
Return to INDEX
Sam
H.: Book by H. Richter on Greece between the years 1936-1949 - 16.9.00
This book contains a claim that there is a jewess called Sonsol who had been
saved by no less than the chief of the collaborationist government Logothetopoulos
in his clinic (who also hid one his doctors' jewish origin). No reference, just
"Wir wissen ..." (together perhaps with an interview with L's german wife). Anybody
heard of the story before ? Off hand, I know no greek jew
called Sonsol. The book, by the
way, has been translated from German into Greek by Exantas editions, but
is out of print. The part devoted on jews is rather small and based mainly
on Molho & Nehama.
Return to INDEX
Sam H.: Artcle
in "ydiot" on the Merten ship - 8.9.00
This week's Yediot has a nice article
on Merten's ship by journalist Oded Shalom. I must say that my impression
is positive for the following reasons:
a. It's the first article of the
kind that has a respecatble part on the Merten case and the travesty of
justice - rather than the more sexy hot story of the ship.
b. It's the first article that I
saw which does state that the 2.5 billion figure is exagerated - the statement
is attributed to Mr. Sefiha, but although it is trivial, nobody that I
know wrote it before.
c. It's the first article I saw
that gives the name of "Phantom X" - Konstantinos Vrettos, which happens
to be the name of a PASOK vice-minister too , who should be unrelated to
the convict.
d. Last (and least - contrary to
the expression) the man has interviewed me too, although of course there
is nothing I could tell him on the ship, just what I read on the case.
Some of the things I said, although not distorted in bad faith, come out
different from what I meant, but perhaps in some cases I am to blame (exception
: merten was set free in November 59 - not senetnced , he was sentenced
in April 59).
Return to INDEX
Andrew A.: KKL dedication
- 21.8.00
Much as I hate to disappoint you,
you were right. The terms Macedonian and Thracian are misleading as there
were no such states at the time and they are not very useful descriptions
on their own (another eg. one can refer to Galician Jews, but one ought
also to make it clear that Galicia was in Poland at the time).
The point is that the
victims were killed because they were Jews (from the German perspective)
and because they were Jews and Greek citizens (from the Bulgarian perspective).
Therefore it makes sense to describe them as Greek Jews as opposed to Macedonian
and Thracian Jews, which are simply geographical descriptions.
In any case, I repeat
my point that governments loudly proclaiming how much they care and cared
about their Jewish citizens is all well and good, but it is nearly 60 years
too late. (On this the recent NY Times article on the
Struma was revealing).
Return
to INDEX
Sam
H.: KKL dedication - 21.8.00
Dear Friends
I am sorry that in my previous
message I did "too much ado about nothing" refering to the stupid English
version of the Keren Kayemet LeIsrael Anouncement, in which Thracian Jews
are refered aas Turkish.
The hebrew version of the
anouncemnet is all right (it can be reached for those having hebrew fonts
by replaceing the word "english" in the URL by the word "hebrew") is OK
- ie it speaks of the Jews from Macedonia and Thrace, not Turkey.
I might have over-reacted,
but the error is so grotesque that one cannot imagine that it might have
happened.
Of course, a letter demanding
a correction of the ENGLISH version (the hebrew one is correct) is in place,
but no heated crusade is justified.
Return
to INDEX
Sam H.: Macedonian
and Thrace Jews (b) - 20.8.00
Dear Friends,
The Jewish National Fund
has corrected the dedication of a memorial to Bulgaria's King Boris and
has modified it to comemorate the 11,000 jews from Yugoslav Macedonia and
Greek Thrace, as well as those Bulgarians like
Dimitar Panchev who were instrumental
in the saving of Bulgaria's jews. This is a positive event.
However, their Press Release
mysteriously speaks in THREE places of TURKISH jews. This is totally unacceptable
and I encourage you to send an e-mail to The Jewish National Fund (info@kkl.org.il)
protesting the
totaly unacceptable wording of that
release. It is difficult for me to think of a reason why such a clumsy
mistake could have been made. I also plan to send a letter to Jerusalem
Post on this subject.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 16:47:46
+0300 (IDT)
To: info@kkl.org.il
Subject: Press Release on Macedonian
and Thrace Jews
Dear KKL,
I want to express my
indignation on the wording used in the press release of July the 16th in
which it is implied in no less than 3 places that the approx. 4000 jews
of W. Thrace who have been sent to Treblinka
are TURKISH !!! W. Thrace was and
is a part of Greece and its pre-war inhabitants had NO relation to Turkey
(whose jews have been spared of the Shoah, since their country stayed out
of WWII). Turkey is mentioned in no
less than 3 places in :
http://www.kkl.org.il/whatsnew/english/press/1672000.htm
I think that your press
release should be reworded to erase any mention of Turkey - in the spirit
of your February press release : http://www.kkl.org.il/whatsnew/english/press/822000.htm
in which you speak, correctly,
of Macedonian and Thracian Jews.
Yours
S. Hassid, Associate Professor, Technion-Haifa, Israel
This is the Release of JNF:
http://www.kkl.org.il/whatsnew/english/press/1672000.htm
KKL-JNF Adopts 'Beisky' Committee
Recommendations on Bulgarian Jewry
Forest (16/7/2000)
The public committee on Bulgaria
Forest headed by retired Judge Moshe Beisky presented its recommendations
last week to the Chairman of the KKL-JNF board of Directors. These propose
that the Memorial commemorating Bulgarian Monarch Boris III and other memorials
be removed from the forest site and replaced with a joint memorial commemorating
Turkish Jewry and the Bulgarian People.
KKL-JNF, the representative
of the Association of Bulgarian Jews Yossi Kioso and the representative
of Former Turkish and Macedonian Jews in Israel, Dr. Nissim Yosha, adopted
the recommendations of the KKL-JNF Committee and have pledged to implement
them.
The Committee members,
including Lova Eliav and Professor Dalia Ofer, proposed that KKL-JNF remove
the existing memorial pillars from the forest dedicatory plaza in Bulgarian
Jewry Forest and replace them with a joint memorial, to be installed prominently
and as close as possible at the entrance to the woodland. The
decision means that KKL-JNF will
remove the memorial standing in Bulgarian Jewry Forest at Haruvit in the
Judean Hills honoring the contribution of King Boris III and his wife,
Queen Jana in helping to save Bulgarian Jewry during the Holocaust. In
its stead, a joint memorial commemorating Turkish Jewry and the Bulgarian
People will be established. The upper part of the memorial will commemorate
11.384 Turkish and Macedonian Jews who perished in the Treblinka death
camp in 1943; and the lower part will honor Bulgarians who risked their
lives and fought to save their Jewish
brethren during the Holocaust between 1941-1944.
The Chairman of the
KKL-JNF Executive, Yehiel Leket and Shlomo Gravetz, did not regard themselves
as competent to arbitrate in the bitter dispute and consequently decided
to establish a public committee chaired by Justice Beisky to decide in
the matter.
A public conflict erupted
when the installation of a memorial marking the contribution of Bulgarian
King Boris III and his wife Queen Jana to saving Jews during the Holocaust
met with the bitter opposition of Turkish, Macedonian and Trajeki Jews
who accused the royal couple of responsibility for the murderof some 11,384
Jews by the Nazis.
The conflict whipped
a storm of angry emotions among former Turkish, Macedonian and Trajeki
Jews on the one hand and Bulgarian Jews on the other. The former categorically
demanded that the memorial be removed, arguing that KKL-JNF's recognition
of a person, whom they charge with responsibility for delivering Jews to
the Nazis, was inconsistent with
basic conceptions of the Jewish People. By comparison, Bulgarian Jews
firmly refused to concede the honor
bestowed on a person whom they regarded as having saved their lives and
the lives of their families.
The current memorial
in Bulgarian Jewry Forest at Haruvit stands alongside memorials remembering
Turkish and Macedonian Jews who perished in concentration camps and pays
tribute to the assistance given by the Heads of the Bulgarian Church and
the Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament Dimitri Pashov .
Return
to INDEX
Samuel
H.: Macedonian and Thracian Jews appearing in Kerem's newsletter
- 20.8.00
This is the message I sent to Gaffney:
I am sorry that I do NOT consider myself as the one who MAKES an issue
in this case. It is very important to find out whether the refering to
the W. Thrace jews as turks is an error by Gaffney (americans are not strong
in the georgraphy of Europe, Pres. Wilson is known to have confused
Silesia (Germany, Poland) with Cilicia (Turkey) ) or that the "hyvris"
of terming the jews of W. Thrace "turkish" has actually been endorsed by
KKL-JNF. In the latter case, we have to react strongly and resolutely:
those persons are NOT interested in the memory of holocaust victims,
but in second-rate pro-turkish propaganda which is based on the anti-semitic
stereotype of jewish all-powerfullness.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 09:55:26 +0300 (IDT)
To: Edward Gaffney <EGaffney@CONSTITUTIONCENTER.ORG>
Subject: Message from you on Macedonian and Thracian Jews appearing
in Kerem's newsletter
Dear Mr. Gaffney,
I do not know you, but I cannot help reacting
to the contents of parts of your message on KKL-NJF changing the dedication
of the memorial on Macedonia's and Thrace's jews.
I am in agreement with the spirit of the change
- in the sense that the memory of Macedonian (Yugoslav) and Thracian (Greek)
Jews has to be commemorated and that credit to those Bulgarians who helped
jews during
WWII should be remembered. There are, however, three sentences in that
message whose content is close to being absurd :
1. KKL-JNF, the representative of the Association of Bulgarian Jews
Yossi Kioso and the representative of Former Turkish and Macedonian Jews
in Israel, Dr. Nissim Yosha, adopted the recommendations of the KKL-JNF
Committee and have pledged to implement them.
2. The upper part of the memorial will commemorate 11.384 Turkish and
Macedonian Jews who perished in the
Treblinka death camp in 1943.
3.The conflict whipped a storm of angry emotions among former Turkish,
Macedonian and Trajeki Jews on the one hand and Bulgarian Jews on theother.
Let me remind you that the jews that were deported from Greek
Eastern Macedonia and W.Thrace (mainly Bulgarian-Occupied territory) were
NOT of turkish nationality (may be an insignificant number had kept the
turkish nationality, but they were NOT deported) and can in NO WAY be described
as TURKISH jews. Turkey's jews had their problems with their government
prior and during WWII, but since Turkey did not take part in that
War, they were spared of the Holocaust, which was the fate of greek and
yugoslav jews.
I am not sure where the description of the jews of Western Thrace
as Turkish stems from - it is possible that it is just an error. If it
is not, I can only convey to you that calling the jews of Greek Western
Thrace turkish is no less offensive to their memory than giving a prize
to Bulgaria's King Boris.
Yours
S. Hassid, Associate Professor, Technion-Haifa, Israel
Return
to INDEX
Andrew
A.: Press Release on Macedonian and Thrace Jews - 20.8.00
What is bizarre about the following
(http://www.kkl.org.il/whatsnew/english/press/822000.htm) is that the reason
why the Jews of eastern Macedonia
and western Thrace were under Bulgarian occupation in the first place--Bulgaria
had invaded Greece in 1941.
But let's face it,
as pointless organisations packed with coffee drinking timeservers go,
Keren Kayemeth rivals the Sochnut.
Public Committee to
Settle Conflict over Memorials in Bulgaria Forest: A public committee sponsored
by Keren Kayemeth LeIsraeI -Jewish National Fund and chaired by former
Supreme Court Judge Moshe Beisky has been formed to resolve the conflict
over a controversial woodland memorial for King Boris III and Queen Giovanna
of Bulgaria. The memorial, which honors the royal couple for saving their
country's Jews during the Holocaust, has met with sharp opposition from
former Jews of Macedonia and Thrace, who blame the King for his alleged
part in the Nazi murder of some 11,000 Jews,
The memorial has been
installed in Bulgaria Forest, Haruvit, alongside others that commemorate
the Jews of Macedonia and Thrace who perished in the death camps, and that
recognize the rescue work of Church leaders and of the Deputy Speaker of
the Bulgarian Parliament, Dimitri Pasher
The controversy has
unleashed a storm of emotions and debate between the Jews of Thrace-Macedonia
and the Jews of Bulgaria. The former demand the immediate removal of the
memorial, saying that it is a disgrace for the Jewish People to honor in
KKL-JNF forests a man responsible for handing over Jews to the Nazis. The
latter, on the other hand, demand that the recognition remain in place,
insisting that the same man saved their lives and the lives of their families.
KKL-JNF's Executive
decided to establish a public committee to resolve the conflict, as it
does not see itself as the party that should do so. Other committee members
are former Knesset Member Liova Eliav and Professor Dalia Ofer.
The Committee is to
examine the issue without making historical judgments. It is to decide:
whether to leave the situation as is or remove the memorial/memorials currently
installed in Bulgaria Forest; whether suitable expression of a different
kind be given; whether the memorials should be unified into a single central
one, and the substance of such a monument; as well as all other matters
the Committee may choose to address. The Committee is to submit its recommendations
within two months.
At a meeting with KKL-JNF
Chairman Yehiel Leket and Co-Chairman Shlomo Gravetz, all the parties agreed
to abide by the committee's decisions.
http://www.kkl.org.il/whatsnew/english/press/1672000.htm
KKL-JNF Adopts 'Beisky' Committee
Recommendations on Bulgarian Jewry Forest
(16/7/2000)
The public committee on Bulgaria
Forest headed by retired Judge Moshe Beisky presented its recommendations
last week to the Chairman of the KKL-JNF board of Directors. These propose
that the Memorial commemorating Bulgarian Monarch Boris III and other memorials
be removed from the forest site and replaced
with a joint memorial commemorating
Turkish Jewry and the Bulgarian People.
KKL-JNF, the representative
of the Association of Bulgarian Jews Yossi Kioso and the representative
of Former Turkish and Macedonian Jews in Israel, Dr. Nissim Yosha, adopted
the recommendations of the KKL-JNF Committee and have pledged to implement
them.
The Committee members,
including Lova Eliav and Professor Dalia Ofer, proposed that KKL-JNF remove
the existing memorial pillars from the forest dedicatory plaza in Bulgarian
Jewry Forest and replace them with a joint
memorial, to be installed prominently
and as close as possible at the entrance to the woodland. The decision
means that KKL-JNF will remove the memorial standing in Bulgarian Jewry
Forest at Haruvit in the Judean Hills
honoring the contribution of King
Boris III and his wife, Queen Jana in helping to save Bulgarian Jewry during
the Holocaust. In its stead, a joint memorial commemorating Turkish Jewry
and the Bulgarian People will be
established. The upper part of the
memorial will commemorate 11.384 Turkish and Macedonian Jews who perished
in the Treblinka death camp in 1943; and the lower part will honor Bulgarians
who risked their lives and fought to save their Jewish brethren during
the Holocaust between 1941-1944.
The Chairman of the
KKL-JNF Executive, Yehiel Leket and Shlomo Gravetz, did not regard themselves
as competent to arbitrate in the bitter dispute and consequently decided
to establish a public committee chaired by Justice Beisky to decide in
the matter.
A public conflict erupted
when the installation of a memorial marking the contribution of Bulgarian
King Boris III and his wife Queen Jana to saving Jews during the Holocaust
met with the bitter opposition of Turkish,
Macedonian and Trajeki Jews who
accused the royal couple of responsibility for the murderof some 11,384
Jews by the Nazis.
The conflict whipped
a storm of angry emotions among former Turkish, Macedonian and Trajeki
Jews on the one hand and Bulgarian Jews on the other. The
former categorically demanded that the memorial be removed, arguing that
KKL-JNF's recognition of a person, whom
they charge with responsibility for delivering
Jews to the Nazis, was inconsistent with basic conceptions of the
Jewish People. By comparison, Bulgarian
Jews firmly refused to concede the honor
bestowed on a person whom they regarded as having saved their lives and
the lives of their families.
The current memorial
in Bulgarian Jewry Forest at Haruvit stands alongside memorials
remembering Turkish and Macedonian Jews who perished in concentration
camps and pays tribute to the assistance given by the Heads of the
Bulgarian Church and the Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament
Dimitri Pashov .
Return
to INDEX
Sam
H.: American Greco-Jewish Club honours righteous gentiles - 10.8.00
In a ceremony in Athens, Greece,
an Amreican Greco-Jewish Club has honoured the memory of 6 righteous gentiles
who risked their lives to save jewish fellow-citizens during the 3 1/2
year nazi rule of Greece. Mrs.Marcia Haddad-Ekonomopoulos speaking on behalf
of this society stresses that their criteria are the same as the ones of
Yad Vahem, ie that the actions should have been done not for personal interest
and that it was at the risk of the life of the righteous gentile.
The names of the [people
honoured were : Vasilis Persidis ( Helped ship people from the greek island
of Euboea to Turkey), Vasiliou family, Thadou Family, Frederic Sueref,
George Karatzas (sealed false identity cards with Aggelos Evert) and Vasilis
Rakopoulos (mentioned in the book of the greek jew Heinz Kunio - he was
a doctor in the concentration camp of Melk (near Mauthausen) and gave medicines
to jewish inmates though he was not entitled too. Honoured too were the
greek resistance organizations EDES (right wing) and EAM/ELAS (left wing).
Manolis Glezos, renowned greek resistance fighter, was also present. The
even was supported also by
the Greek Central Jewish Council
and the Jewish Museum of Athens.
Return
to INDEX
Sam
H.: Agada de los Partisanes - 16.5.00
Anyone interested in the "Agada
de los Partisanes" - a computer MPEG file which sings the version of the
Agada we know in judeo-spanish with some changes made by the partisans
of Serajevo during WWII ? It's by Eliezer Papo - the author of "Megila
de Saray" !
..........................
Todo el ke tu viense hambre
Es su problema
.........................
Este anio aki
A el anio a vinien biveremos raki
Return
to INDEX
Samuel H.: Corrections
- 30.5.00
Please note the following on the
last yvelia.com - which I must stress we all enjoy reading:
a. The number og Jews before
WWII in Greece being 70000-75000 and the number after being 10000 (+ some
hundreds who have taken refuge in Palestine) I do not think you should
continue writing that more than 90 % have perished - make it more than
80 %. The numbers are NOT important of course - but the internal need we
feel to make our drama bigger is.
b. Please note on the 18500 Evert's
cards - that I have received an answer from Mrs. Constantopoulou that it
was a printing error - it should have been 1850 and it will be corrected
next printing. Prof. Fleischer was not convinced by the explanation.
Return
to INDEX
Samuel
H.: A message for Mrs. Constantopoulou - 30.5.00
My exchage of messages with Mrs
Constantopoulou:
Dear Mrs. Constantopoulou,
I am glad that
you have cleared the source of the number - which I
could not find. As I already told
Prof. Fleischer, another apparently larger number can be found in the Yad
Vashem archives. Needless to say, my mother's personal archive needs no
numbers - she still has the occupation-time identity card under the name
of Mihalopoulou from Karditsa. I was yesterday invited in the dinner that
President Weizmann gave to honour Mr. Stephanopoulos - and saw your friend
Mr. Peres, who was seated next to your Deputy-minister Mrs. Papazoi. Since
you say that you intend to publish again the same book, I think that one
should bring to your attention two of the "conventional lies of modern
culture" (kata synthikin pseydi), as the book of Max Nordau runs - (whom
some of us want of salonikan jewish extraction, even though this
might be also a conventional lie):
a. The number of 524 jewish soldiers
to have fallen in the war does not seem to correspond to reality. The source
is obscure and it is totally out of proportion to the 70,000 pre-war jewish
population. In a publication of the names of the fallen in Kathimerini
some years ago, 170 jewish names could be found among the 8000 names of
the fallen.
b. It is not true that the first
higher officer to fall in the albanian front was Lt. Colonel Fryzis, as
some of us like to say. Athenians know of course Colonel Davakis - from
the square of Kallithea, but apparently some other higher (ie above the
rank of major) officers fell between Davakis and Fryzis.
I am sure that there
are many people in Greece who can help you and Prof. Veremis with the work
of yours which is commendable - among themProf. Fleischer whom you mentioned
in our discussion two years ago.
Yours, S. hassid
Reply on Wed, 17 May 2000, Fotini
Costantopoulou wrote:
Dear Mr. Hassid,
Thank you so much for bringing to
my attention through Hagen Fleischer the five instead of the correct four
digit number of "false" identity cards issued by the Greek police during
the occupation. This misprint will be corrected in the forthcoming
Greek version of our Documents on the Greek Jews.
Since we have already established
a line of direct communication I would encourage you to send me your views
on a subject of your expertise, directly. As for my Minister of Foreign
Affairs, his reputation is hardly at risk because of a typographical error,
especially since he bears a political name associated with the restitution
of Jewish property whose rightful owners perished in the Holocaust, to
the Jewish community. Alas, Greece was not imitated in this
by other European states. The President of American Jewish Committee
in 1948, Milton Winn, noted that Greek legislation should be used as the
pattern for other European countries." It was because of the performance
of the Greeks vis a vis the victims of the Nazis, that Bruce Rumer and
David Harris, President and Executive Director, respectively, of the American
Jewish Committee, gave a prize to the Greek Minister and commended our
own publication. With Profess Th. Veremis we tried to shed light
to a less known chapter of our history, to the best of our abilities.
Many complimented us for our effort , others have been critical.
Although we have tried our best to bring to the attention of our younger
generation the history of the Greek Jews, based on what is available in
the Ministry Archives, Mr. Kerem and Mr. Mazower have criticized us for
failing to produce documents that do not exist in the archive. Mr.
Kerem's motives are easier to understand of course, Mr. Mazower's attitude
is more difficult to decipher.
With best regards,
Fotini Constantopoulou
Return
to INDEX
Ouriel
S.: Honoring of Righteous Gentile - 22.5.00
Shalom, I would like to tell
you a happy story: A distant relative of mine, Roula(Renee)Levi, born in
Thessaloniki (1914-1996), was saved from the Holocaust by the Greek family
Gianiou. The young son Costa fell in love with her and proposed to her
to marry him. She accepted. Spiro, their son was born in Athens in 1950.
He still lives in Athens. I met the family during my work in El-AL (1958-1960).
There are two nieces of her's living in Israel. From 7 sisters and brothers
only two survived Roula & Bella Levi (1912-1976).
Return
to INDEX
Itzhak
K.: Giorgakis and the 18,500 (...) false identity cards by Evert - 9.5.00
I think in the Yad Vashem righteous
gentile file on Ebert, the number 4,000 was used. Other ids were attained
in Athens outside of the Ebert network. I would estimate the number around
7,000.
Return
to INDEX
Andrew
A.: Giorgakis and the 18,500 (...) false identity cards by Evert - 8.5.00
Although the number of false i.ds
was undoubtedly much lower, the ones that were issued were almost always
honoured even if they were not too subtle (eg in Matsas book, Salvator
Bakolas/Sotirios Bekolas). By contrast, in the Netherlands a civil servant
had the brilliant idea of inventing an almost unforgeable i.d. card. The
Germans were thrilled.
Return
to INDEX
Samuel
H.: Giorgakis and the 18,500 (...) false identity cards by Evert - 8.5.00
Would anyone happen to know how
did anyone come to the 18500 false identity cards figure - I first saw
it in Foteini's book and it was repeated by Giorgakis Papandreou in the
recent address to AJC, appearing in "Kol Hakehila". Somehow it contradicts
the fact that only 10,000 jews were actually saved - and only a part
of them by false identity cards : some were in the "Vouno", some survived
the camps and some left for the Middle East. Needless to say, I do not
dispute the identity cards themselves - my mother still has the identity
cards of her parents with the name Mihalopoulou from Karditsa. But the
"overkill" used can only make Greece look ridiculous and reduce us to the
level of the Society of Jewish Friends of Turkey with their usual anti-armenian-genocide
diatribes. Of course, I know that people in the Near and the Middle East
are not that strong in numbers - but we still have brains we can use !
The number mentioned by Fleischer
(on the basis of Molho) is 1200.
Return
to INDEX
Andrew
A.: Response to Kerem's abstracts on Rabbi Koretz of Salonika - 12.4.00
Each time Koretz met a visiting
Greek prime minister in Salonika he was arrested--clearly the Germans did
not trust him that much even at the end. He also spent rather a long time
incarcerated in Vienna, and who knows what happened to him there.
The notion that large numbers of
Jews could feasibly have been rescued given the environment at the time
and the extent of German control over Salonika, which animates this debate,
strikes me as fanciful. (View Kerem's
abstracts on Rabbi Koretz of Salonika at Kol haKEHILA online
archive)
Return
to INDEX
UPI:
Greek Jews demand state bank boxes open
ATHENS, Greece, Oct. 12 (UPI) --
Greece's senior Jewish Council has called on the nation's Finance Ministry
to open a host of bank boxes believed to contain valuables of Holocaust
victims.
The independent Athens daily Kathimerini
said Tuesday the request followed the sale of the state-owned Ionian Bank
to a private financial institution. ``We have every right to claim these
boxes,'' the president of the Central Jewish Council Moses Constantinis
was quoted saying in Kathimerini.
Though the total number of safe
deposit boxes have not been disclosed, the Greek Jewish Council argues
that most were left untouched by Nazi forces that occupied Greece during
the Second World War.
Two Jewish Americans and relatives
of Holocaust victims are contesting similar claims through the Greek Foreign
Ministry.
According to Constantinis both the
Greek Finance Ministry and a string of banks seem willing to cooperate
in the investigation. He failed to elaborate and state officials remain
tight-lipped over the affair.
More than 50,000 Greek Jews perished
in Nazi concentration camps in the final years of World War II. The overwhelming
majority of the victims were members of the Sephardic community in Salonika,
northern
Greece.
It was not until last year that
Greece, a traditional ally of Arab states, erected a monument in honor
of the Holocaust victims.
Return
to INDEX
The
bulletin board is updated regularly.