“The Holocaust in Salonika, Eyewitness Accounts”
(Translated from Greek and Judeo-Spanish by Isaac Benmayor) ed. by Steve Bowman
Reviewed by Yitzchak Kerem
T his book is welcomed as a first in a series of Sephardic Holocaust testimonies under the auspices of Sephardic House. It is an accomplishment that such a project was initiated and funded. The publication of the testimonies at hand, which appeared in Greek, Judeo-Spanish, and Hebrew from immediately after the Holocaust in the late 1940s and were republished and translated in Greece and in Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, are now available in English for all of those who do not know these key relevant languages for the study of Greek and Sephardic Jewry. The testimonies themselves are poignant, reveal new aspects of the Greek Holocaust experience, and are often problematic from the aspect of historical accuracy or editorial consistency. A bit more of scholarly editorial commentary and analysis is needed to both put the testimonies in historical perspective in order not create a warped impression for the reader, and to note the historiographic importance of the essays for their revelations and uniqueness .
The essays chosen do shed light on the turmoil that the Germans incited amongst Salonikan Jewry in 1941-1943 before they were deported to Auschwitz/Birkenau, and the difficult and controversial role of Chief Rabbi and later President of the community Rabbi Zvi Koretz. In the testimony of Salomon Meir Uziel, who was a Jewish communal leader, very active in philanthropy since the 1910s, and member of the Communal Council part of this difficult time, one sees the immense difficulties the Germans imposed on the Jewish leaders and affluent class. Uziel, upon return to Greece from Germany and Eastern Europe, was accused of collaboration and responsibility for the deportations of the Jews to the camps in four different civil and Jewish communal inquiries, but established his innocence. Since he was sent to Bergen Belsen with other prominent communal members, and not to Birkenau, he was accused of collaboration. Behind the scenes, there were Jews who returned from the death camps, who viewed him as someone rsponsible for the destruction of the community and had a need to find an escape goat. He was in Bergen Belsen from August 1943 until the liberation in May 1945 and faced the inhumane work conditions similar of other death camp inmates and was not treated as a privileged prisoner like the Jewish Spanish nationals deported from Salonika or Athens; since they were subjects of neutral nations and awaited transfer to the West.
Uziel was much more active in trying to help other Jews in the Jewish community during the Germany occupation than many local Jews perceived. He had been the former president of the Seven Quarters organization; which dealt with Jewish poverty and relief. In order to combat famine and “plagues” in 1941, he was part of the “Central Committee” of the Jewish community. He also was part of the collection process of the large ransom price (of some 2-2.5 billion drachmas) to relieve the Jewish young men from burdensome and grueling forced labor for the Germans, and the contractor Muller. When Rabbi Koretz was appointed by the Germans as communal president in December 1942, Uziel was appointed to the Council of Five to assist the rabbi in dealing with German orders and communal affairs. Due to his proximity to Koretz and his regard for him in this period lasting until April 1943, he was regarded after the war as a collaborator. Uziel was not a passive adherent to German orders and revealed in his testimony an dditional plan of the Community Council, which he also was a member, that involved a large sum of money in order to lure the Germans not to deport the Jews outside of Greece, and that the plan was presented to the Dr.Merton, head of the Aegean German Command by Koretz in German; since he was the only one capable amongst the Jewish communal leadership of speaking to the German officials in German. This plan for the resettlement of the Jews elsewhere in Greece naturally was rejected by Berlin, but from Uziel's depiction of the financing scheme, one sees the financial sophistication, economic caliber, and resourcefulness of the Salonikan Jewish merchants and businessmen during this time period; which does not come to the forefront in the Greek-Jewish Holocaust historiography. Uziel depicts the good will of the communal leaders, and most did not return from the camps.
When Uziel returned to Greece from Bergen Belsen, he continually was identified with collaboration in the eyes of local Jewish survivors because of his affiliation with a Jewish leadership perceived in the aftermath of the Holocaust as fulfilling the German orders to deport the local Jews. Uziel had to continue fighting to cleanse his name and he showed his innocence in a total of four processes; including those of the Jewish community of Salonika. He eventually was recognized as a survivor, but was ostracized from being an integral part of the post-WWII Salonikan Jewish communal leadership and was occasionally requested to fulfill minor tasks in real estate transactions or requested to provide resource information based on his pre-WWII communal activities. Many of those in communal leadership posts who exonerated him were Jews who had hid or were in the partisans, and the some death camp survivors continued to create an atmosphere of ostracizing him for responsibility for communal acquiescence to Geman deportation preparation orders and arrangements. Uziel also was wrongly accused by Levy Tazartes, and claimed the latter never apologized. He criticized Michael Molho, historian and post WWII Chief Rabbi, for writing of the cowardice of the Community Council. He criticized Molho for not collecting the materials of the Community schools of 300 sifrei torah (scrolls) scattered throughout Greece after the war and noted the task was left to him and Benico Saltiel, who also served on the Community council with him during WWII. He retorted to Matarasso who in his post WWII writings of the Holocaust in Salonika attacked him. He resented that Matarsso who married a Gentile woman before the war and thus saved himself, became a leader in the Jewish community after the Holocaust. He accused Matarasso of being selfish in abandoning his own fellow Jews, and even abandoning his own father in the old home in Salonika during the German occupation and it was left to others to cart him to the newly established ghetto. He ritiqued a new organization ”The Brotherhood” (“La Ermanidad”) who he anticipated would clear his name in the community, but instead referred the issue to the Jewish Community Council. While most familiar with Greek Jewish affairs do not know who this Uziel is or was, Rabbi Koretz remains accused in the eyes of many as a collaborator. Uziel's testimony was used to exonerate Koretz, post-mortem, and his wife, Gita, when they were put on trial by the Salonikan Jewish community. This testimony also depicts the local Jewish Judenrat and exposes their predicament in facing a powerful Nazi machine which was determined to terrorize, preoccupy, contain, and eventually annihilate them and their community. The editor of the series noted that in the future, he intends to edit the indictment against all the community council members who made up the Judenrat presented to the Salonikan court. Hopefully, this will contribute to the historic debate about collaboration and issues connected to obedience, resistance, and fate.
The diary of Yomtov Yakoel has been published in Greek and Hebrew several times since the aftermath of the Holocaust, but for the first time the English reader can read of the difficulties the Salonikan Jewish community faced vis-a-vis the Germans. Yakoel paints a picture of leading the campaign to raise 2 billion drachmas for the release of the Jewish laborers in autumn 1942, and portrays Rabbi Koretz as the obstacle. Yakoel noted that when 500 million drachmas (out of 2 billion) money was lacking, he wanted to go to Athens to collect funds from wealthy Salonikans there, but Koretz did not agree and he postponed his trip for numerous weeks until he finally went, and only amassed 50 million drachmas instead of an intended 500 million. Yakoel blamed the Jewish Italian and Spanish foreign subjects for skirting communal obligations; an Ottoman historical precedent frequently enabled by the capitulations given to foreign powers. Yakoel claimed that 10 of these wealthy Salonikans could have easily amassed te total needed sum of 2 billion drachmas. This accusation puts the integrity of many of these people in question. Both the Italians and Spanish were rescued from Salonika, but when Italy broke off from the Axis, the Italian Jews were then pursued in Athens and eventually deported for the most part. A group of very wealthy Jews from the Fernandez, Modiano, Torres, and Allatini families escaped to Italy and were killed by the Germans at Lake Maggiore. Another group from these wealthy families that hid in Athens were also detected and deported to Birkenau.
One sees from Yakoel's diary that the Germans, led by Greek antagonists, wanted to destroy the Jewish cemetery and valued it as a 1.5 billion drachma credit for releasing the Jewish laborers. The Germans wanted a 3.5 billion drachma sum for the ransom (2 billion in money and 1.5 billion for the destruction of the Jewish cemetery). The ancient cemetery of the Jewish community had traditionally been at the outskirts of the city, but with the expansion of the city, that area was wanted for the expansion of the university and the building of roads. In the late thirties the Jewish community had agreed to start removing bones and graves from a small part of the cemetery (and transferring to new areas for burial) for university expansion; but painfully hesitated and never fulfilled its commitment. Thus, the German order to destroy the cemetery was a cynical solution to an old unresolved problem, but moreover a move to ruin the morale and part of the heritage of the ancient Salonikan Sephardic Jewish community. Yakoel detailed the step of the Nuremberg laws on the Salonika Jewish community; curfews, ghettoization, dismantling their industrial and commercial base, expelling them from associations and the Chamber of Commerce, depriving them state pensions, banning them from using public transportation, and the Germans setting up the Jews to conduct an asset census, and initiating other registration; while not using and storing many of the forms and finally destroying much of the material in their presence. He noted the Nazi influence in spreading anti-Jewish hatred through their anti-Semitic press (namely the newspapers Nea Evropi And Apoyeumatini), German propaganda in local film houses, and the ousting of Jewish owners and forced ownership transfer to Christians; preferably refugees from Eastern Macedonia. The Germans also took over the inventory of Jewish paper wholesalers and printing houses in order to further their propaganda efforts.
In Salonika, as can be learned from the diary, Yakoel failed to receive assistance from a leading Christian businessman in Salonika. His diary ends in early March 1943 in depicting how the Germans organized the the Baron Hirsch Quarter and its guarding by gendarme and its creation of the Jewish Police after briefly describing the organization of the S.S., how they forcefully oversaw the asset census of the Jews (which produced an opposite effect since the Jews thought they would have to pay taxes on their assets so they underestimated their holdings), and that Koretz was preoccupied from morning till night while being strayed away from the bleak fate that awaited the Jews of Salonika. In the main essays of the book, it also is mentioned how the leading affluent Jewish businessmen were taken hostage by the German occupying forces, imprisoned, and charged large amounts of merchandise and sums of money to supply the greed of the Germans and to ensure that the Jews would not resist the German design an orders.
The essay of Dr. Isaac Matarasso is the most controversial of the three accounts, and the most problematic of all. He praised the local Greek-Orthodox population as having a positive rapport toward the Jews, while similarly noted that they were powerless bystanders that could not intervene. While he was unaware of Righteous Gentiles within the Catholic and Greek-Orthodox Church and individuals like Kallodopoulos who was honored by Yad Vashem for taking some 800 Jewish individuals and families to the partisans in the mountains, he was equally blind and unaware of the widespread deep-rooted hate of the local Greek-Orthodox population toward the Jews; from both the Asia-Minor refugee population and the veteran population. Since he was married to a Gentile woman and befriended Christians, he falsely saw the general Christian population in the same light, and was unaware that only some 2 Christian families housed Jews in the city until the liberation (from what is known to date from research in the last 2 years) and thousands were not ready or willing to do such a feat. As someone who has researched the Jews of the city for over 20 years, it is very significant to state that there are many Christian families in the city who have refused to be interviewed about their rapport toward the Jews and in principle do not befriend Jews. This does not come to the forefront since most of the other researchers in the field are apologists, inexperienced, or limited in scope and continuity in the field. Yomtov Yakoel also made several naive comments about the positive attitude of the Greek-Orthodox of the city to the Jews. As part of the elite, he came in contact with many of the local elite who as educated or polished people showed tolerance for the Jews. Such comments are typical of Jewish community leaders, who often ignore reality and seek to create ideal images of contemporary local life. Also from his background in Trikala, Greece, Yakoel was more integrated into Greek society than most Salonikan Jews who did not spak Greek well, or at all, and he accepted Greek Gentiles much better than them since he, unlike most of the Salonikan Jews, did not personally experience widespread hatred, violence, and ostracism from the local incited anti-Semitic population.
Like Michael Molho, Matarasso rushed to tell the public about the horrors of the Holocaust that he partially viewed from the side during the German occupation and that he shockingly heard from death camp survivors who returned after the liberation. He depicted the stages of the German occupation and the anti-Jewish measures, lamented the destruction of the Jewish cemetery, described the ghettos, and noted the controversial and unpopular role of Rabbi Koretz, and condemned his behavior, the vicious collaborator Albala, and the Jewish Civil Guards all in one breath. He presumed that Koretz knew what would happen. He asked the presuming question to the effect of “Had Koretz not seen the deportation of the Jews of Vienna when he was released from prison there?”. When he was released from prison, he was immediately transferred to Greece and was not given a vacation in Vienna. If Koretz had returned alive to Salonika, he would have strongly retorted against such a blind and ignorant insinuation. Matarasso wa partially correct in depicting the problematic personality of Koretz, and in recording significant events, he noted how Koretz thought the Jewish population would be sent to labor in Crackow and that orders should be obeyed. While he irrationally challenged Koretz, Matarasso rationally depicted factors facing the Jews that impinged on rescue and escape; large families that did not want to separate, care for the sick and elderly, worries about financing hiding; as well as the problem of finding a reputable and honest Christian who would arrange for escape from the ghetto and the city. He noted the role of the Italian diplomats who arranged for passage for Jews to the southern Italian zone and who took out their subjects and others from the Baron Hirsch transit camp, but was unaware of the thousands who escaped to the Italian zone on their own from early 1941 until mid-1943. The latter major oversight and thus, flaw in his account, was because he was disconnected from the Jewish community during the occupatio and because after the war, he did contact enough local Salonikan Jews to learn of such a major phenomenon.
Matarasso lauded the assistance given by the Red Cross to the Jews in the Baron Hirsch Camp. He also noted that the 74 prominent Jews, including Koretz, Benico Saltiel, Solomon Uziel, and collaborators Albala, Tapouz, and Edgar Counio faced tough labor conditions in Bergen Belsen. He noted the role of local Gentile collaborators Lascaris Papanaoum, the Armenian translator Agop Boudourian. Matarasso in investigating the heinous experiences of survivors annotated the experiments performed on Salonikan women in Block 10 in Auschwitz, and noted how Salonikan men suffered experiments on their testicles and castration. This is an important inclusion especially in light of the exclusion of the subject of the Sephardim and Auschwitz medical experiments in relevant publications and exhibitions by numerous Holocaust institutions throughout the world. He also noted how most Jewish storeowners and homeowners did not get their property back after the war and that if Jews got 1-2 rooms of their previous apartment orhome, they were lucky. However, the Greek government gave the Jewish community of Greece authority over the heirless property, and this was exemplary in comparison to other nations in Europe who did not enable such a consideration and compensation.
For those who are confined to English, this is a significant and revealing book on the history of Salonikan Jewry in the Holocaust. By rereading these texts, one can observe that the Jewish communal leadership did try to thwart the deportation process, but its options and influence was very limited. The book did give exposure to subjects often cut out off in publications because of space or priority or which were included in the filming of films, but cut out in the editing process. This in itself is important because within a short time, there will be no survivors left and much of the history of Greek Jewry in the Holocaust can not be found in documents.
The editor and translator deserve credit for their great effort. Hopefully in future publications
of the series, more unheard voices from Greek and Balkan Sephardic Jewry in the Holocaust will be highlighted. This book is highly recommended for purchase for all those involved in Sephardic, Greek, and Holocaust studies and affairs.
Steven Bowman, ed., “The Holocaust in Salonika, Eyewitness Accounts” (Translated from Greek and Judeo-Spanish by Isaac Benmayor), The Sephardi and Greek Holocaust Library, Volume I (New York: Sephardic House and Bloch Publishing Company, 2002). Sephardic House, c/o The Center for Jewish History, New York, NY 10011, USA, tel:212-294-6170, fax: 212-294-6149