Like nails must the words be hammered
The Oral History Archive of the Jewish Museum of Greece
An exhibition Installation of the JMG
The Oral History Archive (OHA) of the Jewish Museum of Greece had a small, simple beginning, just like many other things in life. The original core of the first twelve interviews was gathered in 2001-2002 for our temporary exhibition “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece”. With this first documentation, the Jewish Museum laid the foundations for the OHA, without realising then how much and how fast it would develop in just a few years.
As the survivors are gradually taken from our midst by time, the recording of their living image, expression, words, memories and thoughts take on a crucial role in the Museum’s attempt to narrate history “from below”, passing on the historical narrative from yesterday to today. Today’s visitor inevitably experiences both the immediacy and the subjectivity inherent to every testimony.
Alongside testimonies published in book form, we now also have audio and audiovisual sources, digital impressions, and the holographic representations of witnesses. The future no doubt holds more possibilities – and we are thankful for that, since these testimonies are an invaluable legacy of humanity; a repository of memory for the generations to come, and as such will always remain relevant and current.
Zanet Battinou
Director of the JMG
The Oral History Archive of the Jewish Museum of Greece (OHA)
The OHA today contains a total of 125 interviews, 69 by men and 55 by women, 14 in audio and the rest in audio-visual format. The interviews constitute a record of the lives of members of the Jewish communities of Greece. There is more than 200 hours of material. About 30% of the interviews concern individuals from Thessaloniki, which had the country’s largest Jewish community before the war. There are also testimonies from Ioannina, Athens, Trikala, Volos, Larisa, Chalkida and Zakynthos. Important testimonies were also given by a tiny number of Jews that survived the Bulgarian occupation of northern Greece. Moreover, there are interviews with Christian friends and neighbours, along with other non-Jews who helped save their persecuted Jewish fellow citizens, and also with others who witnessed the deportations first hand.
As a whole, the testimonies allow us to see a variety of experiences at the time of the deportations, such as concentration camps and death camps, life in hiding, participation in the Resistance and flight to the Middle East, as well as forced labour.
Although the majority of Greek Jews were sent to death camps, most of the interviews do not reflect this fact, as they come principally from people who were hidden or from resistance fighters – the two much smaller groups of survivors. This variety of interviews reveals not only many and different aspects of the experience of persecution, but they are also contextualized by testimonies of contemporary witne
The Testimony
Every testimony contributes to an anthropocentric view of history, providing narratives “from below”, through experiences and impressions of the people themselves. The existence of a collection of testimonies allows a social history of the persecution of Greek Jewry during the Second World War to be written, with emphasis more on the voice of the victims and less on the processes of deportation and practices of extermination. Along with the testimonies, we find out as much about how the events were experienced, as about how they actually happened. At least in this way the victims come out of their anonymity. The testimonies add particularly interesting and useful information for analysing, understanding and interpreting the role of individuals in history. At the same time they transparently demonstrate the pluralism of historical experiences. Finally, they are an important source for personal and family history, which enrich the JMG exhibits and make remote historical events more personal.
It is clear that the value of every testimony is expected to increase greatly as the natural cycle of life of the witnesses comes to an end.
Iakov Maestro (1927)
Biography:
Iakov Maestro was born in Thessaloniki in 1927. His father, Isaac Maestro, died in 1934, leaving the family with no means. The whole family, therefore – his mother Gratsia, née Soures, his brother Daniel, and his two sisters – were forced to work to get by. Iakov worked from the age of seven as an assistant in a grocery store. The family lived in the so-called butchers’ shacks (parapigmata) in the Baron Hirsch neighbourhood, near the old railway station, which was turned into a transit camp for the deportations of the Jews of the city. With the exception of his older sister, who was already engaged and lived outside the area, the whole family was arrested and taken to Auschwitz in the first transport of 15th March, 1943. Iakov was held in Auschwitz and then in Mauthausen. He was liberated on 5th May 1945 and in 1946 emigrated to Palestine under the British mandate. He settled permanently in Israel and in 1949 married Esther Silvas, a Jewish woman from Thessaloniki who had emigrated there before the war.
He was interviewed in 2010 by Alexis Menexiadis and IasonasChandrinos at his house in Israel.
Excerpt from the interview:
Baron Hirsch neighbourhood
They fenced it in and turned it into a ghetto. People could not come and go. I can’t tell you much about it because I was on the first transport. We got onto the railway cars. One week in the train without food; nothing. Only twice they let us out to do what we needed to do. And we got to Poland. The whole family in the same railcar. Apart from one sister who wasn’t with us. […] When we got there, they split us up. All the men under 45 were put in the same place. The same for the women. The rest – old people, children, women – they were put straight into trucks. And from the trucks, straight to the gas chambers.
In the camp
We were in Block 9A [in Auschwitz I]. All the Greeks who arrived together. No others got to Auschwitz. They went to Birkenau. And we were fortunate to be in Auschwitz, because compared to Birkenau, Auschwitz was – how can I put it – paradise.
Naki Bega (1927)
Biography:
Esther (Naki) Matathia-Bega was born in Trikala in 1927. She was the youngest child of the family and had two older sisters, Anna and Allegri. Her father, Matathias Matathias, had several professions. He was a street vendor, threadmakerand more. Her mother was called Myriam (Marika). Her family house was near the main square – one block from the big synagogue and directly opposite the small one. During the Occupation, when the deportations began, the women of the family hid in the village of Korbovo (now called Lagadia), but still went every now and then to Trikala, where the father had stayed. So, probably betrayed by neighbours, Naki was arrested along with her mother and sisters and the other Jews of the city on 24th March 1944 and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the last days of the war she was sent on a death march. She was the only woman of the family who survived. After liberation, she found her father again but he died soon afterwards. She married Alberto Begas and they settled in Larissa, where she still lives today.
She was interviewed in 2016 at her house in Larissa by Eleni Beze.
Excerpt from the interview:
Entrance to Birkenau, 17 years old
When we got off the trains, they carried out a selection. The old people were put in cars. “You’ll see each other again” [they told us]. They took me and my sisters to the bathroom. Theretheygaveusanumber. Theycutourhair. […] They took off our clothes and gave us whatever rags they had. Then we went to our barracks. […]Neither my [older] sisters nor I ever saw [our mother] again. They took her straight to the crematoria. […] At first, we were together. Then they split us up […] In the morning they got us up at five, before dawn. They put us in rows of five to count us. That was called ‘Apel’. […] Then they split us up to do different work. […] My sister was very fragile. She got ill and went to the hospital. A friend told me that she saw her dead.
“Death March”
Then they took us to another camp […] They went back and forth without knowing what to do with us. In some camps they killed them. In others they buried them alive. They took us and we marched together in ranks of five. Always, always in ranks. Both at work and in the march. ‘Links, links’ it went. We went past the hospital. There were piles of dead bodies at the hospitals to be gathered up. [She cries]. […] Many women who had the guts ran away.
Mordochai Mayo (1928)
Biography:
Mordochai Mayo was born in Kastoria in 1928. Both of his parents, Iakov and Rifka, née Faratzis, were Jews from Kastoria. He had two younger sisters, Lily and Esther. His father was a cloth merchant and his house was in the “Toumba” area. Mordochai’s life was turned upside down since the outbreak of the war. He had to leave school to look after his family after conscription. In March 1944, the German authorities arrested his family and deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Apart from Mordochai, they were all murdered upon arrival. In January 1945, as the Red Army was approaching Auschwitz, Mordochai was transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated in April 1945 by the British army. He returned to Kastoria, where he found his ancestral property looted and his house occupied. The conditions in Kastoria after the War – during the “White Terror” – were very difficult. Mordochai himself was imprisoned, because he was staying with a Communist friend. Later he was conscripted in the Greek Civil War and fought on Grammos [a major battle], where he was wounded. In 1950 he emigrated to Israel. He served in the army for three years and in 1955 married Malka, née Beraha, a Jewess of Bulgarian descent. They had four children: Rifka, Iakov, Avi and Lily.
Mordochai was interviewed in 2010 in the Tzur Moshe region of Israel by Iasonas Chandrinos, Alexis Menexiadis was also present.
Excerpt from the interview:
Arrival
I was 14 years old in Auschwitz. 182086. There were no names there. No one in my family [survived]. Only me. How did I manage…? When they stopped the trains near Auschwitz and Birkenau[and] brought people from Auschwitz to help the elderly,my uncle [Yosef Faratzi], my mother’s brother, said “no one say they’re ill”. Who knew…? you couldn’t see anything. They thought [the camp] was far away. You couldn’t even see from here to there. Almost everyone was taken off in trucks. My uncle took me by the hand, and 150 men and 70 women were sent to work. He told them that I was a shoemaker. I stayed with my uncle five days […] From there they took me to the lager [camp] for work. Just me. Me and 50-60 others. My uncle remained in the other place, mending shoes. I worked too. We built houses, roads, canals, wells. […] Should [the German] see you idling, God let you. I was there for seven months.
Return
When I returned from Germany [Auschwitz], I went to my house. The person living there was from a village, from where he had left. I told him it was my house. What did he say in return? “your house is in Palestine.[…] your house is in Palestine. This is not your house.” That’s what he said.
Zanet Nachmia (1924)
Biography:
Zanet Nachmia was born in Ioannina in 1925, daughter of Haïm and Rebecca, née Mordochai. They had six children and lived inside the kastro (the old city walls), opposite the synagogue. Her father had a taverna. Zanet went to school until the age of 11 at the Alliance Israélite Universelle, before stopping to help her mother in their large household. In March 1943 the Germans arrested the whole family and deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Zanet went to a string of concentration camps, including Mauthausen and Gelenau. For a time, she endured forced labour in a factory in Breslau. Of her whole family, only she and her oldest brother Michael survived. After liberation she returned to Ioannina and soon married Israel Tsitos, another camp survivor. They had two children together. She still lives in Ioannina.
She was interviewed in 2007 at her house in Ioannina by Alexis Menexiadis.
Excerpt from the interview:
Arrest
One morning there was a knock on the door. We opened it. He said, “Be ready to leave in half an hour. We’re kicking you out.” My mother was in tears. I remember my father saying “Don’t cry, let’s focus on what we’re going to do.” We took clothes to wear and blankets. Whatever we could gather in half an hour. […] That day it was windy and snowing. Cars and trucks came to take us away. There were lots of people. They took us to Larissa. We stayed eight days there. […] From there the Germans took us to Poland.
In the camp
We had to learn German. One girl was teaching the other what she could. Don’t ask what we went through. A few, very few girls were educated and knew German. We learned it from them, word by word.
“Death march”
We remained three months [in Breslau]. One evening they woke us at midnight. The war was near. We heard the gunshots. They took us further into Germany. On foot. Don’t ask. Only half of us made it. Walking three or four days and nights without food, water, nothing. Day and night.
Life afterwards
I have spoken to my children many times [about the camps]. I told them about it and they got sad. My husband and I lived well. We would sit together in the evening, as everyone does. Whatever we started talking about, it would always end up being about Germany. Every evening, every evening.
Cohen sisters: Paloba Matathia and Riketta Cohen (1937), Vida-Veta Mioni (1939)
Biographies:
Paloba (Pavlina) Matathia (PM) was born in 1937 in Thessaloniki, with her twin sister Riketta (Rina) Cohen (RC). Two years later the family had another daughter, Vida-Veta Mioni (VM). The family was well-off and lived in the centre of the city, on Tsimiski street. Their father, Sabetai Cohen, was a thread merchant with ancestry from Bitola, a Yugoslav citizen but settled in Thessaloniki. Their mother was called Zermain, née Matalon, whose father was a doctor from Larissa. During the Occupation, the family were interned in the Syngrou ghetto. Through the decisive action of the maternal grandfather, however, they escaped by boat from Michaniona and fled to Athens. Initially, her parents rented a house, but they realised that their neighbours intended to turn them in. Then they sought protection in the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church on Acharnon Street. For greater protection the three girls of the family were put in the boarding house of Saint Joseph on Charilaou Trikoupi street. Despite their efforts, Veta’s parents were arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only her mother returned. After liberation, the family settled again in Thessaloniki. Pavlina Matathia studied in America and became a professor at the School of Social Work (Athens University of Applied Sciences). She married Moses Matathias and had three children, Andreas, Carolina and Alexandros. Veta Mioni studied interpreting in Switzerland and then worked in the trade department of the Isaraeli embassy. In 1967 she married Haïm-Victor Mionis. Riketta Cohen became a physiotherapist and worked in the ‘Agia Sofia’ children’s hospital.
Excerpt from the interview:
In hiding
VM: My mother thought that it wasn’t wise for us to hide together, so she decided to put the children with the nuns. So they went to St. Joseph’s on Charilaou Trikoupi. She spoke to the nuns, and they agreed to have my two sisters, but I was very young and they didn’t want me. Then one nun came forward, soeur Marie du Carmel, who said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take her on.” My mother paid, of course, as if it were school. So we stayed with the nuns. Andourmothervisitedusalot there.
RC: Our mother and father camein the afternoons. […] We have many memories from there. We had a great time. […] There was a courtyard inside, and one at the back, where the orphans were. We went to church, polished the brass things.
VM. I have to say, in the Occupation we were well-protected by people who loved us. Our mother and father ensured that we lacked nothing. Even when the Germans took them, they had left money behind, which was used for our care. […]
PM: Eleni Tombakari organised all of that. And it was the Occupation of course. There was no food. We got chickpeas full of bugs to eat in the nunnery. For a treat we would have beetroot and garlic
Zakis Hatzis (1931 – 2018)
Biography:
Zakis Hatzis was born in Ioannina in 1931. Even before the war, however, his family had settled in Athens. His father Leon was from Ioannina, and his mother, Sarina, née Samuel, from Trikala. He had two younger siblings, Chrysoula and Maurice. After the commencement of anti-Jewish measures in Athens, his father decided to flee from Athens to the areas of ‘Free Greece’ controlled by the guerrillas. Their search for refuge took them through various places, including Sofades, Smokovo and Karditsa. Eventually they hid in the city of Volos. The end of the war found them in the town of Almyros. After the war the family settled in Athens again. In 1953 Zakis married Astro (Beki) Batis, with whom he had two daughters. He died in 2018.
He was interviewed in 2015 at his house in Athens by Iasonas Chandrinos.
Excerpt from the interview:
“Free Greece”
22 of us got into one of those gas-driven cars of the time, and went to Karditsa, to ‘Free Greece’, where we wouldn’t be in danger. Where else could we say we were Jewish? […] We lived freely there. We were not a rich family. My father had made a couple of big packets, which he put the fabric in. Fabric had currency atthattime. And we could get by. 7 okas of grain for a cubit of fabric. It was very useful.
German check point
When we got onto the bus, no one knew each other. One of them, Apostolis the driver, said […] “You will sit at the front.” We didn’t know why. We thought it was because we spoke such good Greek. […] At Elefsina there was a large German check point […] [We had been given fake] identities. I was called ‘Yannakis’. And our surname became ‘Hadzidakis’. […] Well, they checked all twenty-two of us. I must have started crying. The Gestapo didn’t dig around much, he looked at us, he stroked my face a bit and I cried [some more]. [The Gestapo] threw our [fake] identities back to us, and whatever else he had taken from us […] and said “Go on”. From then on everything was easier. Much easier. There were [Italian] checkpoints, but [the driver] gave them a box of cigarettes. That’s how we easily got through.
Esther Florentin (1932)
Biography:
Esther Florentin was born in Thessaloniki in 1932. Her father was Benzion Altsech and her mother Kleri, née Matalon. She had a younger brother, Solomon. Before the war the family lived in the centre of Thessaloniki and her father had a fabric shop. Soon after their internment in the ghetto, they fled to Athens and hid in various houses, Esther separately from her parents and her younger brother. In 1944 her parents and younger brother were betrayed, arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only her mother survived. Esther emigrated to Palestine in 1945, where she remained until 1950, before returning to Thessaloniki. In 1951 she married Maurice Florentin, another Thessaloniki native. He had escaped thanks to his participation in the armed resistance. They had two children.
The audio interview was conducted by Alexis Menexiadis in 2007 at her house in Athens.
Excerpt from the interview
The decision
When things got tougher [in the ghetto], we knew we needed to get out. Someone told us that he would help us escape one morning. We left at dawn and went very early to an arranged place – arranged at a price, of course. But the person didn’t meet us. He took the money and never came. So, we had to go home. And from there, I remember, we were looking for a way to escape.
Betrayal
It was Sunday morning. My brother was ready to be taken to a lady’s house where to Koliatsou Square, to the first house [in Athens], where we had stayed. This woman was going to take my brother to Kifisia. They had a house somewhere around there, at the end of the train line. […] Then my brother would be out of the way. But she didn’tmanageto. The woman who was hiding my mother and father turned them in. We realised that afterwards. My mother had taken my brother out into the yard. It was the ground floor. A Greek and a German came into the house. From what we heard afterwards, the Greek had realised there was a child in the house, because my mother had packed his things in order to take him to Kifissia and she’d taken him outside. Then the daughter of the woman went out and brought him in, so they took him away.
Sabetai (Mimis) Bezas (1931 – 2019)
Biography:
Mimis Bezas was born in Thessaloniki in 1931 to Moys and Sarina, née Barouch. His father sold bicycles and also had a small spare parts factory. The family lived in the centre of the city. Even though the family were trapped in the ghetto, they managed to flee just before deportation. Nonetheless, their search for refuge led them all over the place: to Athens, Ioannina, Tirana, Italy and finally Egypt. After liberation and the civil strife of December 1944 the family returned to Thessaloniki. Mimis Bezas continued his studies and later joined the family business. From 1963 he lived in Athens, where he died in 2019.
Excerpt from the interview:
Escaping Thessaloniki
My mother had said, “If the Germans come to take us, I’m not going to Poland. I’ll jump off the balcony.” One evening […] we were sleeping when there was a knock on the door. Bam bam bam. My mother got up and went straight to the balcony. My father said, “Jump if you want, but wait to see who it is.”[…] A voice answered behind the door, “C’ est moi. Gaspar Gasparian.” A customer and friend of my father. My father opened the door. [He asked] what was going on. [He replied] “They’ re coming for you tomorrow morning. Come on, let’s go. […] An angel had got us out of the wolf’s mouth.
The boat story
At midnight we went down to the beach [at Himara] and all got on a boat. And while we were preparing to leave, the guerrillas from Northern Epirus came down and started firing into the air. They said, “You can’t just go… take some Italians…” For the Italian soldiers had by then entered the Albanian resistance. […] They all spoke Greek. […] We had bought the boat. 25 of us Jews had paid for it. […] That boat was for 25 people, and they forced another hundred Italians on. We set off. […] The next morning, my uncle Isaac, who knew a thing or two […] said, ‘Where are we going? This is Corfu,” and we changed course. […] In the middle of the Adriatic the engine failed. We raised the sail and the mast snapped. Our Northern-Epirote brothers had sold us a rotten boat. […] The boat was letting in water on all sides. We embraced each other, saying, “That’s it, we’re going to die, we’ll drown in this sea,” – which was now getting rough. […] Then God acted again. A plane flew overhead. […] We waved white handkerchiefs to it. We didn’t care if it was American, Italian, German. […] Just that it save us. We were sinking. Well, it was American. It gave a signal. A fishing boat came to get us but had the wrong coordinates. The plane passed again. We waved handkerchiefs again. It gave the correct coordinates this time. One of those rescue ships came. […] It took us. They put us all on board. […] And we tethered our boat behind. After three quarters of an hour it sank. We towed it all the way to Brindisi submerged.
Panagiotis Tziortsas (1926)
Biography:
Panagiotis Tziortsas was born in Tithronio, a village in Phthiotis, in 1926. His father was Leonidas and his mother Despo, née Koutsobelis. He had an older sister, Efstathia. In the summer of 1941, his father agreed to hide three fugitive British soldiers – Jews from Palestine who had enlisted in the British army, Aaron Yerousalmi, Moses Weinbaum and Asher Schwartz. The family looked after them for about two years. The young Panagiotis was responsible for taking them food every day in their cave, where they hid during the day. Moreover, Panagiotis’ father arranged for them to have fake identities, and accompanied two of the three to Athens so they could escape to the Middle East. In Athens they found relatives’ houses where they could stay – the sisters Maria Choleva and Cleopatra Minou. Even though the three soldiers were arrested by the occupying authorities in their attempt to return to Palestine, they survived. After the war they looked for the people who had hidden them, and they kept in close touch with the Tziortsas family. In 1968, Yad Vashem recognised Maria Cholevas and Cleopatra Minou as Righteous Among the Nations and, in 1989, Leonidas, Despo and Pangiotis Tziortsas.
Panagiotis Tziortsas was interviewed in 2009 at his house in Athens by Iasonas Chandrinos.
Excerpt from the interview:
Saving three British Jewish soldiers
They went to the first village, who didn’t accept them – the villagers were afraid because the Germans frequented that place. They came to our village, Tithronio. […] Someone we knew said to my late father, “Some English soldiers have come. They jumped off the train and they’ve come to the kafeneio.” My father got up and went to the kafeneio to greet them. […] He wanted to have them to stay, but he couldn’t understand if that was what they wanted. We had a close friend, who had lived in America and spoke English. Balomenos was his name. […] They spoke. “Yiorgo [Balomenos], ask them if they want to stay at my house. I will be happy to have them around. I don’t care if they burn it down or not, but I want to help these people, as they have come to this place. Let them burn the house down, just not the whole village.” [They said that] if Leonidas is willing, they would stay at his house. “Tell them,” he said, “they’ll stay here at home. They’ll leave in the day, [they’ll go] somewhere, to a cave. Panagiotis will take them.” [I was] a young boy […] “they’ll stay there all day. At lunch time [Panagiotis] will bring them food. Everything. And at nightfall they’ll come to the house and sleep here. And in the morning they’ll leave again.” This went on for one and a half years. Everyone in the village knew. No one turned them in.
Sara Yesoua-Forti (1927)
Biography:
Sara Yeshua, wife of Marcello Fortis, was born in Chalkida in 1927. Her father diedyoung and her mother, Zafeira, made men’s hats to provide for her family. She was enlisted from an early age in EPON (the Youth Resistance Organisation). When the Germans took over the city she fled with her mother to the village of Koutroulas, and introduced herself as Marika, the new teacher. She quickly took an active role in the Resistance, drafting in women. After the war, during the White Terror, she faced persecution and ultimately fled to Athens, where she tried to continue her studies, but was arrested. Following her release she emigrated to Palestine.
She was interviewed in 2010 at her house in Tel Aviv by Iasonas Chandrinos. Alexis Menexiadis was also present.
Excerpt from the interview:
Armed Resistance
“You’ll come with us [with ELAS – the Greek People’s Liberation Army]. Wherever we go, you’ll come to, as a guerrilla fighter.” I realised from the start [that] they wanted me to cook tea for them. “I’ll never do that,” I told them. “If I’m coming with you, I’ll do whatever you do.” They said, “Sarika [Sara], you can’t do that, you’re a girl.” I said, “Give me a donkey. I don’t want anything, just a donkey, then I’ll know what to do. Whatever village you go to, you’ll ring the bells. And I will talk to the girls and the women, they way you talked to everyone else.” That’s how it started.
All of the villages were hours away from each other. Do you know what the guerrillas taught us to do? To climb to the tree tops. The forest was so dense that even if you were at the top you couldn’t be seen. The first time I was up there, the thugs came with the Germans and I was afraid. A guerrilla told me, “they can’t hearyou, they can’t hear you.”
Flight to the Middle East
The Jews left Tsakei beach in small boats and in big boats with engines. From Tsakei they could go to Turkey. And the Jews found out […] [They Jews told me] “Sarika [Sara], speak to the guerrillas, to let me through, to have my turn.” What did the guerrillas do? They gathered all the Jews who wanted to leave and brought them to monasteries. And they brought them food and water. But then they did something very bad– but I was a guerrilla, you see, not a Jew. They searched every Jew who was about to leave for gold sovereigns. Everyone had to give at least five gold sovereigns. But they were right, the guerrillas. They had fed them. People had often stayed there for fifteen days.
Alvertos-Avraam Amon (1925)
Biography:
Alvertos-Avraam was born in Volos in 1925. His father was called Samuel, owner of a bed factory and a shop. His mother was Julia, née Franses. The family had three children, Victor-Haïm (b. 1922), Alvertos-Avraam and Itzhak-Tzeik (b. 1931). Their house was on Riga Fereou street. During the Occupation, the family hid in the village of Kanalia and they all survived. Alvertos joined ELAS (the Greek People’s Liberation Army) and served in various regions of Eastern Thessaly. He was discharged from ELAS after the civil strife of December 1944. He returned to Volos and started the family business again, and from 1946-1949 he served in the army. Afterthewar, variousmembersof his family emigrated to Israel, his younger brother Itzhak being the first one. Alvertos was the last in his family to emigrate, settling in Israel in 1949. There he encountered a woman who he had first met on a trip to Athens. They were married in the early 1950s and had two children. In Israel he continued the occupation he had in Athens, opening a bed factory with his older brother. Later he also run a furniture shop.
He was interviewed in 2017 at his house in Israel by Eleni Beze.
Excerpt from the interview:
On the lookout
The Germans would come to the village to steal. Since school I was in EPON [the Youth Resistance Organisation]. My [older] brother was in EAM [National Liberation Front]. I was in a church, on the lookout [to warn] lest the Germans come. Well, once when I was in Epano Kerasia and the Germans came up, the villagers on the road [told me that] the Germans were coming from Volos. And I warned [the guerrillas] to leave. Then I went into the mountains. We were always on the move.
Exhbition Contributors
EXHIBITION CURATOR Zanet Battinou
CURATΙΟΝ ΟF ARTΙFACTS Mary Kapotsi, Christina Meri
RESEARCH – TEXTS Alexandra Patrikiou
TEXT TRANSLATION Joshua Barley
TEXT EDITING Alexandra Patrikiou, Maria Vassilikou
EXHIBITION DESIGN Mary Kapotsi, Hayia Cohen, Christina Meri
GRAPHIC DESIGN Hayia Cohen
TECHNICAL DESIGN Mary Kapotsi
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Victoria Kosti
COMMUNICATIONS Elisa Solomon
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE Leonidas Papadopoulos
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS Orietta Treveza
PRINTING Stavros Belessakos, Photosynthesis
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION OF DISPLAY CASES Elias Papageorgiou & Ass. M+Y Glass Solutions
The exhibition includes a presentation of photographic portraits by Artemis Alcalay from the collection GREEK JEWISH SURVIVORS FROM THE HOLOCAUST. The Jewish Museum of Greece would like to warmly thank the artist.
