The Good Shepherds -Metropolitans and Chief Rabbis in the face of the Holocaust
The religious context within which senior clergy and chief rabbis operate differ greatly. But there is a connection: both are seen as shepherds guiding their respective flocks.
The Holocaust in Greece (1943–1944) confronted the shepherds of both faiths with great dilemmas: the rabbis had to choose between obedience, stalling or disobedience in all possible combinations; the bishops, for their part, had to decide how much to risk for the sake of the “other” flock in their diocese.
The risks taken by the metropolitans ranged from providing for the safekeeping of Jewish holy texts and objects (an act which could carry a severe penalty) and expressions of support, to persistent and, even more perilous, appeals to German officers.
Of course, circumstances differed in each case. In the spring of 1943, the situation in Greece was direr than in 1944, when the Resistance had grown and the war’s outcome had been sealed. Conditions also varied in each geographic region, where local circumstances – especially with regards to the existence of an armed Resistance – also played a part.
The material collected is from the cities and towns of Athens, Arta, Corfu, Didymoteicho, Halkida, Corinth, Thessaloniki, Thiva, Volos, and Zakynthos. These cities accounted for roughly 90 per cent of Greece’s Jewish population.
The core source information is a survey conducted by the Church of Greece in 1966, when it sent out questionnaires to each metropolitan diocese asking what it had done during the occupation for the Jews in the area.
ARCHBISHOP OF ATHENS AND ALL GREECE
DAMASKINOS PAPANDREOU (1891-1949)
The prelate
In November 1938, Damaskinos of Corinth was elected to the archiepiscopal see of Athens, but his election was annulled by the highest administrative court on a technicality. The electoral body was subsequently amended by law, resulting in the election of Metropolitan Chrysanthos of Trebizond as archbishop, with Damaskinos being sent to the Holy Monastery of Faneromeni on Salamina. In June 1941, the Greater Synod was convened by decree and reinstalled Damaskinos as archbishop. Under Damaskinos, the church undertook to feed vulnerable population groups such as the poor, children under school age, and breastfeeding mothers during the famine caused by the occupation. For his contributions in helping save the Jews, in 1970 Damaskinos was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations.
Actions to save the Jews of Thessaloniki (March 1943)
On 15 March 1943, Asser R. Moissis was briefed about the beginning of the deportations from Thessaloniki and called Damaskinos “as he was about to undergo an operation on his throat in his home. His Beatitude postponed the operation and received us … [He later] made an appointment with Prime Minister Logothetopoulos … The next day [16 March], I did indeed visit Logothetopoulos … I asked that the Greek government oppose the deportation of some 40,000–50,000 Greek citizens … Logothetopoulos responded that he had no prior knowledge of this issue. He telephoned the general commander of Macedonia, Simonidis, although the transport had departed in the meantime.”
On 23 March, after Logothetopoulos had also sent two letters to the German plenipotentiary, Günther Altenburg, Damaskinos and the heads of 28 institutions submitted a written petition to the prime minister requesting that, if the deportations of Jews could not be prevented, that they be at least resettled within Greek territory and that women, children and the elderly be excluded.
The following day, Damaskinos and the heads of 20 institutions submitted another petition, this time to Altenburg, requesting a halt to the deportations. The fact that the petition was only signed by people who were based in the centre of Athens suggests it was prepared in a hurry.
On 29 March, “in light of the continuing persecution of Jews from Thessaloniki that had begun on 24 February 1943, the presidents of the below-mentioned Athens organisations and the deans of the higher spiritual institutions, led by His Beatitude, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Damaskinos, and in accordance with other petitions on 29 March 1943 called on the Italian ambassador in Athens, Mr Ghigi.”
On 30 March, the Holy Synod approved the Archbishop’s actions.
CHIEF RABBI OF ATHENS
ELIAS BARZILAΙ (1891-1979)
The Jewish community of Athens
According to the 1928 Census, Attica’s Jewish population did not exceed 1,800. It grew during the first months of the occupation, when Jews from Thessaloniki and other areas in the German-occupied zone settled in Athens. In 1943, the Jewish Community of Athens had 3,000 registered members but some 4,000 Jewish refugees from other cities also lived in the capital.
The chief rabbi
Elias Barzilai was born in Thessaloniki. His father, Pinhas Barzilai, had also been a rabbi and chairman of the Beth Din of Thessaloniki. Barzilai was educated locally and served at the Italia Hadash Synagogue. He received a scholarship to study at the University of Jerusalem and worked as a teacher and rabbi in Belgrade (1933–1934), perhaps also for a short period in Didymoteicho (1934), and later in Tel Aviv (1934–1936). In early 1936, he was hired by the Jewish Community of Athens because of his broad education and linguistic capabilities. He served until 1963, when he resigned.
The call from Dieter Wisliceny to Barzilai (21 September 1943)
“I was ordered to go to the Gestapo, and when I arrived there, at 14 Loukianou Street, I was surrounded by five Gestapo officers dressed in black and wielding pistols; I was ordered to do whatever they said, without question or hesitation. They ordered me to prepare, in 12 hours, a list of all Jews, including their names, home addresses (separate lists for Greek and foreign Jews), a list of their assets, their work addresses, the community offices, and anything related, and all bank accounts. Leaving the Gestapo office, I promised that everything would be done as they requested. This reassured them and they let me go until the next day.
For me that night was a night of labour. In spite of the danger posed to my own life, I had two very important tasks to complete. First, to burn all the booklets of the community’s new members and, second, convene a meeting of all Jews at the synagogue to explain to them that they must abandon their homes immediately, saving whatever they could and getting far away, without letting the Germans nor their Greek neighbours know where they had gone. I telephoned those who did not come, using a coded metaphor (so the Germans wouldn’t understand) that ‘the patient is very ill, and the doctors recommend he leaves the city for the mountains’.”
“I went to the Gestapo in the morning and informed them that I had not brought any list with me. Angered, the ruthless Wisliceny struck the table with his hand. That is when I took out the official document issued in 1942 by the German Special Police certifying that burglars had broken into the community offices and stolen the records [concerning the attack by the Hellenic Socialist Patriotic Organisation (ESPO)]. I added that a new register had not been compiled since and that their 12-hour deadline had not been enough for me to recall all the Community’s members names. So, they gave me 48 hours more.”
Appealing to the archbishop and the collaborationist premier
Immediately after leaving the Gestapo, the chief rabbi paid two visits, accompanied by members of the community. The first was to Archbishop Damaskinos and the second to Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis. From the former he sought help and refuge in the churches; from the latter, his intervention. Rallis made vague promises, while Damaskinos offered to facilitate Barzilai’s flight to the Middle East in cooperation with the British. He had a personal friendship with the rabbi but explained that as the Germans would not respect the sanctity of the churches, there was no point in the Jews hiding there.
Damaskinos’ actions to save the Jews of Athens (September 1943)
Damaskinos then proceeded to petition Altenburg “to not impose deportation measures on the Jews of Athens and the southern Greek provinces, which had come under German administration as a result of Italy’s surrender”. Altenburg replied that it was “absolutely impossible for him to intervene” as the order to expand the racial deportations had come from Adolf Eichmann. Damaskinos pleaded with Altenburg to exclude at least small children and war invalids but received only promises as delaying tactics. After that, Damaskinos issued a secret circular to all churches urging priests and Christian communicants to offer every assistance to the persecuted Jews. In addition, his secretary, Ioannis Georgakis, requested, on the archbishop’s behalf, that priests and monasteries aid the persecuted.
The abduction
The rabbi also contacted the Resistance. The National Liberation Front (EAM) undertook to help those Jews who would flee to the mountains. His “kidnapping” was orchestrated that same day, giving the flight signal to Athens Jews, or at least those who could either afford to hide in the city using false IDs (albeit surviving without food rations and renting a home without rent protection) or to leave it.
On 8 October 1943, the Germans issued an order for all Jews to return to their homes and present themselves at the community every day on penalty of death. The Germans also took over the community offices and tried to set up a community network to trap as many as possible. As time passed and nothing happened, the fear subsided. As a result, some 800 Jews were caught and deported on 24 March 1944.
In the mountains
After moving them from place to place, EAM eventually brought the Barzilai family to the inaccessible village of Krokylio in Fokida, which was located at an altitude of 850 metres. The family remained there, under EAM’s care, for around six months. They were then moved to Velouchi and, finally, to the village of Petrino in Karditsa, near the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) headquarters, where they remained until Liberation.
In letters from “Free Greece”, Rabbi Barzilai wrote in June 1944 that “EAM–ELAS’s aid in saving the Jews […] has been significant. Its organisations have offered tangible examples of true patriotism, humanism, and philosemitism.”
METROPOLITAN OF ARTA
SPYRIDON GINAKAS (1871-1948)
The Jewish community of Arta
In 1881, following Arta’s incorporation into the Greek state, the Jewish community numbered 617 members (or 12 per cent of the total population). In 1920, just 325 Jews, most of whom were Greek-speaking, lived in the city (or 4.3 per cent of the total population). In 1928, they amounted to 389 (or 4.8 per cent of the population) – a number that likely remained steady until the Second World War. During the persecutions of the occupation, 35 Arta Jews escaped, while 352 were arrested on 24 March 1944 and deported to Poland after a long, arduous journey. Only 25 survived.
The prelate
Spyridon Ginakas served as Metropolitan Bishop of Arta from 1912 until his death in 1948. As a deacon and priest, he had served in Epirus and in the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
Support and solace
In local tradition, as recorded by historian Konstantinos Tsiliyiannis, Metropolitan Spyridon petitioned the German authorities in support of the Jews as soon as the Germans announced the restrictions in the Italian occupation zone (4 October 1943). After his petition was rejected, he advised the city’s Jews to escape to nearby villages, but few heeded his call.
Testimony
One of his successors, Ignatios III, expressed the local lore about Spyridon’s relations with the Jewish community as follows: “It would not be exaggeration to say that the late lamented bishop had the Jews under his wing and protection more than the Christians. He sympathised with their vulnerability in those troubled times and made superhuman efforts so they wouldn’t be hurt in the slightest. He had, in any case, maintained since the prewar years very good relations with them, reciprocating visits during religious festivities.”
METROPOLITAN OF DIMITRIADA
IOAKIM ALEXOPOULOS (1873-1959)
The prelate
Ioakeim Alexopoulos studied theology at the universities of Athens and Georgetown, served as a priest in the US and in 1923 became bishop of Boston. In 1931, he was elected Metropolitan of Fokida. In 1935, he was transferred to Dimitriada diocese, where he was faced with festering problems, ecclesiastic as well as social, which were exacerbated by the Occupation. In 1998, almost forty years after his death, he was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations.
Support and solace
Ioakeim played an active part in saving Jews, according to his subsequent testimony to the physician Dimitrios Tsilividis, whom he told that Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah had sought recourse through the diocese after being ordered by the Germans to turn over a list of his community’s members: “After leaving the German garrison headquarters, the chief rabbi rushed to meet me at the diocesan offices. He insistently asked me to obtain information from reliable German sources of the Germans’ true intentions … I immediately thought of the German consul, Helmut Scheffel … [whose] reply was laconic and unequivocal: ‘they should leave the city quickly before the deadline expires’. In turn, I passed this advice on and gave [Pessah] a letter of recommendation to the inhabitants for the villages, the Resistance, and the priests, asking them to offer him their assistance.”
Safekeeping banned objects
“That day, and through the next, a few Jewish compatriots brought me valuables locked in metal boxes to guard for them. I saved these small treasures by hiding them behind the volumes in my bookcase and even in the metal case where I stored my mitre. When I returned these items, they received them with tears of gratitude and joy, that were especially moving.”
“I did not neglect to address the following statement to the press, published on 6 November 1944: ‘Our Jewish compatriots are returning from the villages. But the synagogue’s and the chief rabbi’s books do not exist. Anyone who happens to have these books, which are in Greek or Hebrew, as well as any pages from them, are kindly asked to return them to the chief rabbi (8 Palestinis Street). Also, anyone who has clothing, furniture or other items is asked to either return them to their owners so they can live too, now that we all have our country’s freedom’.”
CHIEF RABBI OF VOLOS
MOSHE PESSACH (1869-1955)
The Jewish community of Volos
In 1928, there were 1,071 Jews living in Volos (2 per cent of the total population), whose number had decreased to 872 by September 1943. Most of them survived the Holocaust, thanks to the decisiveness of the chief rabbi, the help of Metropolitan Ioakeim, the support of the Resistance and the solidarity of local Christians. On 25 March 1944, the Germans arrested and deported 130 individuals.
The chief rabbi
Moshe Pessah was the son of Larissa rabbi Simeon Pessah (1815–1893), who also served as chief rabbi of “Old Greece”. In 1946, he was elected as president of the Beth Din of Greece, exercising his duties until his death in 1955. Two years after his death, he was exhumed and reinterred at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.
30 September 1943
On Thursday, the first day of Rosh Hashanah of the year 5704 (30 September 1943), Chief Rabbi Pessah received an order to present himself immediately to the mayor, despite the fact that it was a religious holiday. Once there, the chief rabbi was informed by the staff that the occupation authorities had ordered the municipality to compile a list of all Jews in Volos, and that Mayor Nikolaos Saratsis had issued a confidential directive for the compilation of the list to be delayed for a few days so that the Jews would have time to escape. The mayor “recommended that I present myself to the German commander to ask what this concerned”. The commander sternly reprimanded the chief rabbi because he was already late and ordered him to return early the next day.
The appeal to the ‘other flock’
“Without losing time, I rushed to the bishop, His Beatitude Ioakeim, a prelate with an open mind and noble sentiments.” The two of them then contacted the prefect, Ioannis Pantazidis. “The three of us discussed the situation. I appealed my esteemed interlocutors to tell everyone in nearby villages to welcome any Jew who sought refuge there and, in every case, to offer assistance and protection. All measures to satisfy my request were taken immediately. His Beatitude Ioakeim personally gave me a letter of introduction for the Resistance.”
The text of Metropolitan Ioakeim’s letter of introduction and appeal for assistance for Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah reads: “Volos, 28 September 1943. My beloved in the Lord. I warmly recommend the bearer-teacher and ask any brother who meets him to listen to him attentively and favourably and offer every facilitation with anything he may need for himself or his flock so that they will not fall victim to the present situation. Ioakeim of Dimitriada.”
The chief rabbi goes to the ‘mountain’
Resistance fighters escorted the chief rabbi and his family to the ELAS-controlled areas. His escape, which looked like a kidnapping, gave the signal for Volos’ Jews to flee. From Mount Pelion, the chief rabbi addressed Greece’s Jews by proclamation, urging them to join the ranks of the national Resistance, and he subsequently appealed to Britain’s Jews for help. He stayed with the guerrillas, encouraging them, throughout the Occupation. His wife died from the hardships she endured.
METROPOLITAN OF DIDYMOTEICHO
IOAKEIM SIGALAS (1881-1965
The Jewish community of Didymoteicho
Didymoteicho’s Jewish community numbered 740 members in 1928 (8.5 per cent of the total population). Ahead of the Germans’ taking of the city, many Jews crossed the Evros River, among them Rabbi Alkabes. Most, however, stayed and, as a result, lost their lives at Birkenau, where they were deported on 5 May 1943.
The prelate
Ioakeim Sigalas served as Metropolitan Bishop of Didymoteicho and Orestiada from 1928 to 1957. As the titular bishop of Apollonia, he had served as locum tenens of the metropolitan diocese of Kerasounta (Giresun), where he was arrested by the Turkish authorities and narrowly escaped death. Earlier, he had officiated under Ioakeim of Pelagonia in the adverse conditions of the Macedonian struggle.
Support and solace
When the order was given to round up Didymoteicho’s Jews for deportation, on 4 May 1943, Ioakeim intervened with the German authorities, pleading with them to “avoid any cruelty and inhuman treatment of them”.
The next day, when the town’s Jews were taken from the synagogue to the train station, Ioakeim, as described by his successor, deliberately crossed their path and “amid tears, wished them ‘good luck’. They, also crying, bid him farewell as they were led to the place of their torment.”
Testimony
One of Didymoteicho’s few surviving Jews, Dr Markos Nachon, later recalled: “At this moment, supposedly by coincidence, the bishop, with his great bravery that never abandoned him, walks through the Jewish neighbourhood. No one has any illusions about the true purpose of his stroll. The Jews understand that he has come into the city to bid them farewell and show his support. Many of them, in a gesture of thanks, kiss his hand for the last time.”
Markos Nachon, Birkenau: The camp of death, Thessaloniki, 1991.
METROPOLITAN OF THESSALONIKI
GENNADIOS ALEXIADIS (1868-1951)
The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki
From 1912, when the city was incorporated into the Greek state, until 1940, the number of Jews in Thessaloniki dropped from 75,000 to around 50,000 because of emigration, mainly to France and Palestine. The exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey multiplied Thessaloniki’s Christian population. Thus, from roughly 50 per cent of the total population in 1912, Thessaloniki’s Jews represented just 20 per cent in 1940. Furthermore, the urban redesign implemented in Thessaloniki after the fire of 1917 left many families homeless. In 1940, most Jews lived in clusters in specific new areas; some 40 per cent of the community’s members lived in specified neighbourhoods created by the Jewish Community specifically for the homeless. While the young had learned the Greek language in school, the majority of Jews were linguistically isolated, as they spoke only Judaeo-Spanish.
The persecution
In the two-year period spanning April 1941 to March 1943, antisemitic measures were taken in successive phases: (a) the control of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki by the Occupation authorities; (b) the strangulation of their financial liquidity and plunder through the imposition of forced labour; (c) the replacement of the appointed president by the chief rabbi; (d) the destruction of the Jewish cemetery and the use of materials from it in various construction projects; (e) the forced withdrawal of Jews from the city centre and their concentration in other parts of the city, the use of the identifying yellow star, curfews, the ban on the use of public transport and telephones, the expulsion from the rolls of professional chambers, associations, etc; (f) and, finally, the gradual deportation to Auschwitz as from 15 March 1943.
The prelate
Gennadios Alexiadis from Rhodes was elected Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1912, where he remained until his death in 1951. In 1969, he was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations. He was one of the first to recognise the right to establish a Jewish national homeland. At the peak of the antisemitic events of 1931, he asked priests to declare from their pulpits the peaceful coexistence with the city’s Jews, thus censuring the attacks on Jewish neighbourhoods as a barbarous and unchristian act. When Chief Rabbi Zvi Koretz was arrested and deported to Vienna following the German Occupation of Thessaloniki, Gennadios issued a letter in support of him.
Support and solace
When the Baron Hirsch ghetto was fenced in on 5 March and Chief Rabbi Koretz was informed that the Jews would be deported to Poland, Gennadios immediately appealed to Max Merten, the military commander’s political advisor, to stop the deportations. But Merten replied that the orders could not be rescinded. Gennadios likely also submitted a letter, as a copy has been found in American archives. The letter emphasised that most Jews were poor or impoverished law-abiding workers who would die as a result of this poverty if deported.
The famine of 1941–1942 claimed a proportionately larger number of victims in the Jewish population because of their lack of connections with rural areas.
In April 1943, Gennadios intervened to set up the fruitless meeting between Ioannis Rallis, who had just assumed the office of prime minister on 7 April, and Koretz, the only result of which was the removal of the latter from his position as chief rabbi.
Gennadios also mediated with the Occupation authorities on behalf of various Jews who appeared to have been baptised in the Christian faith.
METROPOLITAN OF THIVA AND LEVADIA
SYNESIOS PHILIPPIDIS (1868-1944)
The Jewish community of Thiva
Despite Thiva’s rich medieval Jewish past, as recorded by Benjamin of Tudela and other sources, in 1928 there were just two Jews living in Thiva according to the official census.
The prelate
Synesios Philippides served as Metropolitan of Thiva and Livadia for 32 years, from 1912 until 27 February 1944. He was succeeded on 9 April 1944 by Polykarpos Koutsoupidis (1893–1968), who as archimandrite had a long record of service in the Thiva diocese.
Support and solace
The city’s two Jewish families were helped to flee from Thiva and go into hiding. That is how they survived. After the war, two members of one of these families converted to Christianity. The other family, that of judge Siakkis, was from eastern Macedonia, from where they had been saved thanks to the intervention of the Thessaloniki diocese.
Recognition
According to the account of Metropolitan Dorotheos of Paramythia, who occupied the Thiva and Livadia see from 1957 to 1966, during the Occupation “two Jewish families lived in the city, that of appellate judge Hiskias Siakkis and that of Ilias Levis, to whom every assistance was provided so that they could survive during the troubled years of the German Occupation”.
METROPOLITAN OF ZAKYNTHOS
CHRISOSTOMOS DIMITRIOU (1890-1958)
The Jewish community of Zakynthos
In 1943, the Jewish population of Zakynthos amounted to 275 people, who did not face any particular problems during the Italian Occupation. The Germans sought to record the members of the community in late December 1943, but thanks to stance of the bishop, mayor and other islanders Zakynthos’s Jews were not deported – a rare occurrence in occupied Europe.
The prelate
The chief secretary of the Holy Synod, Chrysostomos Dimitriou, a doctor of theology who had studied in Munich, was elected Metropolitan of Zakynthos in 1934. From the start of his tenure as bishop, he maintained a friendly stance towards the island’s Jews and, as a result, was criticised by Greek Orthodox fanatics. During the Italian Occupation, he engaged in charitable activities for his flock and managed to secure the release of prisoners. He was arrested by the Italians and deported to Athens for a year. He returned to his see on 23 November 1943, that is, after Zakynthos passed into German Occupation. Owing to his knowledge of German, he made immediate contact with the Occupation authorities on the island.
Support and solace
In late December 1943, Mayor Loukas Karrer received an order from the Germans to submit a list of Zakynthos’ Jews. A meeting between Chrysostomos, the military commander, Karrer and the Jewish community’s president, Moshe Gani, followed, where the bishop and mayor claimed that most Jews had already left the island because of the war and the bombardments. Commander Lüth ordered the immediate checks on all Jews, requiring them to report in daily and insisted that a list of names be turned over instantly to him. Chrysostomos then handed in a document with only his and the mayor’s names.
It is said that Chrysostomos also sent a telegram to Hitler, reminding him that they had met in Munich as well as assuring him that the “Jews of Zakynthos belonged to his flock” and were completely harmless. On that basis, an order was issued to keep the Jews in Zakynthos, under the responsibility of the metropolitan and the mayor. The order, nor a copy of it, has survived.
Moshe Gani
The community president, Moshe Gani, announced to community members his intention to go into hiding and advised them to act according to their conscience. Two-thirds of the them fled to the villages; only the elderly and infirm remained in the town of Zakynthos. Some of the Jews in hiding would sneak back on Fridays to go to synagogue, covering the windows and being as quiet as possible. This, plus the fact that a list of Jews was not compiled, even in the summer of 1944, are sufficient indications that Lüth showed more indifference than anti-Jewish zeal.
Reversal
In August 1944, a new military commander arrived who not only replaced Lüth but even put him under detention. He also intended to deport the Jewish population. Chrysostomos assured him that the Jews had already abandoned the town, but the latter demanded that Mayor Karrer, under threat to his life, have all Jews present themselves the following day. The signal was then given for a general flight of any Jews still in town, while the mayor himself also fled Zakynthos. The new commander asked for three vessels to be sent to Zakynthos for the deportation. These ships were used eventually by the Germans themselves to depart the island on 12 September 1944. Thus, Zakynthos’s Jews were saved.
METROPOLITAN OF IOANNINA
SPYRIDON VLACHOS (1873-1956)
In 1928, the old and once populous Jewish community of Ioannina numbered 1,963 members (9 per cent of the population). On 25 March 1944, 1,850 members of the community were deported. Just 163, including those who escaped deportation, survived.
The prelate
Spyridon Vlachos (1873–1956) served as Metropolitan of Ioannina from 1916 to 1949. He distinguished himself in the in the struggle of the Northern Epirotes. He played an active role in the Greek Army’s surrender after the German offensive, thus avoiding troops being taken captive. In 1949, he was elected Archbishop of Athens.
Support and solace
The deportation of Ioannina’s Jews was followed by the looting of their belongings. Metropolitan Spyridon had the Torah scroll and other religious objects removed from the Old Synagogue and placed in safekeeping, in the diocesan offices. He also had sewing machines removed from Jewish homes, along with any valuable costumes, so that these could be given to their owners when they returned. As the losses were great, some sewing machines remained unclaimed, behind the Ioannina Synagogue, for many years. Metropolitan Spyridon and Mayor Dimitris Vlachlidis averted the destruction of Ioannina’s Old Synagogue by the Germans on the pretext that they intended to convert it into a public library. Both men were awarded the ultimate honour by the Jewish Community of Ioannina with the inscription of their names on a marble plaque at the synagogue.
Testimony
“We shall always remember that Your Beatitude took under your safekeeping at the Holy Diocese of Ioannina the scrolls of our Sacred Bible and other articles of the Holy Synagogue there, which after liberation Your Beatitude returned to the few Jews who had survived. For all these deeds we thank you with all our heart.” Extract from a letter by Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah (10 June 1949)
Photini Constantopoulou and Thanos Veremis, Documents on the History of the Greek Jews: Records from the Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 1998, p. 390.
METROPOLITAN OF CORFU AND PAXI
METHODIOS KONTOSTANOS (1881-1972)
The 1928 census recorded 1,819 Jews (5.32 per cent of the local population) in Corfu. Their deportation to Poland began on 9 June and was completed on 17 June 1944. EAM offered to smuggle the Jews out of the city to the villages but the community leaders did not agree, considering the information about the impending deportations as no more than fear-mongering. A total of 1,795 people were deported; only 187 survived.
The prelate
Methodios Kontostanos, a Corfu native, was enthroned as Metropolitan of Corfu and Paxi on 24 November 1942. He had previously served in Halkida and Attica as an archimandrite.
Support and solace
On 2 June 1944, Methodios submitted a note to the prefect, protesting “the injustice and exploitation of the misfortunes and troubles” of seven Jewish transport company owners, who had been “excluded from work by their guild … We believe that this is a grave injustice committed by Greek citizen towards a Greek citizen.” In his diary, the bishop further noted: “On this day, I called on the German military commander, Mr Jaeger, and told him that it is inhuman and unfair to exclude the above-mentioned Jews from work. Because in Greece, as Greek citizens, they are not subject to any exception.”
When the call was issued to the Jewish population to gather, Methodios, accompanied by the police chief, went to see Jaeger again, this time to ask that the Jews not be deported.
Τhe evacuation of the Jewish quarter was immediately followed by looting of their homes, while merchandise from Jewish stores was collected by the prefecture and redistributed to the needy. Methodios’ request to the prefect that fabrics taken from Jewish shops be given “to starving priests” is indicative of the contradictions of the period.
Testimony
“8 June. At 11 am, although ill … I communicated with the German commander, Mr Jaeger, reminding him of his promise, and protested the rounding up of the Jews. Finally, I pleaded with him to prevent their deportation.”
Methodios Kontostanos, Archive of daily incidents during the Italian and German Occupation, Corfu, 1949, pp. 400–401, 432.
METROPOLITAN OF CORINTH
MICHAIL KONSTANTINIDIS (1892-1958)
Jews in Corinth
According to the 1928 population census, there were no Jews in Corinth. In 1940, 15 Jewish families with Greek citizenship were expelled from Italy and settled in Corinth. During the Italian occupation, these refugees Jews worked as interpreters because of their knowledge of Italian. Testimony by a member of the diocesan staff suggests Corinth’s Jews fled when the persecutions began.
The prelate
Michail Konstantinidis served as Metropolitan of Corinth from 1939 to 1949, succeeding Damaskinos upon his election archbishop. Michail had studied at Halki seminary in Istanbul and in Kiev. He was a patriarchal exarch and locum tenens at the Maroneia see, where he was involved with refugee resettlement. In Corinth, he became known for his guidance and social work. He was later elected Archbishop of America.
Support and solace
The Metropolis of Corinth housed the Jewish refugees from Italy at various institutions and provided them with food in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Athens.
Testimony
“Throughout the duration of the Occupation and despite the various needs that the Holy Metropolis was called upon to handle, it did not omit to follow the fortunes of these families, for which the Jewish Community of Athens also expressed its gratitude. When the Germans demanded that [they] wear armbands [sic], most disappeared, fleeing to safety in large urban centres and rural villages.”
Testimony of an employee of Corinth diocese in 1966. As a letter from the Holy Metropolis of Corinth noted, “there is nothing in the archive”.
METROPOLITAN OF HALKIDA XIROCHORI AND THE NORTHERN SPORADES
GRIGORIOS PLEIATHOS (1891-1971)
The Jewish Community of Halkida
In 1928, Halkida’s Jewish community numbered 64 people, compared to 150 in 1920. During the persecutions, most fled to villages in Evia and a number escaped to the Middle East with the assistance of the Resistance. Only a small number of Jews responded to the authorities’ repeated calls for them to register – and this number gradually dwindled until 24 May 1944, when Chief Rabbi David Matsas was the only one to appear. Thus, there was no systematic deportation. In all, 24 Jews, arrested at roadblocks or after being turned in by informants, were sent to death camps or into forced labour.
The prelate
Grigorios Pleiathos served as Metropolitan of Halkida from 1923. During the occupation, Grigorios made great efforts to feed the population and led a general strike by the local population against the execution of hostages (August 1943). In May 1944, the occupation authorities and their Greek collaborators expelled him from Halkida.
Support and solace
The bishop is believed to have inspired the resolution passed by Halkida city council expressing its hope that the Germans would not persecute the city’s Jews. He urged Solomon Maisis, the president of the community, that all Jews who had not already left the city should abandon it immediately, and Gendarmerie Lieutenant Oikonomidis to issue false ID cards. He hid Halkida’s seven Torah scrolls in the diocesan church’s altar room, along with the synagogue’s books and holy vessels.
In January 1945, a few weeks after his return to Halkida, the Jewish Community proclaimed him a “great benefactor of the Jewish element of the city of Halkida for his strong efforts to save them from persecution by the barbarian conqueror”. His name was engraved on a marble plaque on the synagogue wall listing all of the community’s benefactors.
Testimony
The Jewish Community of Halkida participated in the celebrations for Grigorios’ jubilee, which was held six months before his death. Expressing its gratitude, it said that “for the multiple benefactions he offered our community during the German occupation, his name has been engraved in gold letters in the column of benefactors in the Holy Synagogue of Halkida”.
Chronology
1943
February 6: Thessaloniki Jews are subjected to restrictive measures
February 22: Athenians defy protest ban to demonstrate against civil mobilisation
February 28: Thessaloniki Jews are confined to a ghetto
March 5: Baron Hirsch Jewish ghetto in Thessaloniki fenced in
March 5: General strike in Athens against civil mobilisation results in 12 dead, 100 injured and scores arrested
March: Metropolitan Gennadios of Thessaloniki petitions to suspend deportations of Jews
March 15: First deportation of Thessaloniki Jews to Auschwitz
March 18: Collaborationist premier Logothetopoulos petitions the highest ranking German civil official, Günther Altenburg, for the immediate suspension of the deportations
March 18: Athens’ merchants and professionals strike against a tax increase
March 20: Trade association presidents petition Finance Minister Sotiris Gotzamanis to avert the deportations of Thessaloniki Jews outside Greece
March 22: Logothetopoulos petitions Altenburg anew to suspend deportations
March 23: Archbishop Damaskinos and representatives of 28 institutions petition Logothetopoulos to suspend deportations of Thessaloniki Jews outside Greek territory.
March 24: Archbishop Damaskinos and representatives of 20 institutions petition Altenburg to immediate suspend deportations
March 30: Holy Synod approves Archbishop’s actions on behalf of Thessaloniki’s Jews
April 11: Gennadios of Thessaloniki mediates a meeting between Chief Rabbi Koretz and Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis
May 5: Ioakeim of Didymoteicho intervenes with Germans against deportations of local Jews, whom he accompanies to the train station while praying
August: General strike in Halkida led by Metropolitan Grigorios Pleiathos to stop the execution of hostages
September: Italy surrenders and German troops move into the Italian occupation zone
September: Archbishop Damaskinos petitions Altenburg against deportation of Jews in southern provinces
September: Archdiocese issues secret circular instructing priests to aid the persecuted
September: Jewish families in Corinth escape to nearby villages
September 18: Archbishop Damaskinos offers to transport Chief Rabbi Barzilai to Egypt
September 21: Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai does not submit a list of Jews in Athens, destroys the records and tells his community to hide
September 22: Barzilai seeks the assistance of the Resistance and agrees to his staged “kidnapping”
September 30: Metropolitan Ioakeim of Dimitriada hides valuables given to him for safekeeping by Volos Jews
September 30: More than 600 Volos Jews flee the city and hide in surrounding villages
September 30: Metropolitan Ioakeim of Dimitriada advises Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah that he and his community should go into hiding; Ioakeim gives Pessah a letter of introduction
October: Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah finds himself in EAM-controlled territory. The Germans burn his home
October: At Grigorios’ behest, gendarmerie lieutenant Oikonomidis provides false IDs to Jews
October 8: German authorities order the Jews of Athens to present themselves to the community daily on penalty of death
October 19: Order issued for Halkida Jews to be registered by name; just 21 show up
October 19: Metropolitan Grigorios of Halkida advises the president of the Jewish Community not to register the members of his community but urges them to flee to nearby villages
November: Volos Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah issues a proclamation to all Greek Jews, urging them to join the resistance
November 11: Chrysostomos of Zakynthos returns to his see
December: Volos Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah sends plea for help to Britain’s Jews
December: Metropolitan Chrystostomos and Zakynthos Mayor Karrer refuse to provide a list of the island’s Jews and instead submit just their own names
1943 Baptisms of Jews in Athens on sufferance (206 men and 171 women)
1944 Two Jewish families in Thiva receive help from the metropolis and are saved
January: The president of Zakynthos’ Jewish community, Moshe Gani, urges members to go into hiding in the island’s villages
January: Chrysostomos of Zakynthos sends a letter to Hitler via the occupation authorities, petitioning against deportations because the island’s Jews “belonged to his flock”
March: Metropolitan Spyridon of Arta appeals for the Jews of the city not to be harmed. He later advises them to escape to the villages
March 24: Arta Jews deported
March 25: Ioannina Jews deported
March 25: Volos Jews deported
March 26: Metropolitan Spyridon of Ioannina collects sewing machines and valuables from Jewish homes for safeguarding so they can later be returned to their owners; he also saves the synagogue’s ritual objects and prevents the destruction of the old synagogue
April: Grigorios of Halkida saves the synagogue’s Torah scrolls
May: The occupation authorities and their Greek collaborators remove Grigorios of Halkida from his ecclesiastical seat.
May 25: Chief Rabbi David Matsas is the only Jew in Halkida to register
June: In a public statement, Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai emphasises EAM–ELAS’s aid in saving Jews
June 8: Methodios of Corfu appeals to the German commander to prevent the deportation of the island’s Jews
June 10: Corfu’s Jews are deported
August: The new German commander on Zakynthos demands a list of all Jews, who escape to the villages while Mayor Loukas Karrer flees the island
Exhibition Contributors
The JMG is extremely grateful to the following institutions and individuals who provided original material, photographs and information:
Jewish Community of Athens
Jewish Community of Volos
Jewish Community of Ioannina
His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Halkida
His Eminence Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogeia
His Eminence Metropolitan Kyrillos of Kifissia, Amarousio and Oropos
His Eminence Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki
His Eminence Metropolitan Georgios of Thiva
His Eminence Metropolitan Dionysios of Corinth
His Eminence Metropolitan Damaskinos of Didymoteicho, Orestiada and Soufli
His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatios of Dimitriada
His Eminence Metropolitan Kallinikos of Arta
Rabbi Gabriel Negrin of Athens
Most Reverend Archimandrite Philotheos Theocharis
Most Reverend Archimandrite Nikodimos Efstathiou
Most Reverend Archimandrite Timotheos Angelis
Most Reverend Archimandrite Grigorios Liepouris
Mr Nissim Benmayor, grandson of Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai of Athens
Dr Elias Pessah, grandson of Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessach of Volos
Dr Dimitrios Tsilividis
Mr IoannisTsouras, special advisor to His Beatitude Ieronymos of Athens
Mr Christos Moumidakis, Historical Archive of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki
Ms. Artemis Alcalay, visual artist
Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive Society (ELIA)
Historical Archive of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)
This exhibition was created through the generous support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens and of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, to which the Jewish Museum of Greece would like to express its gratitude.
Exhibition Contributors
EXHIBITION CURATOR
Zanet Battinou
CURATΙΟΝ ΟF ARTΙFACTS
Mary Kapotsi
Christina Meri
RESEARCH – TEXTS
Evanghelos Hekimoglou
TEXT TRANSLATION
Diane Shugart
TEXT EDITING
Alexandra Patrikiou
Damian Mac Con Uladh
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Mary Kapotsi
Hayia Cohen
Christina Meri
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Hayia Cohen
TECHNICAL DESIGN
Mary Kapotsi
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Victoria Kosti
COMMUNICATIONS
Elisa Solomon
PRINTING
Stavros Belessakos, Photosynthesis
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION OF DISPLAY CASES
Elias Papageorgiou & Ass. M+Y Glass Solutions
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Leonidas Papadopoulos
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Orietta Treveza
