by zorkmidden. This is the featured weekly post from Discarded Lies at Winds of Change.NET. The Terra Nostra series is about the Jewish Holocaust in Greece, righteous gentiles, tales of heroism and simple human will to survive, and the beauty of human souls even in a horrific tableau. It's also about contemporary Greek attitudes to Jews, Judaism, and Israel. Other posts in the Terra Nostra series on Winds of Change include Reina Gilberta, Liliane Fernandes, Loving God and Hating Jews, The Exodus From Spain, The Occupation, The Deportations, 'We were from a different level', Athens, Rabbi Barzilai and Rabbi Koretz
On the eve of Yom Kippur, October 8, 1943, the Germans issued a new order to the leaders of the Athenian Jewish community. This order was designed to isolate the community and place it under direct German supervision and control.
Jews were ordered to return immediately to their place of residence as given before June, 1943. They were to appear immediately at the community offices to declare this residence and register their names. They were required to present themselves every Friday to the synagogue. And a new community council was formed.
Despite the order, only 200 people had registered at the community offices by the end of October. But the Germans thought there were at least 6,000 Jews in Athens and they waited patiently.
There were few ways of escape. Some Jews paid enormous sums of money for a three-week journey crossing the Aegean by night, from island to island, until they reached the shores of Turkey. Young men with no family responsibilities escaped to partisan camps in the mountains and joined the resistance.
But not everyone could leave. More and more Jews gradually registered at the community offices throughout the winter. Famine had been raging in Athens the last two years, food was in short supply, people couldn't work without being registered and they had families to support. Others were afraid of reprisals that might be exacted on Christian neighbors who were hiding them. Also, there were no other racial measures and people began to feel safe and decided to return to their homes. By mid March, 1944, approximately 1,800 Jews had come out of hiding and enrolled on the new community register.
Passsover that year was to be on the 8th of April, and in early March the trap was set.
The Germans told the council that special flour had been brought to Athens for preparing matzo. The council was to make the announcement and the flour would be distributed at the synagogue on the 24th of March. In a city where even ordinary flour was a luxury, the good news spread quickly.
On the 24th of March, 800 people went to the synagogue to get flour. German guards were waiting inside the synagogue and arrested people as they entered. Everything was done quietly and methodically and the detainees were held there overnight. Over the course of the next day, another 1,000 people, not knowing what happened, came to the synagogue to look for their family members. They were arrested as well.
By Passover they had all been deported to Auschwitz.
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