Terra Nostra: The Sonderkommando

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, Rabbi Koretz, The Passover Trap, The Mainland, The Islands, and The Auschwitz Uprising

Five manuscripts of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau have been discovered at different times between 1945 and 1980. On October 1980, while cleaning weeds among the ruins of Crematorium II and Crematorium III, a container was found inside a leather bag, buried at a depth of 30-40 cm. Inside the container was a twelve-page manuscript. This finding was handed over to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum.

After the language of the manuscript was found to be Greek, the museum director sent it for translation to Theodoros Alexiou, in the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Poland. He had a difficult time reading the half-destroyed manuscript but he was able to make out the author's name, Marcel Nadjary, and he notified the offices of the Jewish community in Salonica, Greece. They recognised the name of the author and contacted the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum seeking photocopies of the manuscript which they received.

The following is my translation of the manuscript. The dots [...] signify areas that were destroyed. The parentheses ( ) signify areas that are thought to mean what's written.

Page 1
...Stephanidis...street...number 4 Thessaloniki Greece

Page 2

To my loved ones, Demetrio Athan. Stephanidis, Elia Cohen-Georgios Gounaris My beloved friends. Smaro Ephraidou of Athens and many others that I always remember and to finish, to my Beloved Country Greece where I always was a good citizen.
We left our Athens on 2 April 1944 after I was tortured for a month in Haidari military base, where I always received the packages of good Smaro, and her efforts for me which are unforgettable in these bad days that I'm going through [...]

Page 3

[...]later[...]Birke(nau) [...] where we stayed around one month and from there they sent us [...] where? where? [...] and after they collected 3,000 people, they close the door and kill them with the gas. After 6-7 minutes [...] tortured they die

Page 4

[...]

Page 5

[...] tragedy they threw the Gas [...] shipment [...] we transported the dead bodies of these innocents [...] went transported to the ovens [...] one hundred [...] put in the ovens the ones who still [...] burning material [...] who have one each [...] besides [...] which [...] they made us sift and passed it through a thick sieve and then the [...] in a car and they threw them in the river that passes from nearby [...] Vistula and so [...] destroyed all evidence [...] the tragedy that my eyes have seen is undescribable [...] my eyes. Around 600,000 Jews from Hungary, French, Poles [...] at this time [...] around [...]

Page 6

[...]

Page 7

[...]

Page 8

[...] but it held me again the feeling of revenge. I wanted and want if I live to revenge the death of my Dad, my Mom and my dear sister Nellie [...] it is impossible to imagine from what my eyes have seen. So, Elia, my beloved little cousin, if I don't exist, know you and the friends [...] your duty. I learned from [...] Sarrika [...] My only maybe last wish is that you receive [...]

Page 9

[...] Mitso [...] Elia [...] my cousin. [...] so you have only [...] all here [...] you understand [...] from no one [...]

Page 10

In Birkenau [...] I am not sorry that I will die, but because I will not be able to revenge, as I want and as I know [...] and if by chance you receive a letter from our relatives abroad, please write them immediately that the family Nadjary is erased murdered by the civilised Germans (New Europe) [...] My Nellie's piano, Mitso, take it from the Sionidou family and give it to Elia. This now will be with him so he will remember her since he loved her so much and she loved him as well. Every day we think if there is a God, and in spite of all this I believe there is and whatever God wants his will be done. I die pleased, since I know that this moment [...] our Greece is liberated. I will not live but may they live [...] my last words will be long live Greece

Marcel
Na(dja)ry

Page 12

[...] RESPECTED GREEK EMBASSY will receive [...] from a Greek [...] Emmanuel or Marcel Nadjary from Thessaloniki, address, street Italia num.9 Thessaloniki.
My letter, please, send it to the address:
Demetrios Athanasios Stephanidis
Krousovou 4 Thessaloniki
Greece
This is my last will. I am sentenced to death by the Germans because I am of the Jewish religion.

Thank you

[unable to read signature]