History Of Jews In Salonika

Political Activism and Social

The emergence of modernity was reflected also by the growing influence of new political ideas from Western Europe. The Jews did not remain indifferent to the political agitation and became important players. The revolution Young Turks of 1908 which had its foundations in Salonika proclaimed the constitutional monarchy and convey the concept of the Ottomanism proclaiming equality within the Empire of all millets. Some Jews of Salonika were influential in the movement composed mainly of young Turkish Muslims but especially in the social field they were active. From that time, a wind of freedom blew over Thessaloniki, allowing labor movement to organize and engage in social struggles for improved working conditions. An attempted union of different nationalities within a single labor movement took place with the formation of the "Socialist Workers' Federation" headed by Abraham Benaroya , a Jew from Bulgaria who began the publication of a body in four languages, Journal worker, released in Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian and Judeo-Spanish. However, the Balkan context, suitable divisions, affected the movement and after the departure of the Bulgarian element, the Federation was practically consists only of Jews.

The Zionist movement had to face competition from the Socialist Workers' Federation, very anti-Zionist. Unable to locate in the working class, Zionism in Salonika turned to the bourgeois and the intellectuals, fewer .

Arrival of Greeks, Jews start

Salonika, a Greek city

Families homeless following the pogrom of 1931.

In 1912, following the First Balkan War , the Greeks took control of Salonika along with the Bulgarians and finally integrate the city in their territory. This change of sovereignty was resented by the Jews who feared that the attachment does not harm them, concern reinforced by the propaganda Bulgarian, Serbian and Austrian Jews who wanted to rally to their cause . Some Jews then campaigned for the internationalization of the city under the protection of the great European powers but their proposal received little feedback, Europe has accepted the fait accompli . The Greeks nevertheless took some interim measures to promote the integration of Jews for example by letting them work on Sundays and allowing them to observe the Sabbath. The economy took benefit of the annexation, which opened in Salonika doors market in northern Greece and Serbia in which Hellas had made an alliance and the installation of army troops from the East, following the outbreak of the First World War , then led a revival of economic activity. The Greek government saw a good eye on the development of Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which converged with the Greek desire to dismember the Ottoman Empire. The city was visited by major Zionist leaders, a href = "Ben_Gourion" class = "mw-redirect" title = "Ben Gurion"> Ben Gurion, Ben Zvi and Jabotinsky , who saw the Salonika Jewish city model that should s inspire their future state "

Fire of 1917 and development of anti-Semitism

The lower parts of the city inhabited by a majority of Jews were severely affected by the fire of 1917

The serious fire in 1917 was a turning point. The Jewish community concentrated in the lower town was most affected by the disaster, the fire destroyed the headquarters of the Chief Rabbinate and its archives as well as 16 of the 33 synagogues in the city. Contrary to the reconstruction that took place after the fire of 1890 , the Greeks decided to make a new urban development. As a result, they expropriated all residents by giving them still a preemptive right to new homes rebuilt according to a new plan. But it was the Greeks who populated most new neighborhoods, Jews often choosing a more eccentric .

Although the first anniversary celebration of the Balfour Declaration in 1918 was celebrated with a splendor unequaled in Europe, the decline had begun. The influx of tens of thousands of Greek refugees from Asia Minor and the departure of the Turks and Donmez Thessaloniki following the " Great Disaster "and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Lausanne considerably altered the ethnic composition of Salonika. Jews ceased to constitute an absolute majority and, on the eve of the Second World War, they represented only 40% of the population. At this Hellenization growing population also corresponded less conciliatory policy toward the Jews. Thus in 1922 the work was prohibited on Sunday which imposed de facto Jews work on Shabbat, the posters in foreign languages were banned and rabbinical courts ceased to have a say on matters of property law . As in other Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Romania , a major stream of anti-Semitism grew in the period between the wars in Salonika but it never reached the level of violence in both countries . It was mainly the work of Greek immigrants from Asia Minor , mostly poor and were in direct competition with Jews for housing and work . The movement was echoed in the press by the newspaper Makedonia and the Ethniki Enosis Ellas ultranationalist organization (National Union of Greece, EEE), both close to the Liberal party (in power), led by Venizelos . The Jews were accused of not wanting to blend in all national development of Communism and Zionism within the community were observed with the greatest suspicion. The Greek government adopted an ambivalent attitude, practicing a policy of appeasement but refusing to stand out clearly from these two vectors of anti-Semitism . This phenomenon crystallized in 1931, the year took place on the pogrom Camp Campbell: a Jewish neighborhood was burned to the ground which left 500 families homeless but not yet caused the death of a Jew . Dozens of graves in the Jewish cemetery in Salonika were desecrated on this occasion.

Changes of power by Metaxas

The takeover by the right-wing dictator tends fascist Ioannis Metaxas in 1936 was reflected by a significant decrease paradoxically anti-Semitic violence. It prohibits the organization EEA and the release of anti-Semitic remarks in the press and also tied a good relationship with the chief rabbi of Salonika, Zvi Koretz . This explains the development from the time of an important nationalist current among the Jews of Salonika, who were Greeks, however, that since 1913. Therefore, even in hell of the camps, they continued to affirm their belonging to the Hellenic nation .

Emigration

A migration had begun to develop early in the ^twentieth century, from the moment the Government Young Turks establishes conscription for all Ottoman subjects, but especially after the annexation of Salonika by Greeks as the movement grew. Poor economic conditions, rising anti-Semitism and to a lesser extent, the development of Zionism from the Jews drove, mostly in Western Europe , in South America and Palestine. Thus, the Jewish population grew from 93 000 to 53 000 people on the eve of war . There were some notable successes in this diaspora. Isaac Carasso , based in Barcelona , founded the company Danone , Maurice Abravanel went to Switzerland with his family and the United States where he became a famous conductor. The maternal grandfather of French President Nicolas Sarkozy emigrated to France at that time. In this country, in the inter-war Jewish population of Salonika was concentrated in the ^9th arrondissement of Paris , the headquarters of their religious association was located rue La Fayette . In Mandatory Palestine, the Recanati family founded one of the largest banks in the current State of Israel , Eretz Yisrael, the Discount Bank, which became the Israel Discount Bank .

World War II

Battle of Greece

On 28 October 1940 , Italian forces decided to invade Greece following the refusal of the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas to accept the ultimatum issued by the Italians. There followed the Battle of Greece , in which Jews took part. 12 898 of them engaged in the Greek army ; 4000 participated in campaigns in Albania and Macedonia, 513 faced the Germans and, in total, 613 Jews were killed, including 174 of Salonika. Brigade 50 of Macedonia was called "Cohen Battalion" because of the large number of Jews it was formed . After the Greek defeat, many Jewish soldiers had their feet frozen on their way home on foot.

Occupation

The sharing of Greece between Germans, Italians and Bulgarians: German occupation Italian occupation Bulgarian occupation Dodecanese Islands (Italian possession before the war)

The men of the Jewish community forced to engage in physical exercise in July 1942

Northern Greece, Thessaloniki and therefore, returned to the Germans while the south of Greece fell to the Italians who, during the period they occupied the region (until September 1943 ), no Jewish Policy n'appliqurent . In Thessaloniki, where the Germans entered the 9 April 1941 , they put in place very gradually anti-Semitic measures. The German officer Max Merten, in charge of the administration of the city, kept repeating that the Nuremberg laws would not apply in Thessaloniki . The Jewish press was quickly banned, while two Greek daily pro-Nazi, and Nea Evropi Apoyevmanti, appeared. Houses and community buildings were requisitioned by the occupying forces, including the hospital built through grants from Baron Hirsch. In late April, signs prohibiting Jews from entering the cafes began to appear, then the Jews were forced to part with their radios. The grand rabbi of Salonika, Zvi Koretz, was arrested by the Gestapo May 17, 1941 and sent to a concentration camp near Vienna, where he returned in late January 1942 to resume his position as rabbi . In June 1941, the Committee Rosenberg arrived and plundered the Jewish archives, sending tons of documents at the Institute for Community Research Jewish Nazi in Frankfurt. Moreover, Jews were suffering from famine as the rest of their fellow citizens, the Nazi regime attaching no importance to the Greek economy. It is estimated that in 1941-1942 this city sixty Jews died each day from hunger.

For one year, no further action was not taken anti-Semitic which momentarily gave the Jews a sense of security.

On a hot day in July 1942 , the day of Shabbat, all the men of the community aged 18-45 years were gathered on Freedom Square. Throughout the afternoon, they were compelled to do physical exercises humiliating under threat of arms. Four thousand of them were sent to do road work for the German company Mller on roads linking Thessaloniki to Katerini and Larissa , the areas where there was malaria . In less than ten weeks, 12% of them died of exhaustion and illness. Salonicienne community, assisted by that of Athens, managed to raise two billion on the massive 3.5 billion drachmas sought by the Germans as forced laborers were repatriated. The Germans agreed to release them but in return demanded at the request of the Greek authorities abandoned Jewish cemetery in Salonika , which contained 300 000 to 500,000 Graves, for its size and location, had long hampered the growth of urban Salonika. Jews began the transfer of land to two graves that had been allocated in the periphery, but municipal authorities, citing the slow pace of the operation, decided to take matters in hand. Five hundred Greek workers paid by the municipality embarked on the destruction of graves . The cemetery will soon be transformed into a vast quarry where Greeks and Germans were looking for tombstones were used as building material . On this site covers these days, among others, the Aristotle University .

It is estimated that between the beginning of the occupation and an end to deportations, 3 000-5 000 Jews managed to escape from Salonika, finding temporary refuge in the Italian zone. Of these, 800 had Italian citizenship and were throughout the period of Italian occupation actively protected by the consular authorities of that country. 800 Jews took to the hills in the Macedonian mountains in the Greek Communist resistance, the ELAS , the royalist movement of right, for its part, will only hear virtually no Jew .

"Destruction of the Jews of Salonika"

The gathering of Jews from Salonika (July 1942).

54,000 Sephardim were sent to Salonika in extermination camps Nazis. Nearly 98% of the total Jewish population of this city experienced the death during the war. Only the Polish Jewry experienced a greater rate of destruction .

Deportation

To accomplish this, the Nazi authorities dispatched two specialists on site on the subject, Alois Brunner and Dieter Wisliceny , which arrived on 6 February 1943 . Immediately, they did apply the Nuremberg laws in all their rigor, requiring the wearing of the yellow star and drastically restricting the free movement of Jews . These were gathered late in February 1943 in three ghettos (Kalamaria, Singrou and Vardar / Agia Paraskevi) and then transferred to a transit camp in the neighborhood of Baron Hirsch adjoining the station. There, the death trains were waiting. To accomplish their mission, the SS leaned on a Jewish police created for the occasion, led by Vital Hasson who fought with his men to many atrocities against the rest of the Jews .

On March 15 the first convoy departed. Each train carried 1 000 to 4,000 Jews across the whole of central Europe primarily to Birkenau. A convoy left for Treblinka and it is possible that deportations to Sobibor had taken place, since the Jews saloniciens found in this camp. The Jewish population of Salonika was so large that the deportation took several months to complete, the August 7 , with the deportation of the Chief Rabbi Tzvi Koretz with other notables in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen , under a relatively good. In the same convoy were 367 Jews protected by their Spanish nationality who knew a special destiny: transferred from Bergen-Belsen to Barcelona and then to Morocco , finally succeeded in some mandatory Palestine ^, .

Factors that explain the effectiveness of deportations

Several reasons have been advanced to explain the carnage in contrast to the case of Athens, where many Jews managed to escape death. On the one hand, the attitude of the Judenrat , and primarily the man who was headed during the period preceding the deportations, the chief rabbi of Salonika Zvi Koretz , was widely criticized. He was accused of having applied the guidance Nazi meekly and have downplayed fears about the transfer of Jews in Poland even though it is an Austrian citizen and therefore native German, was supposed to be knowledgeable . Rumors have even ran, accusing him of knowingly collaborated with the occupier . A recent study, however, tends to relativize its role in the deportations . Another factor was the solidarity shown by the families who did refused to secede in adversity, the will to confront together does not help individual initiatives. It was also pointed out that it was difficult for Jews in hiding because of their ignorance of the Greek language, imposed only when Salonika came under Greek sovereignty in 1913. In addition, the large size of the community limited the opportunities to blend into the Greek Orthodox population as was the case in Athens. There was also a latent anti-Semitism in parts of the Greek population, especially among those who fled Asia Minor in the population transfers between Greece and Turkey. Arrived en masse in Salonika, these immigrants were excluded from the economic system and, for some, watched the Jewish population with hostility, sometimes richer, they equated with the former Ottoman power . Nevertheless, the Yad Vashem has distinguished 265 Greeks (including Princess Alice , step-daughter of King George ^I) as Righteous Gentiles , the same proportion as among the French population .

In the camps

Entrance to Auschwitz II - Birkenau, seen from inside the camp.

At Birkenau, about 37 000 were gassed immediately Saloniciens, especially women, children and the elderly . Nearly a quarter of the 400 experiments perpetrated on the Jews were on Greek Jews, especially those of Salonica. These experiments included the emasculation, the implantation of cancer cervix in women. Most of the twins died victims of atrocious crimes . Other Saloniciens had to work in the camps. In the years 1943-1944, they accounted for a significant proportion of the workforce Birkenau there were about 11 000. Because of their ignorance of Yiddish , the number Saloniciens were sent to clean up the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto in August 1943 to build a camp. Among the 1 000 employees Saloniciens to this task, a small twenty managed to escape the ghetto through the sewers and join the Polish resistance, the armed myself Ludovit, which organized the insurrection ^, .

Many Jews of Salonika were also included in the Sonderkommando. On October 7th 1944 , they launched with other Greek Jews an uprising planned in advance, storming the crematoria and killing a score of guards. A bomb was thrown into the furnace of the crematorium III, destroying the building. Before being slaughtered by the Germans, the insurgents struck up a chant of Greek partisans and the Greek National Anthem .

In his book If this is a man , one of the most celebrated works of literature of the Holocaust, Primo Levi writes in a brief description of the group "a few survivors of the Jewish settlement of Salonika", these Greeks, motionless and silent as the sphinx, squatting on the ground behind their bowls of thick soup . These community members are still alive current 1944 strong impression on the author. He noted that "despite their small numbers their contribution to the general appearance of the camp and the international jargon spoken there is of prime importance. According to him, their ability to survive in the camps is partly explained by the fact that they are in the Lager "the national group's most cohesive and from this point of view the most advanced." Erika Perahia Zemour, director of the Museum of Jewish Presence in Thessaloniki analyzing these reports about what patriotism described by an outside observer is also apparent in the story of deportees saloniciens and has its origins in the political philo Metaxas prewar .

Postwar

At the end of the Second World War, a violent civil war broke out in Greece. It lasted until 1949 , pitting government forces of Athens supported by the British resistance to the powerful Communist ELAS. Some of the Jews of Salonica who had escaped deportation took part, either in government forces or in the opponent . Among those who had fought in the ELAS, many victims were, like other supporters of the repression that overtook the country after the government had regained control of the situation .

The few survivors of the camps, some chose not to return to Greece and emigrated to Western Europe, America or in Mandatory Palestine and others took their way back . They were all faced with great difficulties to survive and complete their project as Eastern Europe immediately after the war was in chaos. They also suffered from discrimination by Ashkenazi some survivors who questioned their Jewishness .

The arrival in Salonika was an additional shock, the survivors were often the sole survivors of their family and they found their homes occupied by Greek families who had bought the Germans . They had initially be housed in synagogues. A Jewish Committee (Komite Djudio) was mounted to track the number of survivors and obtained from the Bank of Greece 's 1800 list of homes sold to the Greeks . These proved very reluctant to surrender their property to Jews, saying they bought these houses and they too had suffered from the war . At the end of the war, ELAS, who controlled the city, favored the return of Jewish property to their owners but four months later, when the government of Athens supported by the British took power in Thessaloniki, restitution was gradually frozen. Not only the government compound Venizelists was facing a major housing crisis due to the influx of refugees caused by the war, but in addition many employees who had grown rich during the war were influential in the Government a view to having closer anticommunist struggle of former supporters of the Hitler regime . The dispatched to the Jewish Agency denounced the climate of anti-Semitism and advocated the Aliyah of Jews . Gradually, international support of O is put in place to rescue the Jews of Salonika. Some of the Jews saved from deportation by the Greeks chose to convert to Orthodoxy. Survivors of the camps, often the most isolated, made the same choice . There were also many marriages lightning in the immediate post-war survivors wishing to retrain as a family they had lost . A survivor testified:

"Torna a Saloniko destruido. Esperava Topar a mi ermano adoptado Rumores heard some of my el ke murio malaria in Lublin. Ya put djenitores savia ke fueron primeros dias kemados extra en el kampo eksterminasion of Aushwitz. Estava solo. Los otros prizonieros Estavan kon ke no tenian mas a mi dinguno. In akeyos dias me una ati ke avia djovena konosido in Brussels. No mos el uno del otro despartimos. Eramos los dos de los reskapados Kampos. Despues de tiempo kurto mos kazimos back ke no tenian nada refujiados heading an aviation mizmo Rabino para ke mos of Bindisi. Direktor el de una de las Eskola djudias Sirvi of Rabino i mos i Kazo Ansina starched mueve en una vida. "

"I returned to Salonika destroyed. I was hoping to find my adopted brother told me there are rumors that he died of malaria in Lublin. I knew that my parents had been burned from their first days in the extermination camp of Auschwitz. I was alone. Other prisoners who were with me did not have anyone either. These days there, I became a young I had known at Brussels. We do not separate from each other. We were both survivors of the camps. Shortly after we were married, two refugees who had nothing, there was not even a rabbi to give us the blessing. The director of a Jewish school and served as a rabbi married us and so I started a new life . "

In the census of 1951 , there were only 1,783 survivors. The community was a mere shadow of itself.

The erection of a monument symbolizing the deportation of Jews was soon time to come, it was not until 1997 that the municipality decided to build a memorial in distant suburbs and not downtown as had been suggested . Successive directors of the Aristotle University has meanwhile refused to erect any monument to remember the presence of the former Jewish cemetery under the foundations of the university, despite repeated requests from many teachers . In 1998, King Juan Carlos ^I of Spain went to Salonika, where he paid tribute to the Sephardic Jews . This visit followed one he had company at the synagogue in Madrid in 1992 to commemorate the expulsion of 1492 during which he had made the criticism of the expulsion decree.

Today 1,300 Jews live in Thessaloniki making this the second community in Greece after Athens.

Culture

Language

Generally, Jews who emigrated were adopting the language, but it was not the case of the Sephardim of the Ottoman Empire who arrived en masse, retained the use of their language. The Jews of Salonika brought back from Spain so their language, Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo), that is to say neither more nor less than the Spanish of the fifteenth ^century had evolved independently and that they used in their current relationships. They prayed and studied in Hebrew and Aramaic and used like any other Sephardic communities that Haim Vidal Sephiha called "Judeo-Spanish Layer", the Ladino that was a translation of Hebrew texts into Spanish following the order of words and Hebrew syntax . These two languages, and Judezmo Ladino was written in Hebrew characters and in Latin characters for the Judeo-Spanish. In addition to these languages they had brought from exile, the Jews of Salonika sometimes spoke Turkish Ottoman Empire in the language written in Arabic script. The Haskalah spread by French Jews allowed the wide dissemination of French taught in schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle and to a lesser extent, Italian. After the capture of Salonika by the Greeks in 1912 , the Greek was imposed at school and then taught several generations of Jews saloniciens. Nowadays, this is the dominant language among the few Jews still present in Salonika.

The Judezmo Thessaloniki, because of the arrival of many Italian Jews in the community, involved many Italianisms both from the point of view that lexical syntax, the influence of French because of Francophilia galloping Saloniciens it was also felt at that point Sephiha speaks of "Judeo-Fragnoli" .

Gastronomy

The sociologist Edgar Morin said that the core of every culture is its cuisine, and it specifies that this applies especially to the Jews of Salonika community which it is derived .

The cuisine of the Jews of Salonika was a variant of the Judeo-Spanish cuisine, itself belonging to the general assembly of Mediterranean cuisine. She was influenced by Jewish dietary laws, the kashrut , banning the consumption of pork , mixing meat and dairy products-religious holidays requiring the preparation of special dishes. But his hallmark was the Iberian influence. The fish , abundant in this port city, was consumed in large quantities and in all forms: fried, baked (al Orno), marinated or stewed (abafado) and was often accompanied by sophisticated sauces. Considered a symbol of fertility, the fish was used during the rites of marriage: the last day of the wedding ceremony called del dia sin ("Fool's Day"), you step over to the bride was a great fish dish that was then consumed by the guests . Vegetables every dish, especially the onion, garlic was used at low contrast and hence the Ashkenazi synagogue who were themselves major consumers was nicknamed El kal del ajo, "the synagogue of Garlic. Yogurt dense, widely consumed in the Balkans and Anatolia , was also popular, and cream. In anticipation of the Sabbath was prepared hamin, variant Judeo-Spanish tcholent and Ashkenazi cholent North Africa. It was a meat stew with pulses (wheat, chickpeas, beans) that were left simmering until Saturday noon meal. Before Pesach , housewives locked chests filled candy, figs and dates stuffed with almonds, marzipan and put the most popular, the white cap (white jam) consisting of sugar water and lemon. The wine was reserved for religious rituals, but the Sephardim, like their neighbors the Greeks and Muslims, were major consumers of raki. They also were fond of beverages sweetened syrup, prunes, cherry or apricot they drank the end of the great feast .

Notes

Related articles

• Sephardic
• History of Thessaloniki
• History of Jews in Greece
• Jewish cemetery in Salonika
• Zvi Koretz
• (In) a href = "http://en.orgSocialist_Workers 27_Federation%" class = "extiw" alt = "en: Socialist Workers 'Federation"> Socialist Workers' Federation

Bibliography

• (En) World Sephardi (edited by Shmuel Trigano ), Editions du Seuil, Paris, 2006. ( ISBN 9782020904391 )
• (En) Salonika 1850-1918, the "city of the Jews" and the revival of the Balkans (led by Gilles Veinstein ), other editions-Series Memory, Paris, 1992. ( ISBN 9782862603568 )
• (In) Mark Mazower, Salonica City of Ghosts, Vintage Books, New York, 2005. ( ISBN 9780375412981 )
• (El) George Anastasiadis, Christos Raptis, Leon Nar, I, grand-son of a Greek. The Thessaloniki Nicolas Sarkozy, Kastaniotis, Athens, December 2007. Translated into French by Simone Baron in 2009.

External Links

• (En) Video : A community exterminated, the deportation of Jews from Salonika Conference Jean Carasso, founder of the Sephardic Letter, FSJU - Department of Culture - Paris, 2006.
• (In) Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
• (En) Rule of the Jewish Encyclopedia

References

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