Honoring Greeks who saved Jews
They led ordinary lives in a country where war was about to break out. Their names, unlike those who fought bravely and lost their lives at the front lines, have been known by few, mostly by their neighbors and close friends. Even fewer are those who have come to know their acts of bravery. Not any more. «Tonight is the eve of the Holocaust Memorial Day. It is only natural therefore that, together with the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, we have chosen this day to bestow the awards of the ‘Righteous among the Nations,’ a day on which the Holocaust is being commemorated by the Jews worldwide,» Israeli Ambassador to Athens David Sasson said on Monday night during a special ceremony in his residence to honor 13 Greeks who helped rescue several Greek Jews from the Nazis. «Although 57 years have elapsed since the end of WWII, we continue to remember those very few who dared to risk their own and their families’ lives in order to rescue Jews from Nazi bestiality.» After extensive research, the Israeli envoy and the president of the Greek Council of Jewish Communities, Moses Konstantinis, bestowed the prestigious award of the «Righteous among the Nations» on 13 Greek citizens who risked their lives to save their persecuted Jewish compatriots during the Nazi occupation of Greece. The awards are given by the Jerusalem-based «Yad Vashem» Institute, created by Israel in order to perpetuate the memory of the heroes and the martyrs of the Holocaust. About 215 Greeks have received the award up to now, while the institute estimates that at least 243 Greeks carried out such courageous acts. The honorees were Giorgos and Phaedra Karakotsos, Solon and Loulou Vgenopoulos, Athanassios and Adriana Katsigiannis, Panos and Stasa Takaronis, Panos Zoulamopoulos, Popi Mavrogenous, Costis Mavrogenis and Ioannis and Avrokomi Karlaftis. Martyrs and heroes «Today’s ceremony serves two main purposes: that of historical memory and that of gratitude,» Konstantinis remarked. «The memory refers to all the victims of the horrific Nazi crimes that were carried out in Europe, prior to and during WWII. Especially, the memory honors the 6 million European Jews, among them 70,000 Greek Jews, who were killed methodically based on a scientific program and after torture.» Most of the Jewish community in Greece was wiped out by the Nazi forces, killed in death camps in Poland and elsewhere. «In this long list of those victims, the Jewish community of Greece has the sad privilege to be amongst the first in Europe, as 86 percent of its prewar population was permanently lost,» the president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities said. Today, less than 5,000 Greek Jews remain in the country. Those who survived will always remember those who sheltered them and the efforts of the Greek authorities to hide their true identities. «The gratitude to our fellow Greeks, who gave a deeper meaning to the word human, is eternal. Today’s ceremony shows that although over 50 years have passed since then, the gratitude of Greek Jews continues to search for its saviors to honor them,» Konstantinis said. «From its side, the city police – which also has been honored with the title of the ‘Righteous among the Nations’ – was issuing identification cards with false Christian names in an effort to save Jews from all areas around Greece, while under the order of Archbishop Damaskinos many Jews were baptized in the churches typically as Christians. No similar actions took place in any other European country.» Scores of Jews from across the country and Europe found refuge in Zakynthos, where local authorities and members of the Orthodox Church created a «Jewish enclave.» «Zakynthos was the only place in Nazi-occupied Europe where all Jews were saved after the courageous actions of the Metropolitan Bishop of Zakynthos Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karrer,» Konstantinis declared. Stories of bravery Before WWII the Pardo family was living in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The parents and the three daughters, ages 5, 10, and 14, had friendly ties with doctor Giorgos Karakotsos and his wife Phaedra, who had an apartment in central Thessaloniki. When the Nazi forces occupied the city, all Jews were transferred to a ghetto while the men were sent to forced labor camps. Karakotsos used a forged medical certificate to release Mr Pardo, while later, when the Nazis were transferring the Jews to death camps, he took the entire Pardo family into his home, sheltering them until they could find a safe passage out of the country. The risk he took by hiding the Pardo family at his house for himself and his family was enormous, as the entire neighborhood knew the Jewish family. Unable to find a safe passage, the Karakotsos couple gave shelter to the Pardo family for over a year and a half, until the city of Thessaloniki was liberated. The Karlaftis family also courageously managed to supply a young Jew with a false identification card with a Christian name, and shelter him at their house in Aspropyrgos outside of Athens until he managed to flee safely by boat to Palestine. When in September 1943 the Germans occupied Athens, the Cohen family was alarmed as reports of Jews being arrested in Thessaloniki were reaching the capital. Then, Aaron Cohen, who had close ties with Greek Christians, decided not to register with the local synagogue as the Germans had instructed them, and hid in the homes of his Christian friends. His personal friend Solon Vgenopoulos, along with his wife Loulou, helped members of the Cohen family find shelter in Christian homes, while supplying them with forged identity cards with Christian names. Some were given shelter for over eight months, managing to live in decent conditions, while some of them had to be relocated to new safe houses after a failed attempt to flee to Turkey. They all knew that if the Germans discovered that they had been harboring Jews in their homes, they would have to face the firing squad. «These were the people that gave a small ray of light in the dark years between 1939 and 1945 that enwrapped Europe,» Sasson remarked. «We shall never cease to remember those courageous people with the utmost respect, appreciation and gratitude.»
