JEWS IN GREECE

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 November 1943, Page 5

JEWS IN GREECE

HIDDEN FROM GERMANS

(Reed. 12.10 p.m.) LONDON Nov. 21. Greek patriots hia nearly 12.000 Jews living in Athens to prevent the Germans deporting them to Holland. Thois was revealed by Jewish refugees who arrived at Istanbul after having been smuggled out of Greece. On (October 25 the German Military Governor of Athens ordered tne Chief Rabbi to prepare a complete list, with addresses, of the 12,000 Jews in the capital. He indicated that this was a preliminary step towards the deportation of the entire Jewish population to Poland. While preparing the list the Chief Rabbi revealed the German order to Greek friends, who contacted the head of the underground patriot organisation. The night before the list was ready a small party of Greeks broke into the Rabbi’s home and burnt the list and took the Rabbi to a mountain village for safety. On October 31 the German Governor published an order instructing all Jews to report by November 14. By that date only 268 of the 12,000 had reported; the rest had been hidden in the homes of Greek Christians despite the German threat of the death penalty for harbouring Jews. One Jew who reached Istanbul told the “Daily Express” correspondent that after he had been hidden for two days he was taken at night to a remote village. Here he was hidden with 16 other JexVs, and the next night they were all taken to an island controlled by patriots and shipped in small coastal boats to Turkey. Other Jews were smuggled out of Greece the same way.