JEWS ELUDE GERMANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 277, 23 November 1943, Page 5

JEWS ELUDE GERMANS

AIDED BY GREEK PATRIOTS Recd. 6 p.m. London, Nov. 21. The Greek patriots hid nearly 12,000 Jews living in Athens to prevent the Germans deporting them to Poland. This 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 the Chief Raboi to prepare a complete list, with addresses, of 12,000 Jews in the capital. He indicated that this vas a preliminary step towards the deportation of the entire Jewish population to, Poland. While he was preparing Ihe list the Chief Rabbi revealed the German order to Greek friends, who got in contact with 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, burned 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 tha< date only 268 of the 12,000 had reported. The rest had been hidden in the homes of Greek Christians, despite a Gernian threat of the death penally 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, where he was hidden with 16 other Jews and next night they were all taken to an island controlled by patriots and they were shipped in small boats to Turkey. Other Jews were being smuggled out of Greece in the same way.