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Nov. 18, 2005
Aegean's once-rich Jewish past
Odyssey to Turkey and Greece reveals different ways the countries
handled the Nazis.
EDGAR ASHER ISRANET NEWS & MEDIA
In the latter part of the 12th century CE, there lived in the Spanish
Jewish community of Tudela, in the Navarra region of northeastern
Spain, a gem merchant named Rabbi ben Jonah. In about 1160, Benjamin
of Tudela, as he was better known, embarked on an extensive journey
across Europe, the Middle East, India and parts of Asia. It was
a unique trip that was to take him some 13 years to complete, with
its aim to make contact with and record as much about Jewish life
as he could.
Rabbi Benjamin is always remembered for the diary he wrote where
he reports, in rather bland terms, the numbers of Jews he found
in the various communities he visited, their economic situation,
their degree of religious observance, as well as their professions
and academic records. Despite the economical nature of his diaries,
their importance cannot be underestimated. They paint a broad canvas
of Jewish life that existed in his time across a large swath of
the then-known world.
On his travels, Benjamin of Tudela chronicled the countries and
islands that border the Aegean Sea, and many of the places he wrote
about still showed the existence of a Jewish community right up
until the Second World War. The communities, of course, had their
ups and downs – there were movements of population caused by
intermittent local anti-Semitism, as well as the ebb and flow of
economic prosperity and influence. However, the Jewish world that
Rabbi Benjamin chronicled would be almost wiped out on the western
side of the Aegean Sea by 1945, leaving, in most cases, only buildings
to testify where there had previously been strong Jewish connections.
In 1943, the Nazis began the systematic destruction of Greek Jewry.
Of Greece's prewar Jewish population of some 77,000, more than 60,000
died in the Holocaust. In 1941, Salonika was the centre of Greek
Jewry and Greek Jewish culture, with 60,000 Jews. By the end of
the war, fewer than 2,000 Jews returned to the city and many then
emigrated to either Israel, North America or South America. About
56,000 of Salonika's Jews died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz
and several thousand died in Nazi labor camps.
Hundreds of years earlier, Benjamin of Tudela chronicled in his
diary, "The [Salonika Jewish] community was comparatively large,
perhaps numbering as many as 2,000. Of this number, many were involved
in the lucrative silk industry through which they prospered."
In 1900, Jews made up almost half the city's total population of
173,000. In 1917, an enormous and inexplicable fire broke out in
the Jewish quarter of the city, destroying 32 synagogues and leaving
50,000 Jews homeless. From then on, life for the Jews of Salonika
was a downhill struggle. The non-Jewish population became more and
more antagonistic towards Jews. Jews were abused and the Jewish
cemetery was continually desecrated. By the time the Nazis entered
Salonika, the Greek Christian population were willing helpers in
making the lives of Jews untenable. Today, there are fewer than
2,000 Jews in the whole of Greece, and this dwindling population
keeps a low profile.
To the eastern shore of the Aegean, the story of Jews during the
Second World War is very different. Despite representing an Islamic
nation, many Turkish consular diplomats working in Europe tried
to issue Jews visas to Turkey so that they might escape the local
Nazis. In France alone, 15,000 Jews were rescued by Turkish intervention
and were allowed, with the minimum of red tape, to cross the border
into Turkey. A significant number went on to Palestine.
The Turkish government refused Nazi demands that Jews be rounded
up and sent to the concentration camps in Europe. The Vatican's
wartime envoy in Istanbul, Msgr. Angelo Roncalli, who was later
to become Pope John XXIII, worked tirelessly to rescue eastern European
Jews. It is the Turkish effort to rescue Jews from Nazi Europe that
may give a small clue as to why Turkey and the modern state of Israel
have such a close relationship.
Nevertheless, the number of Jews living in Turkey has declined,
as many of them have emigrated to Israel, North America and Europe.
However, about 26,000 Jews still live in Turkey today and there
are small Jewish communities found in such places as Istanbul, Izmir,
Adana, Ankara and Iskenderen. In Istanbul, there are about 16 synagogues.
It will always be remembered that, during the Second World War,
Turkey served as a safe passage for many Jews fleeing Nazism. While
the Jewish communities of Greece were wiped out almost completely
by the Germans, Turkish Jews remained secure.
In both Greece and Turkey, there are many remnants of former Jewish
life. As communities get smaller, they polarize and only a handful
of synagogues are in actual use. For the traveller who wishes to
go in search of Jewish history around the Aegean, both countries
offer unusual and often sad reminders of better and happier days.
It is a sign of the times but, in most large cities in Greece and
Turkey, the remaining synagogues that are still in use are guarded
by local armed police and access is often difficult to arrange.
In Greece, often these same towns have, in a central location, a
memorial to the local Greek Jews who were sent to their deaths,
usually with the full co-operation of the local population. Today,
there is recognition of these horrendous times and a genuine effort
is being made to educate the local population to the horrors of
the Nazi era and the dangers posed by racial discrimination and
the consequences of the abuse of human rights.
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