Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2022

By Mark Glanville*

On December 14, 1906, a cargo steamship built at the Sunderland shipyards in the northeast of England was launched under the name Holywood. She was then purchased by a Greek shipowner in 1935, who renamed her Tanais, after the ancient Greek colony founded by Milesians. On May 26, 1941, during the Battle of Crete, the ship was sunk by the Luftwaffe, only to be raised and repaired by the Germans, who then deployed her as a cargo ship in the Aegean. In early June, the Nazis filled the holds of the ship with about nine hundred prisoners bound for Auschwitz, among them Cretan partisans, Italian prisoners of war, and the entire Jewish community of Crete, which comprised 299 souls, 88 of them children.

On June 9, the Tanais was torpedoed by the British submarine Vivid, killing all but a handful of passengers. This was the end of the Cretan Jewish community, which had thrived on the island for more than two thousand years. (Jews are said to have served as guards at the palace of Knossos, where King Minos had Daedalus build the labyrinth with his son the Minotaur at its center.)

On July 11th, 1942 at Eleftherias Square (Freedom square) in Thessaloniki, a day known as the "Black Sabbath" of the Jews of Thessaloniki, the German occupiers humiliated 9.000 Jews of the town and put the "Final Solution" plan into practice. The “Final Solution” resulted in the deportation and extermination of 45.000 Jews of Thessaloniki.

Elefhterias Square signals the place where the Nazis began to dehumanize people who were born Jews. It was the beginning of the "absolute evil" that led to the Holocaust of 6.000.000 Jews, among them, 60.000 Greek Jews, many of whom, defended their country, fought against the Italian and German invaders and left their last breath in the concentration camps with Greece deeply rooted in their souls.

Exactly eighty years later, we hope that the commitment of the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Mr. Konstantinos Zervas, will be realized and Eleftherias Square will finally take its historical character as a place of Remembrance of the thousands of Jews who were tortured by the Nazis before been deported to the labor camps and then to the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

It is our responsibility to make Eleftherias Square again a place of remembrance, so that citizens and visitors of Thessaloniki see the place where the Jews of the town martyred, remember and be taught how easily a society can follow the path of barbarism when oblivion prevails.

July 11, 2022

CENTRAL BOARD OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN GREECE

During the graduation ceremony for the students of New York College which took place on 6.7.2022, the president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece (KISE), Mr. David Saltiel, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Bolton of Great Britain for his business and social contribution. The doctorate was awarded to Mr. Saltiel by the Chancellor of the University of Bolton, Earl of St Andrews, George Nicholas Philip Windsor. 

Mr. David Saltiel, upon receiving the diploma, addressing the audience stated emphatically: "Don't forget to set your goals and work to achieve them continuously, even with a little effort but on a daily basis. You will see that in the end you will achieve them.

Your studies and your education have been rewarded with success today. Do not forget that you are the generation that has the privilege of knowledge and understanding needed to build a great, civilized and humane future. Don't forget this!'

At the ceremony, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece was represented by the Treasurer, Mr. Daniel Benardout. It was also attended by Ministers, representatives of the military and municipal Authorities, as well as by many people.