La historia de los Judios de Salónica o Tesalónica, comienza en la antigua Grecia, con la llegada de los Judios romaniotas, que llegaron después de la destrucción del Segundo Templo de Jerusalén en el año 70 dC. Por lo tanto, esto los situaría como la primera de la diáspora judía a instalarse en Grecia. Otros dos grupos principales de judíos llegaron a Salónica. Estos son los Ashkenazi y por último, los Judíos Sefarditas. Estas personas enriquecieron una ciudad ya floreciente con su llegada, bajo los romanos, los bizantinos, y más tarde los otomanos. Salónica se conocería como la única ciudad en la diáspora judía que mantuvo una mayoría judía durante siglos, que mantuvo hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Luego, se desarrollaron eventos cataclísmicos que llevarían casi a su total destrucción.

Los Romaniotas se llamaban a sí mismos “Romaioi”, similar a los bizantinos, que describían sus raíces como del Imperio “Romano”. Aunque la mayoría se establecieron en la griega ciudad norteña de Ioannina (Yiannena), muchos Romaniotas llamaban a Salonica casa. Por el mero hecho de que estaban viviendo en Grecia entre los griegos, que eran politeístas, benefició ambos grupos. Gracias a los intercambios de ideas de los griegos politeístas y los judíos monoteístas nació una armonía entre estas personas. De hecho, la primera prueba escrita de la existencia de los Judios Romaniotas es la carta de Pablo a la iglesia en Salónica (Tesalonicenses Libros 1 y 2 del Nuevo Testamento). Los emperadores bizantinos tempranos eran hostiles a estos judíos. Sin embargo, adoptaron la lengua y costumbres de los griegos mientras que mantuvieron su identidad judía distinta.

A finales del Siglo XIV otro grupo de Judíos, los Ashkenazi, emigraron de la Baviera alemana y Hungría, desde donde fueron perseguidos. Al igual que los Romaniotas, se integraron fácilmente en la ciudad.

Los Judíos Sefarditas, principalmente de España y Portugal, fueron el último y más grande grupo a emigrar y son distintos de los Romaniotas y los Ashkenazi. En lugar de afrontar la conversión al catolicismo, el encarcelamiento o la tortura, los Judíos Sefarditas llegaron a Salonica después de que fueron expulsados ​​bajo el “Edicto de Granada” del rey Fernando y la reina Isabel de España en 1492. Estos judíos recién emigrados se compusieron de trabajadores textiles, artesanos y empresarios, muchos de los cuales trajeron una nueva vitalidad a la ciudad. La primera imprenta en el Imperio Otomano fue iniciada por judíos sefardí en 1494 en Constantinopla y la segunda en Salonica. Su lenguaje único, denominado “ladino” – originalmente una mezcla de español y hebreo, que luego creció hasta incluir árabe, turco, francés, italiano y griego – se convertiría en sinónimo de Salónica. Como el grupo sefardí prevaleció en números, la mayoría de las sinagogas de Salonica fueron construidas por la población sefardí.

All three groups of Greek Jews — or better still, Jewish Greeks — settled into their new adopted land. After the Balkan Wars in 1912, the Jewish population was given full citizen rights, as equals, under the new Greek Constitution, but antisemitism still existed. After World War I especially, the influx of new Christian immigrants from Asia Minor brought both groups—Christians, and Jews—at odds with each other, competing for skilled and unskilled labor. However, in the years that led up to World War II, the new fascist government led by Ioannis Metaxas, instilled into the Jews a sense of self-identification as Greeks, who had been citizens since 1913.

These Greek Jews never ceased to affirm their sense of belonging to the Greek nation. Many served in the Greek army against the Italians in the Greco-Italian campaign. In fact, one battalion was called the “Cohen Brigade,” comprised of many Jews from Salonica who fought in front line action. Many Greek Jews were killed or wounded alongside their Christian brethren. One such soldier was Colonel Mordecai Frizis, the first high-ranking Greek officer to die in World War II. While leading his troops on horseback in Epirus, he was mortally wounded, yet, he refused to dismount. With full knowledge that he would not survive, he gave orders to his loyal followers to press the attack, giving the Greeks and the Allies their first victory.

After the German invasion and the subsequent takeover by the Axis powers, sacred scrolls of the Torah and Jewish artifacts were confiscated and sent to Germany. Jewish Greek newspapers were shut down and were replaced with antisemitic newspapers. The Grand Rabbi, Zvi Koretz, was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. All Greek Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes.

Then, on July 11, 1942, the Germans ordered every Greek Jew between the ages of 18 and 45 to assemble in the main square in Salonica, where they would suffer untold humiliation in front of taunts by the Germans and germanophile, anti-semitic Greeks.

The Greek-Jewish community was slowly led into believing that they could buy their freedom. After paying this exorbitant ransom came the ultimate horrible betrayal: deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This came about despite strong opposition by Greek Christians and an outcry from Salonica’s leading citizens and clergy, such as Archbishop Damaskinos. The Greek puppet government, along with their germanophile leader were powerless. Instead, the Nazi-controlled newspapers incited fears and fueled more anti-semitism, threatening those who helped Greek Jews with severe punishment or death.

Despite the threats, the edicts were disregarded, even by some of the Greek police and clergy. Together with ordinary folk, they helped a few find sanctuary and escape, at the risk of their own lives. Some who did escape into the mountains fought alongside the ELAS (Greek communist) partisans, and it is estimated that one thousand Greek Jews did so. The world would come to know of the bravery of Polish Jews who died in the Warsaw ghetto, however, the armed Jewish Greek resistance is practically unknown. For some of the 13,000 Greek Jews who fought in the Greco-Italian campaign, the experience in the early years of the war would pay dividends later, as freedom fighters toward Germany’s ultimate defeat. Yitzak Mosheh and Moshe Bourlas, both Salonican Jews, escaped into the mountains and joined the ELAS  partisans. Both became kapetans, or partisans leaders, and these Greek Jews called themselves “Greeks,” hoping to one day return to their homes in Salonica, or Ioannina, Agrinion, Athens … . As freedom fighters, and even in the concentration camps, Greek Jews never ceased to affirm their sense of belonging to Greece.

Sadly, Greek Jewry was virtually annihilated. Of the 57,000 Jewish-Greeks who once lived in Salonica, only 2,000 survived the war. Those who returned to Salonica found few remaining family and friends. In their once thriving community, that had existed for two thousand years, their properties had been confiscated and the Jewish cemetery was destroyed.

In 1944, within an abandoned Jewish Greek textile factory in Salonica, OSS agent Helias Doundoulakis operated his wireless radio that was used to send messages to Allied Headquarters in Cairo, in TRAINED TO BE AN OSS SPY.

SEE:

The United States Holocaust Museum

The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki

The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki

The Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum

Photographs courtesy of the Archives of the Jewish Museum of Athens, and Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation