Preparation for the deportation of Salonica's Jews began in January 1943.[93] A German official, Günther Altenburg, notified the prime minister of the collaborationist government, Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, on 26 January, but there is no record of him taking action to prevent the deportations, except two letters of protest written after they had already begun. Despite the letters, the collaborationist government continued to cooperate with the deportation.[94] The Italian occupation authorities and Consul Guelfo Zamboni vigorously protested, issued Italian citizenship to Greek Jews, and arranged travel to Athens for hundreds of Jews with Italian or foreign citizenship.[95] Spanish officials in the region also attempted to stop the deportations.[96] On 6 February, the SS group tasked with the deportation arrived in the city and set up headquarters at 42 Velissariou Street in a confiscated Jewish villa. Its leaders, Alois Brunner and Dieter Wisliceny, stayed on the first floor while wealthy Jews were tortured in the basement.[97] They had arrived with a series of anti-Jewish decrees intended to establish the Nuremberg laws and issued the first decree, requiring Jews without foreign citizenship to wear the yellow star, the same day.[98] The Nazis set up the Baron Hirsch ghetto next to the train station, enclosed in barbed wire on 4 March. Regular Greek policemen guarded the ghetto while internal order was the responsibility of a Jewish police force. The first Jews transferred there were fifteen Jewish families from Langadas, but as many as 2,500 Jews occupied the area at a time.[99] Some Jews escaped to the mountains and joined resistance groups or fled to Athens, but most could not.[100] To prevent escapes, twenty-five Jewish hostages were held and a curfew was imposed.[101] German authorities tried to convince the Salonican Jews to cooperate by telling them that they would be resettled in Poland, giving them Polish money and allowing
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