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The Holocaust of the Jews of Greece
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The indigenous Jewish communities of Greece represent the longest continuous
Jewish presence in Europe.
These communities, along with those who settled
in Greece after their expulsion from Spain, were almost completely destroyed
in the Holocaust.
In the spring of 1941, the Germans defeated the Greek army and occupied
Greece until October of 1944. The country was divided into three zones
of occupation: Bulgaria annexed Thrace and Yugoslav Macedonia; Germany
occupied Greek Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, Piraeus, and western
Crete; and Italy occupied the remainder of the mainland and the islands.
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Where Jews resided determined not only their subsequent fate, but also
their ultimate possibility of escape.
The Germans chose March 25, 1944, Greek Independence Day, to deport
the Jews of Volos, and any Jews remaining on the Greek mainland. 130
of the Jews of Volos were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
There were 900 Jews in Kastoria in 1940. On March 25, 1944, 763 Jews
were rounded up for deportation, first to Thessaloniki and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Prior to their deportation, they were enclosed in an abandoned school
for days, with no food or water, and the young girls were raped by German
soldiers.
On March 25, 1944, the entire Jewish community of Ioannina, 1,860 people,
was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today only 35 Jews live in Ioannina;
they are the only remnants of a once thriving Romanniote Jewish community.
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