JEWS IN GREECE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 November 1943, Page 4

JEWS IN GREECE

PROTECTED & HIDDEN BY PATRIOTS AND TAKEN TO TURKEY GERMAN ORDERS & THREATS DEFIED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, November 21. Greek patriots hid nearly 12,000 Jews living in Athens, to prevent the Germans deporting them to Poland. This was revealed by Jewish refugees who have arrived in Istanbul after having been smuggled out of Greece. On October 25 the German military governor of Athens ordered the Chief Rabbi to prepare a complete list, with addresses, of 12,000 Jews in the capital. He indicated that this was a preliminary step towards the deportation of the entire Jewish population to Poland. While he was preparing the list, the Chief Rabbi revealed the German order to Greek friends, who made contact with the head of the underground patriot organisation. On the night before the list was ready a small party of Greeks broke into the Rabbi's home, burned the list and took the Rabbi to a mountain village for safety. On October 31 the German Governor published an order instructing all Jews to report by November 14. By that date all but 268 of the 12,000 Jews had been hidden in the homes of Greek Christians, despite the German threat of the death penalty for harbouring Jews. One Jew who reached Istanbul told a “Daily Express” correspondent that after he had been hidden for two days he was taken at night to a remote village. Here he was hidden with 16, other Jews and the next night they' ■were all taken to an island controlled by the patriots and shipped in small coastal boats to Turkey. Other Jews are being smuggled out of Greece in the same way.