I'm currently writing a series of short stories and the second one is based in Thessaloniki, Greece, the town near where I live. During WWII we had the largest Jewish community in Greece with a fascinating history extending all the way to the Spanish Inquisition, when those who didn't convert to Catholicism were expelled. Some of them ended up migrating to Thessaloniki. The Nazis sent around 10,000 Thessaloniki Jews to death in concentration camps. I have a lot of research material at hand and a museum to visit, but if anyone out there has additional material (doesn't matter how mundane it might seem, it's the small details I like anyway) I would appreciate if you could contact me.
hey you! thats really intresting....i didnt know that about thessaloniki....but in sparti, in WWII, there were quite a few that were also sent to concentration camps also. my grampa was one of them. he wasnt jewish though, just a POW.
Hi Alex!!!!!The Nazi crimes against humanity were particularly attrocious. The population of Greece had food confiscated during WWII by the occupying German forces and many died from starvation. With the army in retreat to help the allies in North Africa, the only people left to fight the war were the 'Andartes', which means rebels. They hindered the Nazi advancement through the Balkans and into Russia, thereby setting them up for the unforgiving Soviet winter. But they paid the price. You must be proud of your grandfather and even though I don't know him, I'm also proud of him for protecting the freedom we enjoy today. It's a pity that as the predominant species on this planet we still haven't evolved with all the history lessons that have been written for us. The powerful will always look for a scapegoat and then manipulate our feelings for their greedy and evil ends.
i am beyond proud of the person my grandfather was, amazing life he had youre making me want to get back to my greek history! i dont really know much about their particiaption in WWII. i'm really intrested in it though
Check out Primo Levi's writtings. Also "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie and her family hid a number of Jews in their home in occupied Amsterdam. Her family was caught and sent to Buchenwald where Corrie's sister and most of her family died. Corrie's sister had a saying which rang true in Buchenwald."There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still" Also check out Flee the Captor and Courage to Care. The former is about Jean Weidner who was the head of the Dutch-Paris underground. The latter is Jean Weidner's autobiography. Jean Weidner and the Dutch-Paris underground was responsible for saving something like 2,000 Jews and several hundred Allied airmen. There's another book about a small Hugenot village in France that under the direction of their Pastor conspired to hide close to several hundred Jews right under the Nazi's noses. I don't remember the title. I'll have to get back to ya on the title.
reading Holocaust books is an exercise in emotions for me. (I too have a Shoah family tree) But I was writing an article on a local (Xtian) social studies/ language arts (remember when we had English?) teacher who created his own Holocaust literature unit. A local university picked up on him and introduced him to thier Holocaust Awareness teachers' kits. you might find new books to read: http://www.du.edu/cjs/trunk_contents.html
Dude i love these books too and i dont know why. but they are good i think because its almost impossible to imagine people actually doing these things. i just went to the library earlier and checked some out. I've read pretty much all of em there tho.
In grade six we read "Daniel's Story", don't know who wrote it.. but there was a SS guy or something that picked up a little girl and broke her back across his knee.
night is so good. not long were you would start to hate it but short and very sad. loved it. twords the end were he starts hating his dad was very sad.