Position of the Jews of Athens
(November 20, 1943)
1. Istanbul Report No. 221, Nov. 20, 1943.
2. Comment by C. Lagoudakis: What is said about the Jews in Greece in this report is confirmed from other sources. The sympathy of the Greeks toward their Jewish fellow citizens is a useful story. Position of Jews in Athens.
Committee of Greek Refugees in Istanbul Protect Identity of Source. The following statement of the position of Jews in Athens is the most detailed which has yet come to our hands.
When the Jews were expelled from Salonica, about three thousand of them made their way to Athens in a sad plight, no ration cards, etc. This migration raised the Jewish population of Athens to about 7,000.
The German Military Governor ordered Athens' Jews to report between the 5th and 10th of October (Piraeus Jews included, of course) for registration. Jews not Greeks [sic] subjects were given until October 18. Meantime all Jews were to keep off the streets from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and forbidden to change their place of domicile from that of June first.
Each Jew got a white identity card: Jews married to Christians got brown cards-the same distinction having been made at Salonica where several families in which the mother was Christian are still allowed to reside:
>All Greeks are explicitly and severely forbidden to give any aid to the Jews. None the less, when the special committee readied itself to indent the registered Jews, scarcely more than a hundred were to be found, the others having been concealed by Greek friends or else taken to the mountains to join the guerrillas.
Executions of Greeks for sheltering Jews are to be expected.
Lewis V. Thomas
Source: Documents: The Jews in Greece, 1941-1944: Eyewitness Accounts, by Alexandros Kitroeff, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Vol. XII, No. #3, (Fall 1985)