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[Part Ten of Twelve]

Bodies Visible and Invisible: The Erasure of the Jewish Cemetery in the Life of Modern Thessaloniki

LAQUEUR and HESSE

The hard facts of demography were mirrored in culture and politics. Elementary education in Greek became compulsory, replacing for many Jews an education in French sponsored by the Alliance Israelite and other organizations. (The policy was of course not aimed specifically at Jews but at other groups—Albanians, Vlachs, Slavs—as well.) - Higher education too was revamped. There was to have been a second Greek university—in addition to the one in Athens–in Smyrna–but 1922 put an end to that idea. Instead it was built in Thessaloniki. What became the Aristotle University was not directly engaged in the culture wars of nation building. But because it was to be more “modern” and intellectually expansive than the old one in Athens the new university was intended to play a major role in the integration of the “New Countries” into a new Greece. And of course there were other adjustments: debates in the early 1920s over whether Sunday should be the only day of rest—a measure meant to disadvantage the Jews would have to close on their Sabbath as well- ended in compromise . But the cultural landscape had changed for good.

And so had politics: the Jewish community had by and large opposed incorporation of Thessaloniki into Greece; during the 1920’s it voted Royalist when the national government and the city was overwhelmingly republican. It was itself politically fractured between various Zionist and socialist, liberal and royalist, religiously conservative and progressive members. The advent of modernity was not easy for anyone. Day to day pressures of poverty and pressure on resources led to increased friction between the Jewish and Greek—especially Greek immigrant—communities. On the political level these pressures and ethnic national ideology led to the formation of the small—never more than 3000 member— anti-Semitic National Union Hellas. (Know by the Greek acronym EEE.) It was this organization which fermented the so called Campbell Riots in 1931—one of only two anti-Semitic disturbance in modern Greek history—on the very slightest of pretexts having to do with the participation of Jewish athletes in a Bulgarian political event that was construed as anti- Greek. It was this organization which, after being banned by the Metaxis dictatorship in 1936, was resurrected under Nazi occupation in 1941.

All of this made itself felt in the cemetery. Already in 1900 the Jewish community had made efforts to increase the security of the graves by building a wall around them. The project was only partially completed due to lack of funds. After 1912, incursions into the cemetery and incidents of desecration increased in frequency and intensity. On 12-13 January 1930 Greek refugees from Asia Minor destroyed seventy graves in protest of the Jewish Community’s closing of some gates earlier than they had been closed before and thus blocking a short cut home. The Campell Riots the next year led to more destruction and the Jewish Community paid the City for the organization of a special militia brigade to guard the cemetery, the inauguration of which was celebrated by representatives of the police and the Jewish community.

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