Guest Blogger 2
Published by deviousdiva March 6th, 2007 in Jewish History.As regular readers here know, I have been very open to the idea of guest bloggers. Recently, I have been fortunate enough to meet abravanel. I will leave the introduction up to him as he says it better than I could. This post will be cross-posted on his own blog but comments will be closed there. I have agreed to host the post and any discussion that arises from it. All moderation of comments will be done in full consultation with the writer.
Thank you for your contribution abravanel and I look forward to reading more of your insights and experiences.
A Judeo-Spanish proverb says: If a rock hits the glass then the glass will break. If the glass hits the rock, still it's the glass that breaks.
As a Greek Jew, whose family has lived in this tiny bit of Europe for centuries, I can attest to how much truth there is in this proverb when thinking about the current situation of Jews in Greece.
If you want to know who Abravanel was click here.
Greek Textbooks
Often when treating themes concerning human rights we often resort to the exhortation: Educate, educate and again educate (and here the emphasis classically is placed upon the “youths, the hope of our nation” as they’re so often described). Sometimes this concept is stressed so heavily that one could argue that it is a wicked and devious way to shift responsibilities from our shoulders and bestow them on the shoulders of the generations to come, sparing us from the responsibility to do something today. But this mischievous behavior doesn’t change the fact that indeed it is the only durable solution that really secures a future and a necessary premise for any initiative to counter racist behaviours in the society.
A core part of this process is played by the school, which together with the collective conscience and the family, are the ones who determine behaviour and in general the collective ideas of what’s acceptable or normal and what’s not. The importance of this institution is not to be diminished, a fact that state diplomacies take heavily into account.
Recently Germany and France agreed to have a common History textbook in an effort to highlight the things that unite rather than the things that separate them. To the same effect, the conference of the Balkan states agreed that a revision of the textbooks was in order in attempt to overcome a difficult past and promote a more peaceful approach between neighbours.
Greek readers also know that each new “generation” of textbooks reflects the current political sensitivities of the era. Still, a common denominator in all textbooks from all eras is the almost complete lack of any mentioning to the Greek Shoah and the extermination of 60.000 Greek Jews, 80% of the original population with peaks as 97.5% of Thessaloniki. In the post war years, one could argue that neither was the communist-led resistance during WW2 mentioned, (due to the civil war that followed and the anti-communist hysteria during the Cold War by the conservative parties that dominated the political scene), so it was just the “typical” anti-Semitic Right view of History. But there are no excuses for the modern textbooks, which were revised by the socialist party PASOK in the ‘80s, to mirror the nation’s unity against the Nazi-fascist invader, to promote National Reconciliation and to finally close the Civil War chapter by recognizing the importance of the communist-led Resistance.
In Greek textbooks WW2 is extensively studied in the last year of high school with two chapters covering WW2, the Greek involvement, the Resistance and the Greek casualties. In total, there are 53 pages in a 500 book pages, of which 20 are dedicated to the Resistance and the civil casualties due to famine or German executions. This includes both the main text which is obligatorily and the extra testimonies, and photos which are present but not mandatory to read and officially not among the material that a student can be examined on, (in Greek called πηγές/sources).
The Shoah from the whole WW2 takes a total of 8 lines in 3-column page for a staggering 1/6th of a page. The Greek Jews are not mentioned even once in the main text but qualify for a total of 3×4cm mention among the sources!
In detail, we see that in the non-obligatory sources pages the testimony of the commander of Auschwitz states that “more than 3.000.000 people died” and “Among the victims there were 100.000 German Jews and a large amount of Jews of the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Greece”. The casual reader figures that from the millions of dead in Auschwitz only a small fraction are Jews maybe as many as 200.000 in total since the largest group among them appears to be the 100.000 German Jews with the smaller populations following.
In the main text we find only a generic reference to “millions of dead in the concentration camps” without saying that 6 million of these were Jews though we must admit with great generosity, that it does refer to the hunt down of Jews as “genocide”; again it should be noted that no mention about Greek Jews is made.It is of relevance that these two small mentions to the Shoah are a part of the chapter that is occupied with the generic events of WW2 and not the second chapter referring to the Occupation of Greece as if these didn’t impact directly on the Greek human casualties.
While the executions of Greek civilians by the Italians, Bulgarians and Germans at the villages of Doxato, Kalavryta, Choriatis and other are minutely recorded both in the main text and in the extra material with photos and testimonies for pages and pages, there is absolutely no mention of the Greek Shoah. The author’s description of the events is detailed enough for us to learn the exact numbers of executions, a total of an 49.188 executions and estimated 300.000 deaths from famine; in addition we learn the numbers and detailed descriptions of the aforementioned massacres but still they fail to give any indication if any Greek Jews died and how many of them.
While heroic acts of the Resistance are told together with German and Bulgarian atrocities, there is no mentioning of the deportation of many of the Thessaloniki Jews into labor camps at Lagadas before the deportation to the death camps, where many of them died of malaria and hardships. Nor we find any mention to the proud answer of the Thracian Jews who denied acquiring Bulgarian citizenship and were deported and exterminated while the Bulgarian Jews were saved!
In the end no mention is made to the only revolt that was made in Auschwitz, which was organized, by Greek and Polish Jews (and some state they died singing the Greek national anthem!)
The reader should bear in mind that this isn’t “the usual Jewish whine” about the Shoah, (as many anti-Semites often remark), but an impressive omission of Greek heroic acts while the book is not stingy about referring them when treating non-Jews in its effort to install patriotism among the children. Even if we’d forget the objections that a liberal would make about this particular way of teaching History, even the most cynical, the most “patriotic” right wing reader would agree that some of the events mentioned before would be a source of pride for the Greek nation and an example of how a “real Greek” should behave and at the same time give international glory to Greece, something all nationalists covet.
Why then are these not mentioned? Brevity is not the reason since an entire chapter is dedicated to the Resistance and the Greek civilian casualties. Interestingly the word “Holocaust” is used but it’s reserved for the massacre of 165 Greeks at Metsovo.
How can one ask for Christian Greeks to consider their Jewish compatriots as true Greeks when they lack the most basic of knowledge about them or how they fulfilled their duty in WW2 only to find death in the crematories 3 years later? How can one ask the Thessaloniki Left movements, who marched and desecrated the Monument to the Shoah, to respect their city’s dead when nobody tells them they existed?
These students who today fail to learn anything from their school about a Greek tragedy like this one, (because unless we begin to consider this as a Greek tragedy and not a Jewish one, nothing will change), are the ones repeating their usual mantra. They say that the Shoah maybe indeed happen but is exaggerated in numbers, that the Jews should leave if they don’t like it in Greece, that after all they whine too much and it wasn’t something more terrible than the rest of the world had etc. And to top this they say that the Jews show no allegiance to the Greek state despite every time the Greek State has asked the Greek Jewish community to act, it has answered their call.
If one wishes to extend this line of thought, one can argue that even if today the textbooks changed, we would need two generations to have this history known because the teacher and the family who influence the children would simply not be convinced, partly nullifying the work done by the official school policy.
Are things as dramatic as I depict them? My experiences, as a Greek Jew, tell me they indeed are and the situation will not improve since no real effort is being made other than symbolic efforts to have something to present when international pressure is exerted on Greece. One example is the way the Shoah is presented in the new History textbook for 6th grade, and that’s the subject of my next instalment.
Technorati Tags: Greece, Jewish History, Education, Holocaust
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Dear Abravanel,
i am not jewish , typically i belong to the supposed greek orthodox sector.
i have not commented on your story even though ms DD has recently blogged on this subject,
extensively , the main problem with the history you describe is that it is not known…
and , or,, as other segments of newer greek history has been concealed by mostly right factions (which without absolute certainty
of who when and what
had a helping hand in rounding up the jewish
population and others at that time.
But this does not leave the left of that time without responsibilities as to this historical fact . Although the years have gone by i have not seen the left of today as a political force take up this part of history , even though some attempts have been made in periodicals and newspaper articles.
As i can gather main problem is that there
are no survivors to tell the main story
or the ones that did live at that time
were the ones doing all the harm , and wont talk.
ANYWAYS personally i believe that all attempts to reveal the TRUTH in history , needs all the support it can get.
The second part on francogerman joint history
is a little quaigmire,, the ex soviet republics
all 15 had time to make joint history , but it didnt seep through ….at all .
Its different to rewrite history based on common things that bring people together,,,,
much more difficult to explain the root of the
problem , when so many keep hacking away it,
to conceal it , …..
yet there it is THE TRUTH IS STILL THERE .
and to some us , it still burns our souls
as to what future we make and how, based on this.
at least you have taken an initiave,
which i mostly agree……………………=z=
While my knowledge of the history of European politics is at best flimsy, the feeling I get is that at some point, virtually any two entities have been enemies here.
The wheel of history goes around as is often said.
As I understand, it has even been suggested by our Turkish neighbors that children at Greek schools should not be taught about the occupation by the Turks as it creates animosity between the two nations. Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn’t. Should we care about history so far back?
Should we care about the situation in Thessaloniki pre-WW2? From what I understand, some pretty heavy stuff went down at 1912 when the Thessaloniki Jews collected and handed over to the Turks 650 million golden pounds and together with the Turks fought against the Greek army. Maybe I am reading the wrong sources. Please tell me.
The point is that if we concentrate on communities, we loose sight of the individuals who make or break them. I guess after having been away from Greece for so long and now having come back, I cannot necessarily any longer say that Greeks are this or that like I used to. I now see individuals behaving well or behaving badly. In either case they can be infectious with their behaviour.
If this makes no sense you are probably right.
First of all I would like again to thank DD not only for hosting me but also proofing it - a sincere thanks.
I would like to point out that this article does not deal with what happened on WW2 but why it doesn’t get reported TODAY.
@ zardoz: I’m not discussing the responsibilities of that time. I’m merely stating that despite that the History textbook has extensive coverage of greek victims it completely lacks the history of 50.000 greeks who happened to be jewish. This isn’t because of lack of testimonies, nor the lack of lager survivors,at least till the ’90s. Even well known greek writers like Iakovos Kampanellis had been in the german concentration camps so it isn’t even some small obscure episode.
Why the communist-led Resistance of EAM was absent from school textbooks till the early ’80s? The answer is obvious I think, (anticommunist hysteria during the Cold War)
Why is the the greek Shoah completely absent from textbooks today? I leave you to answer.
@ jinger: First I’m not talking about two entities. There was a single Greece in 1943 and more than 10000 greek jews had fought in the ranks of the greek army during the 1940 italian invasion. It isn’t important if it was a jew or a cristian who got killed in the mountains of Pindos, he was a greek soldier.
Under the same premises, it isn’t important if it was a jew or christian that got assassinated by the nazi germans, he was a greek casualty.
As to the 1912 stuff you refer I think it is enough to say that never in the whole history of the Ottoman Empire did a jew got enlisted in the ottoman army - they were exempt from this duty. Plus the amount of money you refer is ridiculously high and to the best of my knowledge no one has ever even mentioned such a thing.
By the way your post seems to say that: “you fought with the turks (not true as we said, ergo you have no rights”. As you can imagine there are severe problematics with this kind of thinking.
I think it is fair to point out that Jinger stated that he might be reading the wrong sources and I think that raises an interesting question.
History it is said, is written by the victor, and I think that is true.
What sources are we reading?
Who wrote that particular version of history and why?
The same is true today. I can read innumerable sources about what is happening in Iraq right now. But those reports differ wildly depending on who is writing and what their political stance is.
The question is what are we going to do now. Is it possible to have a balanced and a more objective view in history education. I think it is important that history is studied (the good and the bad). There must be a way to teach about the Turkish occupation that does not create animosity?
The exclusion of Greek Jewish history from textbooks is just plain wrong and I believe this should be dealt with now.
dear abravanel,
I completely agree with your point, and I am glad that you have chosen to address this issue of ignorance over greek-jewish history, that for me is probably the most important cause of anti-semitism in greece. I have only one minor objection : I see that your blog is written only in english. I think that a blog about all this would fill an important gap in the greek blogosphere. obviously, it would also attract all sorts of trolls and other sad characters (as if you can avoid them anyway), but at least it would be a more direct attempt to communicate with fellow greeks. I know english is the internet’s lingua franca, and I know that dd’s readers are anglophone, I just think that this issue is to important to be addressed only to them, and since you have taken the time to start this blog, please consider posting in greek as well. other than that I wish you good luck and tons of patience ( you’ll need it if you decide to tackle conspiracy theories, support israel’s right to exist etc…)
Danilena, perspectives from people not born and bred in Greece about Greece are often interesting and can reveal some things about the country which the locals often miss. Perspectives from people who have spent a long time abroad can also be the same. English these days is what Greek was in the ancient times.
Maybe you should start your own blog to mirror in greek info presented here in english. So long as you ask for permission and you credit it should be OK.
Hmmm.
Let’s take notes to everybodys’ comments at a historical order:
1) There is no mention in Shoahs’ history about how did the Spanish Jews who were expelled from Spain find an empty city to occupy in Thessalonika. Did someone forget that Thessalonika used to be a city under the authority of the Eastern Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) that faced a number of unpleasant events ranging from the massacre during Theodosius’ “the Great” (buthcher) reign to the Arab raid during Leo VI the “wise” reign or the later Norman conquest. None of these were comparable to the Ottoman conquest that literally emptied the city of its’ citizens. Of course, the Jews were not responsible for that event, but the Greeks were not responsible for the Holocaust either, am I wrong? Why don’t you correct your view of history first by mentioning what happened to the Thessalonikians prior to the arrival of the Jews during the reign of Suleiman the “Magnificent”, before we bother to mention what happened to the Greek Jews during WWII.
2) A note about the Greek revolution and its’ impact at the Greek-Jewish relations. Christianity has several anti-Semitic elements, but the Eastern Romans had no tradition of Coliseums or anti-Semitic purges. The only notable exception is some actions of Leo III the “Isaurian” that were somewhat reasonable given the context of that period. Apart from that, events like the “burning of the Jew” custom, the Pacifico incident or Campbell neighborhood incidents are very distant from the purges that the Jews faced in Western Europe, yet, they cannot be explained by the past relations between the Greek and Jewish communities. That was because of the events of the Greek revolution that sparked the first real anti-Semitic sentiment upon the Greek people. The reason? When the Greeks rebelled for creating their own state, the Jews had no interest at supporting them and remained loyal to the Ottomans, resulting to their expulsion or extermination as “collaborators with the enemy”. That happened in the Peloponesse and turned the relations between Greeks and Jews sour ever since. The Jews kept supporting the Ottomans wherever they ruled, and then started switching support to the Greek and other Balkan statesd wherever they ruled. So, the chance that the Jews of Thessalonika supported the Ottomans financially prior to the Balkan wars is not an oddity by any means, nor is the amount of money unusual. As a matter of fact the Turks kept milking the Jewish “cow” even afterwards. During the WWII, they imposed a “Varlik” (capital tax) upon all of their minorities, and it was quite heavy. The Jews protested (as everybody else including the Greeks did) and some still protest it, but everybody preferred to pay rather than endure what the NAZIs were doing to the Jews under their control. So, perhaps what happened at 1912 to the Jews was just another “Varlik”. Who knows?
P.S.
Do not forget the possible link between the Kemal Ataturn and the Donmes. That played - and still plays - a role in modern Greek anti-Semitism.
3) The history of the Greek Communist party and its’ roots have to be explained in here. The first “Greek” workers’ syndicates in Thessalonika were practically Spanish speaking Jewish syndicates, since the Jews of Thessalonika didn’t exactly utilize Greek neither had gotten used to Greek rule yet at their inception. The predecessor of the Greek Communist Party, SEKE, was founded by a Jew of Thessalonika, named Benaroya. One of the first actions of the Communists was the sabotaging of the actions of the invading Greek army in Turkey during the early 1920’s’ as a response to the Greek support to the Messembrian expedition of the Western powers against the newborn Communist regime in Russia. Although the Communists were weaklings back then and the sabotaging was more words rather than actions, the Greek authorities took notice and a connection between the Communists and the Jews has been firmly established, giving raise to even more anti-Semitism that culminated at the disaster that resulted to the invading Greek army at 1922 and the subsequent expulsion of around 1.500.000 Christians (mostly Greeks) and the extermination of hundreds of thousands. Most of these populations were resettled in Macedonia and gave a huge rise to the population of Thessalonika, where they discovered one of the (least important - insignificant) reasons of their bitter fate…
So, should we try whinning about a genocide for those hundred of thousands of deads or the millions of the expelled too? We have few excuses really, the whole affair was mostly the result of Greek mistakes, and the displaced found a place to reside unlike the Jews of Germany during WWII.
Just keep note that while the Jews lost their importance in the Communist movement in Greece early enough, the anti-Semitism didn’t go away as easy too. Although the Socialists revised the schoolbooks at 1980, the Communists didn’t remember (or want to remember) the Jewish contribution to their past and didn’t put pressure to include the Jews anywhere. At 1980, there were too few Jews left in Greece to force a correct revision of the Greek history, while the Communists were still commanding a strong 10% of the Greek vote.
4) The location of the massacres played an important role in their future rememberance. While the Massacres in Distomo and elsewhere took place within the Greek soil and were vividly remembered by the Greek populations that survived, the most of the Jewish massacres took place in far away places where few Greeks reside, and the survivors fled mostly to Israel rather than Greece resulting to a loss in the Greek memory of their ugly fate. Of course there has been a memory of the Jewish fate that has passed even into the Greek culture, like one of Mimis Theodorakis’ songs that was sung by the Northern Alliance while advancing at Kabul a few years back (and not realizing that the song was about Jews - truly ironic for Muslims who usually hate Jews). Nevertheless, the Jewish actions in Israel in recent times has created a disgust to the Greek public and is currently the main cause of anti-Semitism. Thus, even Theodorakis has turned against the Jewish culture as a source of many evils (and I agree with him too) resulting to the unusual spactacle of labelling a known supporter of the Jews - who is known for his Communist past and his many years in exile and imprisonment - labelled as an anti-Semite (Don’t forget, even Jimmy Carter was labelled an anti-Semite recently!!!). So, the real opposition to the Jews today stems from more recent events in the Middle East, rather that any friction between Greeks and Jews (how could there be since so few of them have survived the Holocaust?)
5) The contribution of the Jews in the Greek army during WWII is undisputable these days, and there is even a claim that the first slain Greek officer was Mardohaios Frizis, a distinguished Greek officer of Jewish background, who was “omitted” because of Anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, one has to remember that the Greek Communist movement was really strong after the WWII resulting to ELAS (the armed wing of EAM, the Communist dominated most powerful of all the organizations of the Greek resistance during the WWII) having control of the 75% of the Greek soil after the departure of the NAZIs. As a result, the British had to conscript a lot of former NAZI collaborators in order to gather a royalist force that could beat ELAS, something that could only succeed only after a Marshall plan and four years of civil war. Well, you can guess the results in historiography…
Petros I’m afraid you misunderstood the topic. The topic isn’t about christian-jewish relations but why a massacre of 50.000 greek civilians is omitted in greek history textbooks. All the other things deserve a discussion of their own.
1. Shoah means Holocaust. Why would there be a need in a book dealing with the extermination of 6.000.000 jews to talk about norman raids in the 800?
If you mean that jewish books don’t mention the history of thessaloniki before 1492 then you make a small mistake because there aren’t any “jewish books”. In the greek jewish schools EXACTLY the same books are used as in greek public schools. What books should be corrected?? Btw we’re talking about the textbook that deals with the 20th century if you haven’t noticed it already.
2. I agree that Greece isn’t characterized by an extremely violent antisemitic past, unlike orthodox Russia or catholic Spain. What does this have to do with the topic? I don’t accuse greeks of the Shoah but I wonder why the extermination of 50.000 greeks doesn’t appear in history textbooks.
3. I am aware of the jewish involvement into founding the greek Communist Party. You imply that since the jews were involved with the communists that tried hard to harm Greece, it was natural for antisemitic feelings to appear. Even if I do accept this, what does it have to do with the post? If I understand your sayings you tell me that 40 years later, a socialist government which had as a cornerstone the recognition of the communist-led Resistance, decided to downplay the greek Shoah because they had helped in establishing the Greek Communist Party??
4. With all due respect this is ridiculous and I kindly ask sorry from DD for the language. You mean that since the massacres of greek civilians were made outside Greece they shouldn’t be taught? Excellent, then wipe out completely the whole 1922 Asia Minor campaign since it was done on soil that is found outside Greece! Even better simply delete the whole WW2 war for the parts outside Greece. Btw remind me to say the same thing when I’ll ask for turkish massacres of Pontioi, (a greek ethnic group that formerly lived in Turkey and was forced to go to Greece), to be omitted for textbooks - then we’ll have a blast!
Btw jews from Thessaloniki were first forced to work on hard labour in Lagadas outside Thessaloniki and there were the first deaths reported. Strange that nobody remembers those.
The survivors didn’t mainly go to Israel as you suggest. The ones survived like my grandparents try to maintain the historic memory but are actively opposed by bigot parts of the greek society. The history of the monument of the Shoah in Thessaloniki proves it.
5. That’s why communist-led Resistance was downplayed till the ’80s when socialists came to power. But after a quarter of a century the communist EAM/ELLAS have not only had their memory restored but currently enjoy a cultural supremacy whereas nothing has been done for 50.000 greeks.
The rest of your comments on agreeing with Theodorakis that “jews are the root of all evils” are indicative of your motivations. Btw I’m sorry I have to repeat that we’re talking about 50.000 greeks because you seem to forget and think we’re talking about foreigners. This is a greek tragedy concerning all of the greeks, the same way nazi massacres are celebrated independently if they concern Cretans, Thessalonician’s or Athenians.
@ danilena: thanks - it wasn’t an easy decision choosing to write in english but I felt that more people get informed the better.
But I do intend to write also in greek.