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Maurice Leon
Athens
Greece
Interviewer: Nina Hatzi
Date of interview: May 2007
Mr. Maurice Leon, 89 years old, lives with his beloved wife Yvette in a small apartment in the suburbs of Athens. Entering the apartment one can fell the warmth of its inhabitants. Everywhere around the house one can see photographs, reminders of the life they had in Thessaloniki and later on in Athens, where they have lived for the last 50 years. One can also see the photographs of his children and grandchildren, who he adores. Having lived all his childhood and youth years in Thessaloniki, Mr. Leon is full of memories of how this town used to be before World War II. He was eager to share these memories along with his worries about the future of Judaism.
My family history
Growing up
Going to school
During the War
After the War
Glossary
My family history
My name is Maurice Leon. I was born in Thessaloniki on 27th September 1918.
Similarly to all Jews of Salonica [1] my ancestors' origins were from Spain. I believe that they came to Salonica in 1492. On my father's side, our ancestors came from Leon district [a province of northwestern Spain] and this is the reason our last name is Leon. When I was a child my father Isaac told me that our ancestors first went to Smyrna [today Izmir, Turkey] and then came to Salonica.
My father's father was called Juda and his mother Rahel. Grandfather Juda was involved in commerce. I remember him going back and forth to the city of Yiannitsa. [Giannitsa (or Yiannitsa): a town in Greece's Pella Prefecture, the largest city in the 'Macedonian Plains' region, chiefly an agricultural center.] My father told us the following story about our grandfather Juda: Once Grandfather Juda was coming from Yiannitsa back to Salonica with his horse. But he was late and found the gate of the fortress of Salonica closed. So he stayed out for the night. He was caught by thieves that wanted the sachet with his money. But he managed to hide it so well that the thieves couldn't find it. So he was able to save the earnings of that day. Later on, my grandfather Juda started a soap factory [2] in Salonica. His children continued this business after him. The factory was finally closed a few years after World War II. I don't know when Grandfather Juda died.
My mother Riketa's origins were also from Spain. My mother's mother was called Benuta. Grandmother Benuta was the sister of my father's first wife, Jamila. My mother's father was called Ovadia Sciaky. I don't know anything else about Grandmother Benuta and Grandfather Ovadia.
My father's name was Isaac Leon. He was born around 1870 and died in 1949. My father's brothers were Jomtov and Samuel and his sisters were Sara, Lea and Benvenida.
My father was very authoritarian. When we sat at the table nobody was allowed to talk. And if somebody was talking a lot, my father would tell him or her to leave the table and go sit in the kitchen.
My father Isaac was married twice. His first wife's name was Jamila Sason. One interesting detail of that period of time was that my father's second wife Riketa, my mother, was the niece of his first wife Jamila. So my mother was first cousins with my father's and his first wife Jamila's children. His second wife was my mother Riketa, nee Sciaky. My mother was born around 1900 and died in 1970.
My mother Riketa was like all mothers. She loved her children very much. She was kind and never got angry. She had a very kind character. My mother didn't wear traditional clothes. She was dressed according to the fashion of the time. But she would always wear a hat on formal occasions.
I also remember my mother's sister Flor Pinchas, nee Sciaky, and her daughter, our cousin, Rahel Pinchas. My aunt Flor went to live in Israel before World War II. She was the one that saved all our family photographs.
Growing up
We were a very big family. We were seven siblings. The first four were my father's first wife Jamila's children. The last three were my father's second wife Riketa's children. Although there was a significant age difference between Riketa's and Jamila's children, all siblings had a very close relationship.
The eldest was my sister Rahel. She was around 15 to 20 years older than me. She was married to our cousin Alberto Leon, son of my father's brother Samuel Leon. Thus my sister Rahel was called Leon before and after she married. My mother told me that when my sister Rahel got married my youngest sister Berta was about to be born. And something very characteristic was that later on my mother Riketa and my sister Rahel were breastfeeding together! I don't remember my eldest sister Rahel at home, before her marriage. Neither do I remember her wedding. But I remember she was living very close by and we were always together.
I remember also Rahel's children, my cousins Samuel-Sam Leon and Niko Leon, who was born unhealthy. Sam Leon was born around 1924 and lives in Thessaloniki. Niko Leon died in Switzerland a while after World War II.
After Rahel, in 1905 I suppose, my brother Juda was born. Juda was married to Victoria, nee Molho, and had two children, Niko and Nina. After Juda came Jacque Leon. He was born around 1910. And the last of my father's first wife Jamila's children was Sara. Sara was born in 1912. I remember her wedding in 1936 very well. Sara was married to Sam Amarilio. They chose to have their wedding at Matanot Laevionim [3]. It was a welfare institution and had a synagogue, too. Their marriage was very aristocratic.
After Sara, Zan was born in 1916. She was the first of my father's second wife Riketa's children. Zan was married to Eli Cohen and had two children, Helen and Harry. They went to Montreal in Canada. I was born after Zan and last was Berta Matathias, nee Leon, born in 1926.
We had the soap factory that my grandfather had started. We were producing green soap and sold it to all merchandisers in Thessaloniki. The factory was at 30 Prometheus Street. We had fifteen people working for us. Most of them were men but we had two or three women, too. In the meantime my father had started a business in Skopje and he was going there very often. He was partner in a soap factory there. I still remember the name of that company. It was called Tasha Staits and Company. They were Serbians and were producing the same soap as ours in Thessaloniki.
At our factory in Thessaloniki, apart from my father, were also working my brother Juda and my cousin Alberto Leon, who was married to my eldest sister Rahel. I didn't work there before the war. I was too young.
In 1935 we became associates with Vasilis Giakos who had a soap factory, too. We decided this in order to expand our business. Together with Mr. Giakos we formed a company named Leon & Giakos, thus having the monopoly of soap production. We were in business together until 1957 when we shut down the soap factory.
I remember well the house I grew up in. At first we had a house on Kleanthous Street in Thessaloniki. Later on we moved to another house on Italias Street. I was twelve years old when we left the house on Kleanthous Street. I remember it had a big yard, many rooms, and a cellar, where they had a big barrel with 'alisiva' [or aleshiva: detergent made with ashes mixed with water] that was used for washing the clothes. We had both water and electricity in our house. I remember that my bedroom was very small, but I was sleeping alone. The rest of my siblings were sleeping by two in each bedroom. In the garden were many trees, flowers and a well.
Our neighborhood was Jewish. I don't remember the names of our neighbors. There were also some houses that Christians lived in but the majority was Jewish homes.
We left the house on Kleanthous Street and moved to another on Italias Street because it was bigger and more convenient. Our second house was a big corner house. It doesn't exist any more. A few years ago I went to look for it, but they've put an apartment building in its place.
I remember this house very clearly. It had a well in the yard. It had a big entrance hall. There was a big corridor. On the right there were three bedrooms. All my siblings had their own bedroom, apart from my sisters who were sharing bedrooms by two. At the end there was a very small room. On the left was the dining room. There was also the kitchen with a place where we would put the coals and the ice box. There was a wandering merchant selling big blocks of ice. We would buy ice from him and put it in the ice box in order to preserve the food.
We knew all our neighbors in this neighborhood. They were all Jews and we had very good relationships. I remember that near our house was the Krispi's bakery where we would buy our bread. Also living in this neighborhood was a family called Petsa and a lady called Mrs. Makri. We were very good neighbors with them, too.
As children we would play together with the children living in our neighborhood. There was a big yard near a Romanian school where Romanian children were studying. In this yard we used to play football.
We had people helping with the housework. There was a woman from Aivat. [Editor's note: Aivat is a poor village in the mountains surrounding Thessaloniki. Many housemaids came from there. Now it is called Diavata.] Her name was Paraskevi and she was staying with us until World War II. My mother was also calling periodically another woman for the laundry.
My mother usually didn't do the shopping. The shopping was done by my father. He would buy from the market and send them to the house with a 'chamalis' [Turkish: hamal: folk expression for delivery service]. There were also the 'bakalika' [Greek: small general food stores] of our neighborhood were we could do the shopping. We didn't buy kosher meat.
At home we were talking Judeo-Spanish, Ladino [4], as we were growing up. Jewish life in Thessaloniki was very vivid, both religiously and socially. In our house we didn't observe the Sabbath fanatically. But the Jewish holidays were very meticulously celebrated in our house.
There were many preparations done at home for Pesach. Most of them were done by the women of the house. I remember they wouldn't leave even a tiny piece of bread inside the house. They were checking everywhere. The women of the house prepared food according to pascoual [5] dietary laws. They wouldn't allow any food that wasn't permitted for Pesach.
Usually we wouldn't go to the synagogue on Pesach. The first night the whole family would sit around the dinner table. We read the Haggadah in Ladino. First my father was reading and then the children in turns. It was something wonderful how many we were gathered around the Pesach table. We were more than twenty. And if there were people, even strangers passing by, we would invite them in, too.
I remember something very characteristic about Pesach. I was around twelve years old and by that time we were living on Italias Street. It was the first night of Pesach. I was late for Pesach dinner that night. As I was walking from the bus station to our house I could hear from the open windows of the houses I was passing the recitation of the Haggadah. All Jewish homes had their windows wide open and the reading of the Haggadah could be heard out in the street.
I also remember the matzot that we ate. We would buy it from the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. We had a big wooden box and we placed the matzah we bought there. It was in big pieces. We were eager to eat it. But the food that I liked best on Pesach was 'massa en caldo' [Ladino for: matzah in gravy soup or boullion], something like a soup made with matzah.
On [Yom] Kippur we were fasting. We would eat very early in the afternoon and wish each other a good Kippur. That was all. What I remember very distinctively about Kippur, is that very early in the morning someone was passing by yelling: 'Que se alevanta selihot' - Who will wake up early in the morning to go to the synagogue? [Editor's note: The custom of waking up early in the pre morning hours to recite Selihot during the 40 days from Rosh Hodesh Elul until Yom Kippur is codified in Shulhan Aruch (Orah Hayim 581; 1). The Selihot prayers were designed to facilitate Teshubah (repentance) in preparation for the annual Day of Judgement. (Source: http://www.judaic.org/halakhot/selihot.htm)] Kippur was the day that we did nothing else but go to the synagogue. I went to the synagogue with my father. My brothers wouldn't come. They were not so fanatic about it.
Near our house there was a synagogue called Beit Saul Synagogue [6], which doesn't exist any more. It was destroyed. Beit Saul was astonishing. It was very big. On Kippur it was full of people. There were even people standing outside. At night we would return from the synagogue and eat again all together at home.
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Maurice Leon
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Maurice Leon
Athens
Greece
Interviewer: Nina Hatzi
Date of interview: May 2007
Mr. Maurice Leon, 89 years old, lives with his beloved wife Yvette in a small apartment in the suburbs of Athens. Entering the apartment one can fell the warmth of its inhabitants. Everywhere around the house one can see photographs, reminders of the life they had in Thessaloniki and later on in Athens, where they have lived for the last 50 years. One can also see the photographs of his children and grandchildren, who he adores. Having lived all his childhood and youth years in Thessaloniki, Mr. Leon is full of memories of how this town used to be before World War II. He was eager to share these memories along with his worries about the future of Judaism.
My family history
Growing up
Going to school
During the War
After the War
Glossary
My family history
My name is Maurice Leon. I was born in Thessaloniki on 27th September 1918.
Similarly to all Jews of Salonica [1] my ancestors' origins were from Spain. I believe that they came to Salonica in 1492. On my father's side, our ancestors came from Leon district [a province of northwestern Spain] and this is the reason our last name is Leon. When I was a child my father Isaac told me that our ancestors first went to Smyrna [today Izmir, Turkey] and then came to Salonica.
My father's father was called Juda and his mother Rahel. Grandfather Juda was involved in commerce. I remember him going back and forth to the city of Yiannitsa. [Giannitsa (or Yiannitsa): a town in Greece's Pella Prefecture, the largest city in the 'Macedonian Plains' region, chiefly an agricultural center.] My father told us the following story about our grandfather Juda: Once Grandfather Juda was coming from Yiannitsa back to Salonica with his horse. But he was late and found the gate of the fortress of Salonica closed. So he stayed out for the night. He was caught by thieves that wanted the sachet with his money. But he managed to hide it so well that the thieves couldn't find it. So he was able to save the earnings of that day. Later on, my grandfather Juda started a soap factory [2] in Salonica. His children continued this business after him. The factory was finally closed a few years after World War II. I don't know when Grandfather Juda died.
My mother Riketa's origins were also from Spain. My mother's mother was called Benuta. Grandmother Benuta was the sister of my father's first wife, Jamila. My mother's father was called Ovadia Sciaky. I don't know anything else about Grandmother Benuta and Grandfather Ovadia.
My father's name was Isaac Leon. He was born around 1870 and died in 1949. My father's brothers were Jomtov and Samuel and his sisters were Sara, Lea and Benvenida.
My father was very authoritarian. When we sat at the table nobody was allowed to talk. And if somebody was talking a lot, my father would tell him or her to leave the table and go sit in the kitchen.
My father Isaac was married twice. His first wife's name was Jamila Sason. One interesting detail of that period of time was that my father's second wife Riketa, my mother, was the niece of his first wife Jamila. So my mother was first cousins with my father's and his first wife Jamila's children. His second wife was my mother Riketa, nee Sciaky. My mother was born around 1900 and died in 1970.
My mother Riketa was like all mothers. She loved her children very much. She was kind and never got angry. She had a very kind character. My mother didn't wear traditional clothes. She was dressed according to the fashion of the time. But she would always wear a hat on formal occasions.
I also remember my mother's sister Flor Pinchas, nee Sciaky, and her daughter, our cousin, Rahel Pinchas. My aunt Flor went to live in Israel before World War II. She was the one that saved all our family photographs.
Growing up
We were a very big family. We were seven siblings. The first four were my father's first wife Jamila's children. The last three were my father's second wife Riketa's children. Although there was a significant age difference between Riketa's and Jamila's children, all siblings had a very close relationship.
The eldest was my sister Rahel. She was around 15 to 20 years older than me. She was married to our cousin Alberto Leon, son of my father's brother Samuel Leon. Thus my sister Rahel was called Leon before and after she married. My mother told me that when my sister Rahel got married my youngest sister Berta was about to be born. And something very characteristic was that later on my mother Riketa and my sister Rahel were breastfeeding together! I don't remember my eldest sister Rahel at home, before her marriage. Neither do I remember her wedding. But I remember she was living very close by and we were always together.
I remember also Rahel's children, my cousins Samuel-Sam Leon and Niko Leon, who was born unhealthy. Sam Leon was born around 1924 and lives in Thessaloniki. Niko Leon died in Switzerland a while after World War II.
After Rahel, in 1905 I suppose, my brother Juda was born. Juda was married to Victoria, nee Molho, and had two children, Niko and Nina. After Juda came Jacque Leon. He was born around 1910. And the last of my father's first wife Jamila's children was Sara. Sara was born in 1912. I remember her wedding in 1936 very well. Sara was married to Sam Amarilio. They chose to have their wedding at Matanot Laevionim [3]. It was a welfare institution and had a synagogue, too. Their marriage was very aristocratic.
After Sara, Zan was born in 1916. She was the first of my father's second wife Riketa's children. Zan was married to Eli Cohen and had two children, Helen and Harry. They went to Montreal in Canada. I was born after Zan and last was Berta Matathias, nee Leon, born in 1926.
We had the soap factory that my grandfather had started. We were producing green soap and sold it to all merchandisers in Thessaloniki. The factory was at 30 Prometheus Street. We had fifteen people working for us. Most of them were men but we had two or three women, too. In the meantime my father had started a business in Skopje and he was going there very often. He was partner in a soap factory there. I still remember the name of that company. It was called Tasha Staits and Company. They were Serbians and were producing the same soap as ours in Thessaloniki.
At our factory in Thessaloniki, apart from my father, were also working my brother Juda and my cousin Alberto Leon, who was married to my eldest sister Rahel. I didn't work there before the war. I was too young.
In 1935 we became associates with Vasilis Giakos who had a soap factory, too. We decided this in order to expand our business. Together with Mr. Giakos we formed a company named Leon & Giakos, thus having the monopoly of soap production. We were in business together until 1957 when we shut down the soap factory.
I remember well the house I grew up in. At first we had a house on Kleanthous Street in Thessaloniki. Later on we moved to another house on Italias Street. I was twelve years old when we left the house on Kleanthous Street. I remember it had a big yard, many rooms, and a cellar, where they had a big barrel with 'alisiva' [or aleshiva: detergent made with ashes mixed with water] that was used for washing the clothes. We had both water and electricity in our house. I remember that my bedroom was very small, but I was sleeping alone. The rest of my siblings were sleeping by two in each bedroom. In the garden were many trees, flowers and a well.
Our neighborhood was Jewish. I don't remember the names of our neighbors. There were also some houses that Christians lived in but the majority was Jewish homes.
We left the house on Kleanthous Street and moved to another on Italias Street because it was bigger and more convenient. Our second house was a big corner house. It doesn't exist any more. A few years ago I went to look for it, but they've put an apartment building in its place.
I remember this house very clearly. It had a well in the yard. It had a big entrance hall. There was a big corridor. On the right there were three bedrooms. All my siblings had their own bedroom, apart from my sisters who were sharing bedrooms by two. At the end there was a very small room. On the left was the dining room. There was also the kitchen with a place where we would put the coals and the ice box. There was a wandering merchant selling big blocks of ice. We would buy ice from him and put it in the ice box in order to preserve the food.
We knew all our neighbors in this neighborhood. They were all Jews and we had very good relationships. I remember that near our house was the Krispi's bakery where we would buy our bread. Also living in this neighborhood was a family called Petsa and a lady called Mrs. Makri. We were very good neighbors with them, too.
As children we would play together with the children living in our neighborhood. There was a big yard near a Romanian school where Romanian children were studying. In this yard we used to play football.
We had people helping with the housework. There was a woman from Aivat. [Editor's note: Aivat is a poor village in the mountains surrounding Thessaloniki. Many housemaids came from there. Now it is called Diavata.] Her name was Paraskevi and she was staying with us until World War II. My mother was also calling periodically another woman for the laundry.
My mother usually didn't do the shopping. The shopping was done by my father. He would buy from the market and send them to the house with a 'chamalis' [Turkish: hamal: folk expression for delivery service]. There were also the 'bakalika' [Greek: small general food stores] of our neighborhood were we could do the shopping. We didn't buy kosher meat.
At home we were talking Judeo-Spanish, Ladino [4], as we were growing up. Jewish life in Thessaloniki was very vivid, both religiously and socially. In our house we didn't observe the Sabbath fanatically. But the Jewish holidays were very meticulously celebrated in our house.
There were many preparations done at home for Pesach. Most of them were done by the women of the house. I remember they wouldn't leave even a tiny piece of bread inside the house. They were checking everywhere. The women of the house prepared food according to pascoual [5] dietary laws. They wouldn't allow any food that wasn't permitted for Pesach.
Usually we wouldn't go to the synagogue on Pesach. The first night the whole family would sit around the dinner table. We read the Haggadah in Ladino. First my father was reading and then the children in turns. It was something wonderful how many we were gathered around the Pesach table. We were more than twenty. And if there were people, even strangers passing by, we would invite them in, too.
I remember something very characteristic about Pesach. I was around twelve years old and by that time we were living on Italias Street. It was the first night of Pesach. I was late for Pesach dinner that night. As I was walking from the bus station to our house I could hear from the open windows of the houses I was passing the recitation of the Haggadah. All Jewish homes had their windows wide open and the reading of the Haggadah could be heard out in the street.
I also remember the matzot that we ate. We would buy it from the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. We had a big wooden box and we placed the matzah we bought there. It was in big pieces. We were eager to eat it. But the food that I liked best on Pesach was 'massa en caldo' [Ladino for: matzah in gravy soup or boullion], something like a soup made with matzah.
On [Yom] Kippur we were fasting. We would eat very early in the afternoon and wish each other a good Kippur. That was all. What I remember very distinctively about Kippur, is that very early in the morning someone was passing by yelling: 'Que se alevanta selihot' - Who will wake up early in the morning to go to the synagogue? [Editor's note: The custom of waking up early in the pre morning hours to recite Selihot during the 40 days from Rosh Hodesh Elul until Yom Kippur is codified in Shulhan Aruch (Orah Hayim 581; 1). The Selihot prayers were designed to facilitate Teshubah (repentance) in preparation for the annual Day of Judgement. (Source: http://www.judaic.org/halakhot/selihot.htm)] Kippur was the day that we did nothing else but go to the synagogue. I went to the synagogue with my father. My brothers wouldn't come. They were not so fanatic about it.
Near our house there was a synagogue called Beit Saul Synagogue [6], which doesn't exist any more. It was destroyed. Beit Saul was astonishing. It was very big. On Kippur it was full of people. There were even people standing outside. At night we would return from the synagogue and eat again all together at home.
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Interview
Maurice Leon