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First thing I did upon my arrival was to go to our house. It was just as we had left it. I started trembling. I thought I was hearing my mother’s voice from the kitchen, calling me. I was in great distress. I had no idea at that point what had happened to them.
People started coming back from the camps. I was holding a picture of my mother and another of my sister Jema and went around asking if anyone knew anything about them. Their answer was that they had been burned in the crematorium. I thought they were crazy.
My brother knew the truth from the start because he was listening to Radio London. When I asked him he would answer that everybody was very well. And I believed him. I didn’t know and I couldn’t imagine such a thing. Later on my brother told me the truth.
He asked me not to wander around any more asking about my relatives. He explained that these people that had returned from Auschwitz were not crazy and that they were telling the truth. I started hitting him because for more than two years he had been lying to me. I was in a very bad psychological state for more than one year.
My father, my mother and my youngest siblings, Jema, Isidor and Renica, went to Chalkidiki. The merchants that my father used to collaborate with told him to go there. From Chalkidiki they would pass across to Aghios Nikolaos of Aghion Oros [Mount Athos, the third ‘finger’ of Chalkidiki Peninsula]. From there they would travel with a small boat to Volos [capital of Magnisia district]. If they managed to arrive at Volos, which was under Italian occupation, they would be safe. But the boat didn’t come and they were betrayed.
My father’s associate went to the mayor of the village where they were hiding on Chalkidiki. He told the mayor that if he didn’t send the Karasso family back to Thessaloniki to the Germans, the Germans would come to the village. My father didn’t want to bring damage to the village, so he returned and the Germans never came to this village.
My parents and siblings were the last Jews to leave Thessaloniki along with the Thessaloniki Jewish Community Board members. Michel Michael told us so. As soon as I learned the truth about my family members I gave my mother’s crystal chandelier to the Cal in the memory of Smoel Karasso’s family.
People started coming back from the camps. I was holding a picture of my mother and another of my sister Jema and went around asking if anyone knew anything about them. Their answer was that they had been burned in the crematorium. I thought they were crazy.
My brother knew the truth from the start because he was listening to Radio London. When I asked him he would answer that everybody was very well. And I believed him. I didn’t know and I couldn’t imagine such a thing. Later on my brother told me the truth.
He asked me not to wander around any more asking about my relatives. He explained that these people that had returned from Auschwitz were not crazy and that they were telling the truth. I started hitting him because for more than two years he had been lying to me. I was in a very bad psychological state for more than one year.
My father, my mother and my youngest siblings, Jema, Isidor and Renica, went to Chalkidiki. The merchants that my father used to collaborate with told him to go there. From Chalkidiki they would pass across to Aghios Nikolaos of Aghion Oros [Mount Athos, the third ‘finger’ of Chalkidiki Peninsula]. From there they would travel with a small boat to Volos [capital of Magnisia district]. If they managed to arrive at Volos, which was under Italian occupation, they would be safe. But the boat didn’t come and they were betrayed.
My father’s associate went to the mayor of the village where they were hiding on Chalkidiki. He told the mayor that if he didn’t send the Karasso family back to Thessaloniki to the Germans, the Germans would come to the village. My father didn’t want to bring damage to the village, so he returned and the Germans never came to this village.
My parents and siblings were the last Jews to leave Thessaloniki along with the Thessaloniki Jewish Community Board members. Michel Michael told us so. As soon as I learned the truth about my family members I gave my mother’s crystal chandelier to the Cal in the memory of Smoel Karasso’s family.
Period
Interview
Mirou-Mairy Angel