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I had a cousin Daisy Saltiel who had become a nurse. She took lessons, she became a nurse and worked very much. The day the Germans entered Thessaloniki Grandfather died. He died where we lived, in Evzonon. He was old. It was a difficult period. When the Germans came I stopped working. We did no longer communicate with the rest of the world, there were no imports, the office had slackened and I did no longer go there. I did various jobs, whatever I could find. Black market. I had a friend who had a warehouse with razors and I helped him sell them. This was done in the open, there was no control. It was a difficult time.
Since Grandfather died, my mother had some income from rents and we lived on it. She owned some property. The house on Evzonon Street was ours. She had some shops on Kalapothaki Street [in the commercial district of the center of the city] and two apartments. My uncles Sam and Saul didn’t help us at all. We didn’t need any help.
There was of course great shortage in many things, but I don’t remember that we starved. We shopped in our neighborhood. There was food, but in very limited quantity. There was lack of meat and fish. This is how it was in the winter of 1941. And the same was the case in 1942. We lived on income from rent, which wasn’t much. This is because the rents were frozen. Some paid and others didn’t, it was a bit tough. But we received some money and lived on it.
During this time I did nothing much. I would meet my friends, in the same places, in the house. A couple of times we went to Tsitsanis [Vassilis Titsanis, the most celebrated rebetiko folk song singer and writer of Greece]. In 1942 he was somewhere on Pavlou Mela Street [street in the center of the city where Tsitsanis had opened a tavern], somewhere nearby. We went by coincidence. I had a friend who was a couple of years older than me, and who smoked, he was more modern. Boubis, he was more street smart. One day he proposed that I go and listen to bouzouki [Anatolian plucked folk instrument] and we did. I hadn’t a clue about bouzouki. At the time it was associated with the world of hashish smokers and small criminals.
In 1942 I started working in the Jewish Community. I didn’t have anything else to do and went there as a volunteer, to spend my time and write on the typewriter. There was always work to be done: lists, translations and other things. I worked there on and off until 1943. I remember Rabbi Koretz [9]. I just saw him when he came by the Community while I worked there. He was an important person. He was the chief rabbi.
Since Grandfather died, my mother had some income from rents and we lived on it. She owned some property. The house on Evzonon Street was ours. She had some shops on Kalapothaki Street [in the commercial district of the center of the city] and two apartments. My uncles Sam and Saul didn’t help us at all. We didn’t need any help.
There was of course great shortage in many things, but I don’t remember that we starved. We shopped in our neighborhood. There was food, but in very limited quantity. There was lack of meat and fish. This is how it was in the winter of 1941. And the same was the case in 1942. We lived on income from rent, which wasn’t much. This is because the rents were frozen. Some paid and others didn’t, it was a bit tough. But we received some money and lived on it.
During this time I did nothing much. I would meet my friends, in the same places, in the house. A couple of times we went to Tsitsanis [Vassilis Titsanis, the most celebrated rebetiko folk song singer and writer of Greece]. In 1942 he was somewhere on Pavlou Mela Street [street in the center of the city where Tsitsanis had opened a tavern], somewhere nearby. We went by coincidence. I had a friend who was a couple of years older than me, and who smoked, he was more modern. Boubis, he was more street smart. One day he proposed that I go and listen to bouzouki [Anatolian plucked folk instrument] and we did. I hadn’t a clue about bouzouki. At the time it was associated with the world of hashish smokers and small criminals.
In 1942 I started working in the Jewish Community. I didn’t have anything else to do and went there as a volunteer, to spend my time and write on the typewriter. There was always work to be done: lists, translations and other things. I worked there on and off until 1943. I remember Rabbi Koretz [9]. I just saw him when he came by the Community while I worked there. He was an important person. He was the chief rabbi.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel