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Upon our return to Thessaloniki I started working at my uncle’s Sam office. We were the only two left from the family and we started trying to put work in motion: representations and exports, again in partnership with the company Dimitrakopoulos-Xenakis. I was an employee, not a partner. After the war the office continued to have employees. The clerk was the same and we had two Christian girls. The business did very well.
There were a lot of problems before we started, but there was a lot of work too. The borders had opened and so business started. In general the market was in need of imports which had stopped for three years. We still had representations from before the war and new contacts of which my uncle took care. We brought in merchandise and did exports. We had our own storage houses, and very many clients and collaborators that were Christian. We didn’t have many contacts with Jewish merchants, since most of them were no longer around. In Thessaloniki we were one of the biggest representation offices.
My brother started working too, and my mother had some income from rents, low rents, nothing big, but it was something nevertheless. During that time the Joint [18] helped too. I did not get anything there, because the Joint dealt mainly with people who had returned from the camp and had nothing. Those, who didn’t even have a family, nor a house, nor money or anything else. These were helped very generously by the Joint.
There were a lot of problems before we started, but there was a lot of work too. The borders had opened and so business started. In general the market was in need of imports which had stopped for three years. We still had representations from before the war and new contacts of which my uncle took care. We brought in merchandise and did exports. We had our own storage houses, and very many clients and collaborators that were Christian. We didn’t have many contacts with Jewish merchants, since most of them were no longer around. In Thessaloniki we were one of the biggest representation offices.
My brother started working too, and my mother had some income from rents, low rents, nothing big, but it was something nevertheless. During that time the Joint [18] helped too. I did not get anything there, because the Joint dealt mainly with people who had returned from the camp and had nothing. Those, who didn’t even have a family, nor a house, nor money or anything else. These were helped very generously by the Joint.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel