Selected text
We started learning about the Holocaust in 1945, when the survivors started to come back. First came a cousin of mine, Daisy. She told us stories, not too many, but in any case we knew what had happened. What did we know? We knew who survived and who died. They didn’t feel like telling us a lot. It was due to the necessity to survive and that people had to work in order to live. And this is general. It so happened in France and Germany, they tried to forget somehow.
I started reading about the Holocaust around ten years after the war. There were no books during the first years. The first books were written by my friend Mrs. Counio and another friend of mine, Marcel Nadjari, whose manuscript was found much later buried in Auschwitz. A friend and classmate of mine, René Molho, who lives in America, wrote a small book about the history of his family that was killed in the extermination camp. The most important book was of course that of Erica Counio.
These publications didn’t change the way I looked at this period. This is because we knew everything since we had lived through these events. And I didn’t start talking more. Some events that were organized starting at the beginning of 1990, about the history of Greek Jews, I did follow, from morning until night.
I never spoke about the Holocaust to my children because they knew about it and had heard about it from my mother-in-law and my wife. I didn’t want to speak about it on any occasion. There was no reason, there were books. We had many books at home. There wasn’t any encouragement though, and it wasn’t an issue that came up in our discussions.
Shortly after the war there weren’t any celebrations on behalf of the victims of the Holocaust. At a certain point, however, the Community took initiative to build a monument in the cemetery. There were some celebrations, but a lot later, in 1955.
I do go to the ceremonies for the commemoration of the Holocaust. These haven’t changed over the time. The only difference is that in the meantime many of the survivors of the camps have died. Because the tradition is to call the survivors, ten or twelve, I don’t remember, to light a candle. They become fewer and fewer. These commemorations take place in the synagogue. It’s a religious ceremony for the day of remembrance. Psalms, speeches and candle lighting. Once Venizelos [prominent local MP and ex-minister of the Greek socialist party PASOK], and another time Psomiades [the prefect of Thessaloniki] spoke, on other occasions our own people do.
The ceremony at the Concert Hall is something recent and was introduced a year ago. But our own ceremony in the synagogue is something else. It is a different ceremony. And where the anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel [24] is concerned, it is especially celebrated by the ‘Greece-Israel’ association with a big evening event.
I started reading about the Holocaust around ten years after the war. There were no books during the first years. The first books were written by my friend Mrs. Counio and another friend of mine, Marcel Nadjari, whose manuscript was found much later buried in Auschwitz. A friend and classmate of mine, René Molho, who lives in America, wrote a small book about the history of his family that was killed in the extermination camp. The most important book was of course that of Erica Counio.
These publications didn’t change the way I looked at this period. This is because we knew everything since we had lived through these events. And I didn’t start talking more. Some events that were organized starting at the beginning of 1990, about the history of Greek Jews, I did follow, from morning until night.
I never spoke about the Holocaust to my children because they knew about it and had heard about it from my mother-in-law and my wife. I didn’t want to speak about it on any occasion. There was no reason, there were books. We had many books at home. There wasn’t any encouragement though, and it wasn’t an issue that came up in our discussions.
Shortly after the war there weren’t any celebrations on behalf of the victims of the Holocaust. At a certain point, however, the Community took initiative to build a monument in the cemetery. There were some celebrations, but a lot later, in 1955.
I do go to the ceremonies for the commemoration of the Holocaust. These haven’t changed over the time. The only difference is that in the meantime many of the survivors of the camps have died. Because the tradition is to call the survivors, ten or twelve, I don’t remember, to light a candle. They become fewer and fewer. These commemorations take place in the synagogue. It’s a religious ceremony for the day of remembrance. Psalms, speeches and candle lighting. Once Venizelos [prominent local MP and ex-minister of the Greek socialist party PASOK], and another time Psomiades [the prefect of Thessaloniki] spoke, on other occasions our own people do.
The ceremony at the Concert Hall is something recent and was introduced a year ago. But our own ceremony in the synagogue is something else. It is a different ceremony. And where the anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel [24] is concerned, it is especially celebrated by the ‘Greece-Israel’ association with a big evening event.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel