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After the star was introduced, they gathered people on Freedom Square [Eleutherias Square] [15] near the city center. These things we didn’t see, we only heard of them. They had them make exercises. Leo didn’t have to present himself because he was Spanish. Some time later they sent all the Jews to Poland, and only then did they send for the Spanish Jews.
The Spanish citizens had remained in Thessaloniki, among them Leo and his family. His two brothers, Albertos and Isidor, went to the synagogue where all Spanish Jews had to present themselves under the pretext that the Germans wanted to speak to them. But Leo didn’t go, he went to the building across, where his dentist, Fanis Anagnostopoulos, was and from his window he could see what was happening. In the meantime, while many went to the synagogue with their own cars and others on foot, Leo suddenly saw they were driven away on trucks that the Germans had brought.
I was at home, in the two rooms we had rented, and suddenly my father came and started telling me what had happened in the synagogue. In the meantime Leo had left the dentist’s place and gone straight to my father’s house. My father reassured me that Leo was with him.
In my neighborhood, which was between Aghia Triada and Fleming, it became known that the Germans had caught the Spanish Jews. The neighbors knew we were Spanish and started bulging into the house, taking this and that. There were many doors and verandas. I would scream at them ‘Wait, we are not leaving!’ In the meantime, my father came, he closed the doors, and in that way we saved certain things.
The people probably thought: ‘Since you are going to leave only with a bunch of clothes and the furniture will stay behind, why should the Germans take it.’ I don’t blame them on account of the looting, partly they were right. Meanwhile the Germans had requisitioned one room in the house of Jacques Levi – after he left for the camp – and Leo and I were still staying in the other room.
The Spanish citizens had remained in Thessaloniki, among them Leo and his family. His two brothers, Albertos and Isidor, went to the synagogue where all Spanish Jews had to present themselves under the pretext that the Germans wanted to speak to them. But Leo didn’t go, he went to the building across, where his dentist, Fanis Anagnostopoulos, was and from his window he could see what was happening. In the meantime, while many went to the synagogue with their own cars and others on foot, Leo suddenly saw they were driven away on trucks that the Germans had brought.
I was at home, in the two rooms we had rented, and suddenly my father came and started telling me what had happened in the synagogue. In the meantime Leo had left the dentist’s place and gone straight to my father’s house. My father reassured me that Leo was with him.
In my neighborhood, which was between Aghia Triada and Fleming, it became known that the Germans had caught the Spanish Jews. The neighbors knew we were Spanish and started bulging into the house, taking this and that. There were many doors and verandas. I would scream at them ‘Wait, we are not leaving!’ In the meantime, my father came, he closed the doors, and in that way we saved certain things.
The people probably thought: ‘Since you are going to leave only with a bunch of clothes and the furniture will stay behind, why should the Germans take it.’ I don’t blame them on account of the looting, partly they were right. Meanwhile the Germans had requisitioned one room in the house of Jacques Levi – after he left for the camp – and Leo and I were still staying in the other room.
Period
Interview
Eugenia Abravenel