1943
February 6: Thessaloniki Jews are subjected to restrictive measures
February 22: Athenians defy protest ban to demonstrate against civil mobilisation
February 28: Thessaloniki Jews are confined to a ghetto
March 5: Baron Hirsch Jewish ghetto in Thessaloniki fenced in
March 5: General strike in Athens against civil mobilisation results in 12 dead, 100 injured and scores arrested
March: Metropolitan Gennadios of Thessaloniki petitions to suspend deportations of Jews
March 15: First deportation of Thessaloniki Jews to Auschwitz
March 18: Collaborationist premier Logothetopoulos petitions the highest ranking German civil official, Günther Altenburg, for the immediate suspension of the deportations
March 18: Athens’ merchants and professionals strike against a tax increase
March 20: Trade association presidents petition Finance Minister Sotiris Gotzamanis to avert the deportations of Thessaloniki Jews outside Greece
March 22: Logothetopoulos petitions Altenburg anew to suspend deportations
March 23: Archbishop Damaskinos and representatives of 28 institutions petition Logothetopoulos to suspend deportations of Thessaloniki Jews outside Greek territory.
March 24: Archbishop Damaskinos and representatives of 20 institutions petition Altenburg to immediate suspend deportations
March 30: Holy Synod approves Archbishop’s actions on behalf of Thessaloniki’s Jews
April 11: Gennadios of Thessaloniki mediates a meeting between Chief Rabbi Koretz and Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis
May 5: Ioakeim of Didymoteicho intervenes with Germans against deportations of local Jews, whom he accompanies to the train station while praying
August: General strike in Halkida led by Metropolitan Grigorios Pleiathos to stop the execution of hostages
September: Italy surrenders and German troops move into the Italian occupation zone
September: Archbishop Damaskinos petitions Altenburg against deportation of Jews in southern provinces
September: Archdiocese issues secret circular instructing priests to aid the persecuted
September: Jewish families in Corinth escape to nearby villages
September 18: Archbishop Damaskinos offers to transport Chief Rabbi Barzilai to Egypt
September 21: Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai does not submit a list of Jews in Athens, destroys the records and tells his community to hide
September 22: Barzilai seeks the assistance of the Resistance and agrees to his staged “kidnapping”
September 30: Metropolitan Ioakeim of Dimitriada hides valuables given to him for safekeeping by Volos Jews
September 30: More than 600 Volos Jews flee the city and hide in surrounding villages
September 30: Metropolitan Ioakeim of Dimitriada advises Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah that he and his community should go into hiding; Ioakeim gives Pessah a letter of introduction
October: Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah finds himself in EAM-controlled territory. The Germans burn his home
October: At Grigorios’ behest, gendarmerie lieutenant Oikonomidis provides false IDs to Jews
October 8: German authorities order the Jews of Athens to present themselves to the community daily on penalty of death
October 19: Order issued for Halkida Jews to be registered by name; just 21 show up
October 19: Metropolitan Grigorios of Halkida advises the president of the Jewish Community not to register the members of his community but urges them to flee to nearby villages
November: Volos Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah issues a proclamation to all Greek Jews, urging them to join the resistance
November 11: Chrysostomos of Zakynthos returns to his see
December: Volos Chief Rabbi Moshe Pessah sends plea for help to Britain’s Jews
December: Metropolitan Chrystostomos and Zakynthos Mayor Karrer refuse to provide a list of the island’s Jews and instead submit just their own names
1943 Baptisms of Jews in Athens on sufferance (206 men and 171 women)
1944 Two Jewish families in Thiva receive help from the metropolis and are saved
January: The president of Zakynthos’ Jewish community, Moshe Gani, urges members to go into hiding in the island’s villages
January: Chrysostomos of Zakynthos sends a letter to Hitler via the occupation authorities, petitioning against deportations because the island’s Jews “belonged to his flock”
March: Metropolitan Spyridon of Arta appeals for the Jews of the city not to be harmed. He later advises them to escape to the villages
March 24: Arta Jews deported
March 25: Ioannina Jews deported
March 25: Volos Jews deported
March 26: Metropolitan Spyridon of Ioannina collects sewing machines and valuables from Jewish homes for safeguarding so they can later be returned to their owners; he also saves the synagogue’s ritual objects and prevents the destruction of the old synagogue
April: Grigorios of Halkida saves the synagogue’s Torah scrolls
May: The occupation authorities and their Greek collaborators remove Grigorios of Halkida from his ecclesiastical seat.
May 25: Chief Rabbi David Matsas is the only Jew in Halkida to register
June: In a public statement, Chief Rabbi Elias Barzilai emphasises EAM–ELAS’s aid in saving Jews
June 8: Methodios of Corfu appeals to the German commander to prevent the deportation of the island’s Jews
June 10: Corfu’s Jews are deported
August: The new German commander on Zakynthos demands a list of all Jews, who escape to the villages while Mayor Loukas Karrer flees the island
