Synagonistis: Greek Jews in the National Resistance

After the six-month war onthe Albanian front, in April 1941 Greece succumbed to the forces of the Wehrmacht and for the next three-and-a-half years experienced the darkest period of its modern history. Despite the unbearable terror, executions and the famine during the first winter of 1941–42 that decimated the population, especially in urban centres, Greeks by the thousands were won over tothe idea of resistance. In 1943, Athens was gripped by strikes and demonstrations which were steeped in the blood of its residents, while from 1941 insurgent groups appeared in the countryside and in 1943–1944 they became real partisan armies that engaged in regular battles with the occupiers.The victims of struggle against the occupiers were many: more than 30,000 died in combat, were murdered or executed; more than 800 villages were burned in retaliation and the country’s infrastructure destroyed.

Greek Jews were not absent from this struggle, which embraced the whole country and its people. In the general patriotic upsurge during the occupation, the survival instinct blended with the desire for revenge. The deportations of thousands of co-religionists, relatives and friends – and the terrorism, humiliation and executions which preceded them – sparked the emergence of a dynamic resistance on the part of the Jews.

Although the available data is limited and fragmentary, it is estimated that about 650 Jewish men and women, from almost all the Jewish communities in the country, enlisted in the various resistance groups from the beginning of the occupation to the liberation or joined the partisans to escape the grasp of the Nazis. The exhibition “Synagonistis: Greek Jews in the National Resistance” aims to highlight this heroic, but also torn-out page of modern greek history. To narrate the tale of Greek Jewish resistance during World War II. To pay tribute to all those who refused to bear the Yellow Star, by naming them and presenting personal documents, photos, testimonies that underline their courage and self-sacrifice during the darkest times. Identifying the fallen resisters, one by one, is the minimum debt owed to those who chose the glorious death of a warrior mixed their blood with the ashes of the thousands of their coreligionists who were murdered by the Nazis.

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Synagonistis: Greek Jews in the National Resistance

MOIS YUSSUROUM

Mois (Maurice) Yousouroum hails from a historical Greek Jewish family. His grandfather, Bochor, came from Smyrna to Athens in 1860 and opened an antique...

JEWISH RESISTANCE IN OCCUPIED EUROPE

The widespread perception that the Jewish populations of Europe were led blindly and obediently like "sheep to the slaughter" to Hitler's death camps does...

The Greek resistance and the Jews, 1941–1944

Although the available data is limited and fragmentary, it is estimated that about 650 Jewish men and women, from almost all the Jewish communities...

FROM THE GHETTOS OF THESSALONIKI TO THE PARTISANS

Of the 55,250 Thessaloniki Jews, about 400 managed to make their way to partisan-held territory in Greece. Apart from those who were already in...

THESSALY: PARTISAN CRADLE

More than 100 Jews from Larissa, Volos, Trikala and Karditsa were active in the national-liberation struggle. Louiza Negrin was arrested and imprisoned by the...

JEWISH WARRIORS IN ROUMELI

Central Greeceor “Roumeli” was at the heart of "Free Greece". It was where the ELAS General Headquarters was based, along with five guerrilla regiments...

COMBATANTS AND INTELLECTUALS IN EPIRUS

In Epirus, the dense German encampments, the difficulty of the terrain and cohesion between the communities meant that some Jews of Ioannina and Arta...

RESISTANCE PRESS IN THE MOUNTAINS

Just as powerful as bullets were the words of the partisans. Thousands of leaflets and hundreds of publications circulated illegally in villages and occupied...

THE TRAINBUSTERS OF OLYMPOS

One of the special partisan units was the elite “Engineers Company” of the ΙELAS Division, operating in the Mt Olympos region, under the command...

DANELOS ALCHANATIS

Danelos Alchanatis was born in Athens in 1922. After completing the historical 8th Boys’ Gymnasium (high school) on Koumoundourou Square, he enrolled to study...

SARA YESHUA

Born in the "Ovriaki" (Jewish quarter) of Chalkida in 1927, Sara (or Sarika) Yeshua belongs to the emblematic figures of the resistance. When the...

ZAK KOSTIS

The resistance activity of Zak Kostis reads like a novel. Born in Chalkida, Evia, in 1912 to Moschon and Hana Kostis, he was a...

ALLEGRA FELOUS

One of the most “politically minded” Jews in the Resistance was born on 17 January 1916 in Trikala. She was the second daughter of...

IOSSIF NISSIM

Iossif Nissim first saw the light of day on Sarantaporou St in Thessaloniki on 22 February 1919. He was the fourth child of merchant...

Documentary film

The documentary “Synagonistis. Greek Jews in the National Resistance”, was created to complement the JMG temporary exhibition under the same title. They constitute part...

Exhibition Contributors

The Jewish Museum of Greece would like to kindly thank the following organizations and institutions for graciously sharing archival, photographic and audiovisual material: The Contemporary...