The Chief Rabbi of Athens destroyed membership lists of the Jewish community and then disappeared rather than comply with German demands to hand them over to the Gestapo when a German garrison replaced the Italians in the Greek capital, it was revealed here today by Jean Politis, a former Greek diplomat.
Politis, who escaped from Greece a month ago, said that one of the first German moves was directed against the Jews. When the Chief Rabbi disobeyed the demands to hand over the lists, they began a house-to-house search for Jews. Previously, Politis said, all 50,000 Jews of Salonike had been deported to an unknown destinations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
