Gestapo Deports 2,000 Greek and Foreign Jews from Athens to Poland

The Greek Government-in-Exile today reported that approximately 2,000 Jewish residents of Athens, including holders of Spanish, Italian and Turkish passports, were deported by the Germans to occupied Poland last month. The deportation took place despite protests of foreign ambassadors in Greece, the report stated.

“The conditions under which these victims of German barbarism were transported are terrible,” the statement of the Greek Government said. “Trucks in which men, women and children, healthy and sick alike, were loaded were formerly used to haul coal and wood, and have only one entrance which is sealed by an iron bar, and one small railed window. The Germans closed even this small window with barbed wire, thus making any communication with the outside impossible.

“The Jews had to remain for two whole days in the trucks in the railway station before they were loaded onto trains. During this time one woman died and another gave birth to a child without any medical assistance. The Germans gave no food or water to their victims. The Greek Red Cross, when informed of what had happened, sent some truckloads of food to the railway station. The German officers in command, however, refused to open to doors of the trucks on the pretext that they were ordered to forbid any communication with the Jews. The only concession made was to remove the barbed wire from the windows, through which the Greek Nursing Sisters threw what little food they could,” the statement concluded.