A series of incidents which have occurred in this province during the last few weeks tend to support the theory that the Nazi party in Germany is encouraging the anti-Jewish agitation here, and the formation of a political party which persists in fomenting trouble.
The party, technically National Socialistic with a Greek nationalist and anti-Semitic platform, is known as the “E.E.E.” Recently governmental orders curbing its activities forced leaders to reorganize the ranks under a political banner, in this way avoiding the possibility of disintegration by officials opposed to its propaganda activities. Greek law protects political groups.
“E.E.E.” has created as its chief means of propaganda a newspaper called Adialaktos, edited by M. Fardis, former editor of Makedonia, an active anti-Semitic periodical. Recently a delegate from Salonica was sent to Berlin, where he conferred with Nazi officials and strengthened the ties between the local party and the parent groups.
This week a delegation of twenty-five Nazis who had come to Athens from Germany, made a short stop at Salonica, where they were given a royal welcome.
On Sunday a detachment of E.E.E. members paraded through the streets of the Jewish quarter. Their group singing and other well-advertised sentiments all but created a panic among the Jewish population, many of whom remember the 1931 riots in the Campbell Jewish quarter of the city.
It is of interest that on the invitation of the new Spanish government, a number of Jewish families of Spanish origin have emigrated to Madrid, where they intend to settle permanently. Economic troubles here have created a marked desire on the part of many Jews to change their habitation, especially in view of the growing threat in Greece of anti-Semitic movements.
A workers’ syndicate has made a grant to each of twenty families whose breadwinners are tobacconists, and who are leaving to settle in Spain on account of hard times here.
By a recent decree of the Tsaldaris administration, Yom Kippur has been established as a legal holiday in Salonica. Much of the anti-Semitic agitation is attributed to the situation created by this sign of favor to the Jews by impartial observers.
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