Gen. Stylianos Gonatas, who as Governor-General of Macedonia in 1922, was charged with responsibility for the only anti-Semitic outbreak in modern Greek history, has been appointed Minister of Communications in the new royalist government formed yesterday by Judge Panayotis Poulitsas.
When a band of rowdies attacked the Salonika suburb of Campbell, which was populated mainly by Jews, looted shops, burned down houses and murdered several people, Gonatas refused to meet with Jewish leaders who were demanding action against their assailants. Although the government never admitted Gonatas’ responsibility for the pogrom, Premier Eleutheriois Venizelos found it necessary to express “disapproval” of his part in the incident.
Gonatas had close, although not clearly defined, links with the quisling Security Battalions which operated under German direction during the occupation.
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