The mystery surrounding the fate of several thousand Jews deported from Athens by the Germans last year has been partially solved with the disclosure here that 1,200 of the deportees were executed at the Majdanek camp. It is likely that many others were also murdered.
The names of most of the 1,000,000 Jews exterminated at Majdanek and other camps will probably never be known, since it has been definitely ascertained that the Germans kept no list of their Jewish victims, Lists were kept only of the executed non-Jews.
A few score names are available from the pitiful possessions of the dead. Jews found piled up in Majdanek storehouses awaiting shipment to Germany. From these, which include luggage, prayer books and other personal effects, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in a brief examination was able to obtain the names of 20 to 30 Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Were some committee to undertake to make a thorough cenvass of these possessions, a record of at least a fraction of the presently anonymous dead might be secured.
The 1,200 Greek Jews were not gassed, burned of buried alive, as were most of the Majdanek victim. Survivors report that they were systematically beaten to death over a period of several weeks.
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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.
