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First of 70,000 Greek Jews Deported by Nazis Return to Athens

March 23, 1945
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Radio Athens today reported that the first of the 70,000 Greek Jews carried off by the Germans to concentration camps in the Reich and in Poland has returned to the Greek capital from a camp in Southern Poland after being Liberated by the Russians.

Only 300 of the 2,000 Greek Jews who were in the camp where he was confined survived; the remainder were murdered by the retreating Germans, he reported. These 2,000 were deported from Athens exactly a year ago. The returning Jew reached Greece by way of Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Bulgaria. His right hand still bears the signs of the serial number branded on it by the Germans during his internment.

A report from sofia today stated that another Athens Jew, who was captured by the Germans during the battle for Crete and deported to Oswiecim, passed through Sofia this week en route home. He revealed that in January, 1944, a group of Salonika dock workers, part of the tens of thousands of Salonika Jews deported to Polish death camps, blew up a room in the cromatorium at Oswiecim, killing 20 S. S. men.

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