The Chief Rabbi of Athens destroyed membership lists of the Jewish community and then disappeared rather than comply with German demands to hand them over to the Gestapo when a German garrison replaced the Italians in the Greek capital, it was revealed here today by Jean Politis, a former Greek diplomat.
Politis, who escaped from Greece a month ago, said that one of the first German moves was directed against the Jews. When the Chief Rabbi disobeyed the demands to hand over the lists, they began a house-to-house search for Jews. Previously, Politis said, all 50,000 Jews of Salonike had been deported to an unknown destinations.
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