ΣΥΓΓΝΩΜΗ...Jews & Christians in the horrors of the Holocaust. The Paradigm of the Orthodox Church

(sygnómi)

Συγγνώµη sorry, scusa, désolé, entschuldigung, perdon, przepraszam, извините, ‫מצטער‬

Jews & Christians in the horrors of the Holocaust The Paradigm of the Orthodox Church Thessaloniki 2019

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Instead of a foreword ….

«I crossed myself, talked to God and decided to save as many Jews as I can even at the risk of losing my own life...»

«Greek Hierarchs, General Stroop, are never executed by shooting. They are hanged. Please, honor and follow this tradition.» + DAMASKINOS (Papandreou) The Blessed Archbishop of Athens

«The Christians of Germany, an average German bears even more responsibility before God than all those national socialists, the SS and Gestapo. We should have seen our Lord Jesus Christ in the face of our brother, who was suffering, persecuted, exterminated in the most inhuman way, no matter whether he was a Communist or a Jew … We Christians bear more responsibility, don’t we? I bear much more personal responsibility than a great many of those whose hands are dipped in blood, don’t I?»

The emblematic banner of the Greek delegation for the March of the Living 2016

MOTL

2019

REMEMBER !

JEWS & CHRISTIANS AGAINST ANTISEMITISM ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΙ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΟΙ & ΕΒΡΑΙΟΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΣΗΜΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ In this year’s March of the Living 2019, we march together.

Martin Niemeler, German Lutheran pastor

«Two triangles, a star, The shield of King David, our forefather.

This is election, not offense.

The great path and not an evil.

Once more in a term fulfilled, Once more roars the trumpet of the end; And the fate of a great people Once more is by the prophet proclaimed.

Thou art persecuted again, O Israel, But what can human malice mean to thee, who have heard the thunder from Sinai?

St. Maria Skobtsova. (Murdered at Ravensbruck)

ANTISEMITISM = ANTI-CHRISTIANITY...The banner of the Greek delegation in the March of the Living 2016, leaving Auschwitz death camp

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MOTL

2019

We remember…

REMEMBER

We remember… We direct our minds to the terrible events that

happened few years ago… I request that each and every one of you feel that we are not about to read yet another text, that we will not attend yet another commemoration event, no, we will not simply honor the dead of the past. What is really necessary, is to reflect on the possible dead of the future.

The recent past witnessed millions of deaths, millions of people who lost their lives because they were different. And yet, we don’t seem to have learned our lesson!

One morning, when I was going to church an old lady told me in complaint: “Is it possible that they talk to us again about the Jews and thus they force us to stay out of the church?” I would like to say, prompted by this incident, that if we think in that manner it is probably pointless to say that we belong to the Church of Jesus, that we are Christians.

Because Jesus Christ was different, too.

Because the Founder of the religion of Love was also Jewish, was also a refugee, was also poor and didn’t even have a home… The tendency of the community today, just like then, is the condemnation of every such dissimilarity…

Today, I would like us to remember the German theologian and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom Hitler executed at the end of the war, and who said that “it is dreadful for a Christian to stand by Nazi views”. Today I would like us to remember the attitude of those heroic people, Orthodox or not, Priests and laymen and to follow their example. Embrace the difference, love it and support it.

As the Director in Greece of the largest Christian Organization in the world, Agape - Αγάπη, present in more than 200 countries, I am exceptionally glad that we support every effort against the possible repetition of such horrible events, against every kind of antisemitism, against every kind of racism.

Agape-Αγάπη for years has been actively and financially supporting numerous of the survivors of the Holocaust and their children, who live in Israel. We do that because we want to do our part, honoring the dead and assisting the living, so that the history is not forgotten, so that something like that never happens again. Since, as I read on an inscription in Auschwitz: “If we do not remember History and if we do not learn from the mistakes of the past, then we are condemned to repeat them.” (George Santayana) So, let us learn, let as remember, let us not repeat the same mistakes. Let us love our fellow man, whoever he may be.

This, after all, is the diachronic message of love that Jesus Christ has left us with.

SAY NO TO ANTISEMITISM “Oppose the sickness of Antisemitism in the Church wherever it may be.”

At the time when I was writing this booklet in Greece, the so-called “known unknown” together with grandchildren of refugees (sic.) in the district of Perama were protesting against the attendance of 25 refugee kids from Syria of the local school that belonged to “their” children, alleging “hygiene” as a reason»! In the Islamic Republic of Iran, caricaturists from around the world sent in their works for the most insulting Holocaust caricature competition.

Thessaloniki, 28 March 2019 Emmanuel Toufexis National Team Leader AGAPE Hellas www.agape.gr

www.hhcoalition.com

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Finally, fresh evidence has recently come to light that Angelos Koutsoumaris, chairman of the first instance court judges in Thessalonica arranged the adoption of 400 Jewish kids during the German occupation so as to save them from death in concentration camps. The conclusion inferred from the facts mentioned above is that, apparently, there is lack of memory and moderation in our society. Consequently, they give rise to concerns over the fact the circumstances that mothered the horrors of Holocaust have not been fully eradicated.

Anyway, there is still hope...

Before we proceed any further, it is very important to clarify some things. It will definitely help you understand what is stated below and to grasp my goal. Much more eloquent and experienced people than me have already tackled the same subject.

I am not a historian and do not delude myself with the idea that I have complete mastery of the language required for this kind of work. However, I am sure that I have enough knowledge, methodology and experience so as to arouse fruitful concerns and discussion through my writings. Everything you will read below is not my own “wisdom” or primal research.

It is a compilation of texts written by highly estimable researchers, scientists, historians. It is a presentation of works written by the people who either put their life at risk by saving Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis or sacrificed their life in attempt to do that.

I was a student in Thessalonica.

Being a worry pot I have always been interested in politics. I was born into a family of educators who loved learning

Judge Angelos Koutsoumaris, the Greek Oscar Schindler and showed particular passion for History.

Members of my family have always been involved in all struggles waged by the nation during the last 100 years. At the primary school, gymnasium, lyceum I hade classmates who were Jews. Only as a final year student I found out that the place where I had walked, studied, lied on the ground in spring and in summer, the Club where we had our meals, used to be the oldest and biggest Jewish cemetery in Europe just 36 years earlier. It came to my knowledge that the city of Thessalonica had been called the “Jerusalem of the Balkans”.

No history book, no catechesis lessons, no political antiracist and antifascist gatherings in the post-dictatorship Thessalonica, nor any of my friends had ever mentioned the word Holocaust … It was the book about Saloniki and its Jews

by Elias Petropoulos and a chapter titled “Oh, Alegra…” which really left its “mark” on me. It was Yehuda Poliker and his “HAKILI SALONIKI” and his ASHES & DUST that made my heart to cry...

Desacration of 500 years old cemetery

Jewish cemetery BEFORE 1942 ...

AFTER 1942...

Kaddish of the survivors...

Gravestones outside a church!

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Helping nazis to escape...

Not long ago I had a conversation with some distinguished representatives of the Jewish and Christian communities in Greece. The general idea expressed was that there was “no need to inform the Christian community of Thessalonica about the Holocaust since the majority of them are aware. ...»

I totally disagree with that! All those who believe that, in 2017, the majority of people in Greece, Thessalonica and, I dare say, in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, where the tragedy took place for the most part, are basically aware, understand and are opposed to the theories, to the logic and to the practices which gave birth to Holocaust ...ARE GROSSLY MISTAKEN! I mean, of course, the overwhelming majority of the population who are at least nominally Christians. The situation among the religious persons of all Christian denominations is, certainly, far from being different.

The statistics and the figures are inexorable, everything else is merely idle talks.

In the occupied orthodox Greece the fascist invaders exterminated 86% of the Greek citizens professing Judaism within less than 2 years! In Thessalonica the percentage reached 96%, compared with Berlin, the capital of the fascist 3rd Reich Germany where it was “just” 92%!

In today’s Greece, in our Thessaloniki the memorial sites of its Jewish past are being destroyed again...!

Just as horrible are the statistics in the rest of occupied Christian Europe…..

Even more creepy is to hear that tens of thousands of exhausted people who had survived the confinement in concentration camps were literally manslaughtered by

Jews in Greece before the war: 77.000 After the war: 10.000 Losses: -87% In Thessaloniki before the war: 56.000 After the war: 1950, Losses: -96% their “Christian” neighbors (sic!) when they “dared” to return back home AFTER THE LIBERATION AND END OF WAR! Leaders of many churches passed over this fact in silence, some of them collaborated with the Nazi. Some “Christian” churches assisted the persecuted Nazi

criminals of war to evade capture and to flee to Latin America. According to Simon Wiesenthal, now-deceased researcher and persecutor of Nazi criminals, the so-called “Death Angel” Joseph Mengele, the notorious ”physician” at the Auschwitz Birkenau camp, fled to Argentina through the “Roman route”.

It used to be the escape route for the Nazis who evaded capture with the help of the highest ranking clergymen of the Roman Catholic Church.

The same route and its “side path” called “Mouse Channel” led by the Croatian Archbishop Krunoslav Draganovic was used by more than 4.000 criminals of war, including at least 200 Croatian “Ustashe” clergymen, fugitives of Justice, to escape trial. The abovementioned “Mouse Channel” escape route was used by the following justice refugees: Adolf Eichmann – organizer of the antiSemitic “Final Solution” organization, Walter Rauf - ”inventor” of movable gas chambers, Franz Strangl – Commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps, Gerard Bonnet - theoretician of the euthanasia program for “subhumans”, Klaus Barbie the executioner of Lyon, Ante Pavelic, Ljubo Milos, Nada Tanic-Luburic and Maya Slomich – Commandants of the concentration camp for women in Stara Gradiska, the architects of the massacres against Orthodox Serbs at Jasenovac.

How can I, as an Orthodox Christian, be bold enough to write about the positive role of Christians and, in particular, about the EXAMPLE SET BY THE ORTHODOX CHURCH that single it out from other Christian churches in Europe.

The fact I would like to emphasize again is that all given figures and statistics are undeniable and horrifying.

Joseph Mengele’s photos and fake latin american documents.

The “angel of death” Mengele during the Holocaust and in latin america.

Ante Pavelic, the architect of Jasenovad horrors.

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JEWS & CHRISTIANS IN THE HORROR OF THE HOLOCAUST

MOTL

2019

THE PARADIGM OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH REMEMBER

It is very important,

I believe, to make it clear that, despite the fact that Jews were for the most part the victims of the Nazi and their collaborators (more than 6.000.000 – being a Jew was the only “crime”), there were millions of people non-Jews, mostly Christians, who were massacred in the same way, on the same Golgotha, by the same victimizers and their collaborators. According to latest research, the number of non-Jews, victims of Holocaust makes up at least 4.000.000 people. Only at the extermination camp Jasenovac in Croatia, “unknown” to many, hundreds of thousands Orthodox Christian Serbs were killed by “Ustashe”.

In Poland, there were about 1.800.000 victims who were not Jews, including 100.000 members of the local social and religious Christian “elite”. The Nazi criminals and their collaborators, active or passive, not to matter, would exterminate everybody, who did not share Hitler’s paranoid theories about the supremacy of the Aryan race. They were considered “unfit”, marked as racially impure and, therefore, stayed in the way of creation of the Millenary Reich: Jews, Christians, atheists, Jehovah’s witnesses, Roma, homosexuals... ... Only at the extermination camp Jasenovac in

Croatia, “unknown” to many, hundreds of thousands Orthodox Christian Serbs were killed by “Ustashe”...

Saving children from Jasenovac death camp

How can they deny HOLOCAUST..?

In my view, the characteristics that single out the Orthodox Church, in general, and the Greek Orthodox Church, in particular, in comparison with all other Christian churched, briefly speaking, are the following:

Real Christians and heroes risked their lives or died to save Jews.

1. The Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Damaskinos and many other hierarchs (Ioakim, metropolitan of Dimitriada, Chrysostomos, metropolitan of Zakynthos, Grigorios, metropolitan of Chalkida), archimandrites and clergymen of all ratings, men and women, adopted an uncompromising attitude against the deportation of Jews to concentration camps in Eastern Europe. At the risk of life, they disregarded the orders given by Italian, German and Bulgarian occupants and provided crucial assistance to fellow countrymen who were confessing Judaism. Such a phenomenon at the level of the Church leadership has been hardly in evidence in any other Christian country or Christian Church in Europe. Their contribution has been acknowledged and honored by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

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(Apocalypse 2:10)

Metropolitan’s of Volos, Damaskinos, prisoner’s uniform from Dachau with the red triangle 57754 prisoner 57754.

2. Many other hierarchs: Methodios, Metropolitan of Kerkyra, Gennadios, Metropolitan of Thessalonica, Ioakim, Metropolitan of Didimoticho, Polykarpos, Metropolitan of Veria, Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Philippi, Diodoros, Metropolitan of Sisanio, Anthimos, Metropolitan of Triphyllia, Germanos, Metropolitan of Cephalonia, Prokopios, Metropolitan of Gortynia, Iakovos, Metropolitan of Attica and Cheruvim, Metropolitan of Paronaxia did their best under the conditions of occupation in order to prevent the deportation of Jews.

Unfortunately, most of their attempts were bound to fail. However, nothing similar had ever happened in the rest of occupied Europe.

The Garden of the Righteous among the Nations in Yad Vashem, Jerusalm.

4. The attitude adopted by Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan of Zakynthos who, by common efforts with Lucas Karrer the Mayor of Zakynthos, managed to save the entire Jewish community of the island, is standing out as the only example in entire Nazi-occupied Europe. This act of courage has been widely recognized of course, and by the state of Israel, which was the first to provide help after the violent earthquake in the 60’s.

5. The Martyrs and Saints, Orthodox clergymen and the laity during the Holocaust.

Moreover, the Orthodox Church, by the decision of His Holiness Patriarch BARTOLOMEW I, th commemorates on the 20 of July all Saints who sacrificed their life in attempt to save Jews and finally died in extermination camps: Saint Maria Skobtsova, a nun, Saint Dimitri Klepinin, a presbyter, Saint Elias Fontaminsky, Saint Yuri Skobtsov, son of Maria Skobtsova

3. Numerous Orthodox clergymen refused to leave their deported Jewish brothers in the lurch and followed them on the way to detention facilities, prisons, horrible trains, extermination camps. Among them were Dionisios, the would be Metropolitan of Trikki, and Damaskinos later Metropolitan of Dimitriada. The latter passed through terrible sufferings at Dachau camp (Germany) as Trees planted in their memory.

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and Saint Grigol-George Peradze from Georgia.

6. The New Martyrs of Jasenovac are the Orthodox Serbs slaughtered at the extermination camp in Croatia under the supervision of the Catholic clergymen and Ustashe militia who collaborated with the Nazi. Ιn 2016 the Ecumenical Patriarch BARTOLOMEO Ι visited the camp site, made a speech and held a memorial service.

7. Diana Budisavljević: (born Obexer; 15/1/1891 – 20/8/1978) was a humanitarian of Austrian descent who led a major relief effort in Yugoslavia during World War II. After she learned about children held at the camp Lobor-Grad, in October 1941, together with a number of collaborators, in particular Marko Vidaković and Đuro Vukosavljević, she launched a relief campaign named «Action Diana Budisavljević». The Action took care of mostly Serbian children but also women held in various concentration camps including the Jasenovac death camps. With help from the local Jewish community, which was forced to support the camp inmates, her team sent supplies of food, medicines, clothes and also money. Budisavljević, wearing the uniform of a Red Cross nurse, took part in the transport of children from Mlaka, Jablanac and Jasenovac death camps. More than 6,000 children had been moved away from those camps by the «Action» in July and August 1942.

Out of 15,536 children that Budisavljević saved, 3,254 children died during the rescue or immediately after leaving the camp, exhausted by torture, hunger and disease, while more than 12,000 rescued children survived the war. Eleven members of her team were killed during World War II. On the basis of transport lists and other sources, a card-file of children was made, which by the end of the war contained information of approximately 12,000 children.

Jews. In Serbia, 127 members of the Orthodox Church have been honored by Yad Vashem since 2007 for their aid and protection of Jews.

8. The Orthodox Priest and Professor Alexey Alexandrovich Glagolev together with his wife and son were honored posthumously by Yad Vashem for their contribution to survival of Jews. In the Nazi-occupied Ukraine he was providing Jews with false baptismal certificates and helped them in many other ways. For that reason he brought himself under constant persecution by the Nazis and their collaborators.

9. Chiune Sugihara, the so called «Orthodox Oscar Shindler», the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who converted to Orthodox faith. He saved thousands of Jews from Poland and Lithuania by providing them with transit visas behind the back of the Japanese authorities who were Hitler’s co-allies. The unbelievable fact about it is that many of them traveled to Japan or survived due to the Japanese asylum in Shanghai, China. Sugihara’s wife who received the medal “Righteous among the Nations” from Yad Vashem, stated that the reading of “Lamentations of Jeremiah” from the Old Testament had inspirited them to a feat. By some is already considered as a Saint.

10. The National Resistance deserves special acclaim for its contribution to saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

11. Honor and glory to 327 Greek citizens “Righteous among the Nations”! That is a honorific used by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to honor all non-Jews who saved Jewish people from extermination by the Nazi.

Orthodox hierarchs, clergymen and laymen contributed considerably to survival of a large number of Jews. Among them: Prince Constantin Karadja in Romania and Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark, the spouse of King Charles the 2nd were honored by Yad Vashem for their activity. In Bulgaria, the Metropolitan of Philippoupolis later the Patriarch of Bulgaria Cyril put his life at risk trying to stop the deportation of

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“I’m not anti-Semitic, but…”

30% of Europeans said that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own positions or goals.

(CNN survey in Austria, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Great Britain, Sweden)

It is important to note again, that despite the efforts of all true Christians and men of God, very small is the percentage of Jews that has survived the horror of concentration camps and evaded extermination.

This present day, when fascism is on the rise again everywhere in Europe, including in Greece, all those who feel nostalgia about Nazism are trying to draw attention to themselves. Nowadays, in the midst and under the pretense of the economic crisis, the phenomena of racism and xenophobia ares running through all sections of society.

Now that Europe seems to have rejected the very basis of its civilization, to have forgotten the horrors of two world wars born in its territory, now that antisemitism is surging up again under the pretext of anti-Zionism or of disagreement with the policy pursued by the State of Israel in the Middle East, now that “financial recovery” is the pretext for …. the former friends and collaborators of Germany in Central and Eastern Europe to come together again, it is very important to remember more than ever before what our Fathers have done out of love for people, as every Man is the living image of God. They followed their Faith and their Love for Jesus Christ, the Gospel of salvation, the desire of their delicate and compassionate heart. In that way we could prevent for sure any potential NEW HOLOCUAST. Mind you, from now on those who will probably be in danger are not Jews but us...

Caricatures of jews in nazi Germany and of greeks asking for money in todays Holland...the mentality never changes, only the victims to be!

Anti Semitic & Christians despite what the Bible says..?

Before we present below some useful passages that’ll definitely help us better understand the causes of the Holocaust, the stance of Christians, in particular, the attitude adopted by the Orthodox Church towards the persecution of Jewish people, we’ll conclude this short introduction with the words said by our Lord Jesus Christ and by Paul the Apostle. These words, as such, are quite enough to persuade every good man of Christian faith to reject any new attempts of the ill-founded collective accusation of Jews and their “inherited” responsibility for the crucifix of Jesus Christ, which served in the past as a foundation-stone of ANTISEMITISM. Unfortunately, as practice shows, neither the words of Jesus Christ nor the words of the Apostle of Nations… have convinced us!

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

(Mat. 5:17-19)

“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen.” (Romans.9:2-5) It’s worth keeping in mind that our Lord Jesus Christ was an Israelite and descended from Judah. His Disciples, the Apostles and Evangelists were also Israelites, as well as The Most Holy Mother of God, Vergin Mary who descended from King David the Prophet. Saint Paul the Apostle was an Israelite who descended from Benjamin, son of a Pharisee.

Philipp 3:5.6, Acts. 23:6, Β’ Cor. 11:22, Rom. 11:1 We should remember that all Holy Scripture books emphasize the special position of the Biblical Israel in Divine Providence as well as the fact that Jesus Christ comes from Israel.

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A passage from the Book of Genesis:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, «Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.» (Gen. 12:1-3)

NO TO ANTISEMITISM SAY

In the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse, in the last chapter we read:

«I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.» (Apocalypse 22:16) I hope to get your understanding as you might come across some errors or omissions here.

Let the Almighty Lord shine a Light and Mercy on us. Let’s pray not to experience again ANY KIND OF HOLOCAUST. May the All Merciful God watch the souls of innocent victims.

Thessaloniki March 15, 2019 (76 years from the departure of the first train from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz)

The Ecumenical Patriarch in YAD VASHEM

MOTL

2019

Τhanks to

Apostolos C. VAVYLIS Secretary General

Orthodox Media Network

vivlos.net

REMEMBER

It would be impossible for me to write this

Special thanks to Emmanouil Toufexis,

booklet without the vital cooperation and

National Director of “Agape Hellas” for his

essential help provided by Aharale Tamir,

all-round and valuable help in bringing about

Executive Manager of the famous March of

the result of our joint efforts «to remove the

the Living, Mr. Marcel Solomon, Chairman

shadow of silence that is hunging over our

of the Israelite Community in Volos,

beloved Thessaloniki».

without the confidence of George Pilichos,

I offer special cordial thanks and humbly

outstanding Historian and researcher who

ask for His blessing the Spiritual Leader of

issued, with the Blessing of His All Holiness

the Orthodox Church His All Holiness The

the Ecumenical Patriarch BARTOLOMEW

Ecumenical Patriarch BARTOLOMEW I for

I, the internationally reputed book of 1000

his presence at the 31st INTERNATIONAL

pages titled «Auschwitz-Greeks, Number

MARCH

Condemned to Death». Warm sincere

dedicated to Greece. This is an absolute

thanks to the “Salonikai” Israeli artist

condemnation of antisemitism, racism,

Yehuda Poliker that inspired me with his

xenophobia, proclaiming in a loud voice that

amazing song “Hakili Saloniki…” and made

ALL ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS ARE UNITED

my heart to cry with his «ashes and dust».

AGAINST ANTISEMITISM.

OF

THE

LIVING

this

year,

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ANTISEMITISM: THE PSEUDOCHRISTIAN & ANTICHRISTIAN BASIS OF THE HOLOCAUST The Zealots said: «The Jews don’t have the right to live among us unless they convert to Christianity.»

The laity said: «Jews don’t have the right to live among us.»

The Nazis said: «Jews don’t have the right to live.»

The “successful” fulfillment of the «Final Solution» plan, called so by the Nazi propaganda and aimed at the barbaric extermination of all Jews in Europe, was made possible due to the collaboration or, at least, tolerance and indifference of the major part of the population in the countries under occupation, who were predominantly Christians.

People tend to overlook and dismiss the very fact of antisemitism and consider the Holocaust as a mere aberrance of

recent decades with no roots in the past and with no connection with the present day. Nobody is tackling the issue as it is. As a result, the Christians dissociate themselves with the problem and show indifference to any manifestation of animosity towards Jews. This spiritual, ethical and social problem is to be faced with and totally eradicated by the Christians as it depriving them from the opportunity to clearly see the terrible sin committed in the past, which, however, is constantly recurring in their soul, and to come into repentance. The refusal of Christians to deal with their anti-Semitic past is the key factor perpetuating the most longstanding hatred in the history of humanity.

That’s why the presence of His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomeo I and Leader of the Orthodox Church of 300,000,000 believers is so important.

That’s why the initiatives taken by the Orthodox Hierarchs against racism, xenophobia and antisemitism are so significant.

Metropolitan IGNATIOS of Volos, Greece lighting the 1st torch during the 2016 M.O.T.L. with Mr. Aharael Tamir General Direcotr of Operations

That’s why the study of the Holocaust and the education of young Christians in Greece and, particularly, in Europe is so important. All these efforts might be useful as they invite the Christians to enter the dark side of …the nominal Christian tradition and to undergo historical psychoanalysis with the hope that after the revelation of the origins and of the evolution of the hatred for Jews, this world’s old daemon will be driven out of History and from the depths of Christian soul. The demonic character of antisemitism is, by its very nature, anti-Christian and misanthropic like the devil himself. Everyone who’ll continue his way through the labyrinth of hatred will inevitably sink into evil. Only the act of “exorcism” of all demons of the past will lead us to spiritual maturity and responsibility that are so essential, provided that we reestablish the qualities of our Christian faith and the truth of our theology. Only after that the wish NEVER AGAIN HOLOCAUST will come true. All those who refuse to make any effort of catharsis and repentance will put themselves at the risk of being the instrument of hatred. Hatred turned plain ordinary people into beasts and

Inauguration of the Monument for the Jews of Alexandroupolis, Greece, that perished in the Holocaust, by His Eminence Metropolitan ANTHIMOS, with the presence of Her Excellency the Ambassador of Israel Mrs. Irit BenAbba, (March 3rd, 2019)

monsters, like the Nazis who were slaughtering small children, women, old and disabled people at concentration camps, while millions of people were silent observers or, even worse, collaborators in the outrageous genocide of at least 6.000.000 people 70 years ago.

The Jews were blamed for the crucsifiction of Jesus Crist according to the Nazi principle of colective responsibility. However, it’s common knowledge that the death sentence was given and executed by the Romans. The same logic suggests that all Athenians were responsible for poisoning Socrates. It’s funny, isn’t it? However, even today, in the collective subconscious of the majority of Christians, there is the viewpoint that the collective” responsibility” and the “apparent” blame for the deicide placed on the Jews is the reason for their centuries-long sufferings.

The losses, in terms of percentage, among the Greek Jews under the German occupation were extremely high, much above the average in the rest of Europe. As regards Thessalonica, almost the whole Jewish community has been

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The leader of a Greek parliamentary party stated the following some years back:

lost. This fact seems to obscure and “diminish” the courageous efforts of the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Hierarchs as well as common clergymen did their best to prevent deportation of Jews.

They managed to save many Jewish people. There were many cases when clergymen shared the tragic fate with the Jews. Obviously, it WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED AT SUCH A LARGE SCALE without the connivance shown by the majority of the non-Jewish population.

Unfortunately, antisemitism is still present in Greece. For example, common people believe the ridiculous slanders spread by a head of a Greek parliamentary party about the role of Jews in the tragedy of Twin Towers.

“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” fabricated by the Tsar’s secret police “Okhrana” is an anti-Semitic libel written in 1898. It was published in 1903 and revealed the allegedly global conspiracy of Jews. The text has been disseminated in Greece since 1920 by the far-right parties and the fanatical circles of the church.

They are sold in the religious bookstores and parishes and are popular among the distrustful, uneducated people, who believe

in plots and are looking for a scape goat. The Archimandrite Χ.Β. in the introduction to the Greek translation carries it too far by «revealing» the fact that in November 1979 there was a publication in the USA saying that «Freemasons and Jews are responsible for two world wars and for the sufferings of all peoples in the world.

The English scholar and Orthodox Bishop Callistos Dioclias in his speech on the present-day Russia acknowledged the fact that there were despicable elements in Church. The highly nationalist Orthodox organization “Pamyat”, including also membersclergymen, is advocating a form of disguised antisemitism».

Forty-two years have passed since the Valpurgis night on the 30th of April 1945 in Germany when the leader of the German Reich Adolf Hitler, taken with the idea of New Europe, brought an end to his life in this world. [...] On April 30, 1945 a glorious chapter of modern history came to end. The Great Man of the twentieth century, Ideologist and the Apostle of the Swastika Revolution was dead. [...] With our thoughts and soul focused on the memory of our Great Leader, we raise high our right hand to greet the Sun, and, with the courage fitting our soldiery honor and our National Socialist duty, we are shouting out full of passion and belief in the years to come HEIL HITLER!

«THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION» this «product» of the Czar’s anti-semitic propaganda, is still among the best selling books and has been translated in tens of languages. This totally fake «document» is very often used to «justify» attacks and rhetoric against Jews all around the world.

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COMPLICITY AND CONNIVANCE WITH THE HORRIBLE ATROCITIES: THE ROLE OF AVERAGE GERMANS AND OTHERS IN THE HOLOCAUST There had been almost totally accepted negative opinion of Jews since the twenties in Germany which served as the background for the Nazi ideology of “extermination”, i.e. the belief that the Jewish influence was catastrophic by nature and consequently it had to be eradicated oncefor all-time in society. Despite the fact that the “generally accepted belief” about the Jews which seemed to be the result of the Christian negative attitude towards them, had, in fact, absolutely no basis in the Holy Scriptures. On the contrary, the hatred of Jews is clearly in sharp contrast with the Word of God. It rejects the goodness and love of Jesus Christ for all people.

Moreover, it rejects the evangelism of the Apostles. It would not be at all far-fetched to say that ANTISEMITISM is in fact ANTICHRISTIANITY as it comes into contrast with the fundamental commandment of Christ given to humanity– benevolence, love for a neighbor, including love for enemies.

Antisemitism is the Antichrist himself. It contravenes and contradicts the words said by Jesus Christ Himself: “But I say unto you, Love

your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

(Matthew 5:44-48) The same words appear in all four Gospels and the Epistles of Paul the Apostle.

Throughout the Nazi period, the policy pursued

by Germany, almost all initiatives and major measures regarding Jews had been in line with the symbolic and adequately disclosed desire of Germans, their deep-rooted quest for a successful extermination project. In Germany, even before Hitler rose to power, there had been a profound anti-Jewish sentiment, in the form of “cultural heritage”, a standard gnostic view of Jews which NOBODY managed to get rid of, with the exception of a very small elite group.

Hitler and the Nazi took advantage of the situation perfectly well. They managed to brainwash the overwhelming majority of German society and exerted a hold on people’s minds with the “reasonable idea” none other than EXTERMINATORY ANTISEMITISM.

Heinrich Himmler, the notorious leader of the SS, on October 6, 1943 during his speech in Posen addressed to the leadership of the Nazi Party, said in reference to Jews: «These people must be wiped off from the face of the world». Having declared “officially” his FINAL SOLUTION plans, he managed to gain if not the complicity, at least the connivance of the overwhelming majority of German citizens. Innumerable historical accounts showed that many ordinary people had placed in the center of their belief system the absurd ideas about Jews, like those described in Hitler’s book “MEIN KAMPF”. All those ideas caused them to become readily mass murderers. The public in Germany, wonderstruck by the Nazism, acted as an advocate of the unprecedented and deadly political subculture. The very fact that German political culture produced so many amenable murderers was indicative of the very significant fundamental changes, which had taken place with regard to the view of life and morality. It proved the fact that the Nazi had been the most consolidated revolutionaries

of the 20th century and their revolution, during the short, luckily, period of their rule in Germany, had been the most extremist and totalitarian revolution in the history of the western civilization. It was primarily a revolution in the world perception and morality, which turned upside down all procedures that had been forming the image of Europe for ages. The Nazis were driven by two fundamental interconnected forces: the catastrophic project of a frontal attack on civilization, on the one hand, and the creative project aimed at unprecedented

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THERE IS STILL HOPE...

Martin Nimeler, a German Lutheran pastor, who had realized the diabolical nature of the Nazi antisemitism that turned into all-German antisemitism, made the following characteristic statement: «The Christians of Germany, the average German bears more responsibility in front of God than all those nazis, the SS and the Gestapo. We should have recognized, our Lord Jesus Christ in the face of our brother, who was suffering, persecuted and exterminated in the most cruel way, no matter whether he was a Communist or a Jew. We Christians bear more responsibility, don’t we? I bear much more personal responsibility than a great many of those whose hands are dipped in blood...»

establishment of a new type of humanity, new society, and new order in Europe and in the rest of the world, on the other hand. Tragically enough, the Nazi revolution was entirely based on the people’s consensus. Today, it is even more tragic to see that political formations of similar orientation are gaining ground all over Europe.

On the ashes of millions Jews, victims of the Holocaust at extermination camps, the Nazi were building methodically the “morality” of the new Europe that was diametrically opposed to Christian morality and to the Humanism of the Enlightenment. Hermann Goering considered them “absurd, false and harmful ideals of humanity”. The network of extermination camps rejected in practice the Christian belief in moral equivalence of people. It was based on the idea of ”humans and sub-humans”, masters and servants. All Jews were to be exterminated due to their biological constitution.

Others, less subhuman, were bound to work as slaves to the benefit of the Reich. Round about the Auschwitz

complex there were many plants that belonged to SIEMENS, KRUPP, UNION-VERKE, BAYER, AGFA, etc.

More than 30 concentration and extermination camps demonstrate full contempt for Christian principles of love for fellow man, compassion for the needy and merciful behavior. Hatred for a neighbor prevailed everywhere, there was no pity. There was systematic cultivation of satisfaction with the growing troubles suffered by “others”, the maximum possible efficiency lead to the prompt attainment of their goal: «good riddance from sub-humans in society». AuscwitzBirkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Dachau, Treblinka, Majdanek camps were not created just by a small group of fanatical murderers engaged in temporary extremist practice. They revealed the very character of the Nazi Germany “building the model of the millennial Reich”.

The monstrous instigators of the ulterior and awful crimes against humanity revealed the barbarity that had been committed by ordinary Germans in order to save Germany and the world from sworn enemies: DER JUDE

REMEMBER

I’d rather appease the sorrow ensuing from the above–mentioned facts with the story told by Rena Molcho from Thessalonika, Pantio University Professor, historian and writer, awarded by the Athens Academy. The story is about her relatives, a Jewish family from Thessaloniki who fled to the island of Skopelos:

«All of us: my father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law and me are alive today due to clear conscience of true Christians. My father was a fireman. He was out when the Germans came to take him up. When my father came home, his chief, on his own initiative, provided him with a false identity document. He fled to Athens and survived. He never asked anybody for help. When he was on his way to Athens, the Germans blocked the road at Thebe. My father had to take across the field.

A villager caught him in the morning. He immediately understood that my father was a Jew due to his strong accent and said: “I am a communist, you are a Jew. Be mute as a fish or we are dead!”. My mother fled to Thessaly. Christians and Jews from Thessaly helped her to survive. My father-in-law Solomon Molcho, a bookseller, together with 13 members of his family fled to Skopelos, where they survived with the help of the Mayor of Glossa. The population of Glossa was 3.000 people. That means that not only the Mayor of Skopelos

helped my Father-in-law, other 3.000 people did not betray the family of 13 Jews in the Nazi-occupied Skopelos. A single informer could have been enough ...

However, the losses suffered by Jews and the way the issue was handled, in my opinion, mirrors the attitude of Greek society. The fact that only 13% of Jews survived and the losses made up 87% in Greece should be made a matter of conscience for Greek society, of all those who could have helped but never did it. In Thessalonica, the losses of Jews made up 96% or 4% higher than in Berlin! In the “Wolf’s Lair” the losses were even less than here... What does that mean? The Germans tried to insinuate themselves into confidence and to gain the friendliness of the local people in all occupied territories. That enabled them to plunder the persecuted people without any impediment. They knew that the resistance of the local population could have disrupted their plans. However, they were disrupted in in many other corners of Greece.

Skopelos

Denying the HOLOCAUST, make the supporters of neo-nazi & xenophobic parties in Europe, clearly ANTI-SEMITES. The rhetoric, the appearance and the symbols are exactly the same with Nazis in Germany.

April 2019: the authorities commemorate the courage of those who saved Jews risking their own lives.

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Righteous among the Nations REMEMBER

Family «VOLIOTIS» in Yad Vashem after receiving the title of THE RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS.

Commemorative sign bearing the names of the 347 Greek Righteous Among the Nations.

Yad Vashem & Israel honoured 347 Greek Citizens for saving Jews during the Holocaust.

Some fotos of events in Athens.

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30 AT H E N S – A R C H B I S H O P D A M A S K I N O S

MOTL

2019

T H E PA R A D I G M O F THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

(some typical examples)

REMEMBER

Fake baptism certificates saved many Jewish lives. courtesy: G. PILICHOS

«Greek hierarchs, General Strump, are never executed by shooting. They are strung up. Please, respect this tradition and keep with it.»

«The most significant political person I met in Greece was Damaskinos, the Archbishop of Athens».

These are the words said by Hermann Neubacher about the Hierarch. Neubacher was one the cleverest Nazis in Greece during occupation, an Austrian and Hitler’s commissioner in southeast Europe.

In his well-known book he described his special mission to the Balkan countries and mentioned the following: The Archbishop was on good terms with me and with our Ambassador Altenburg. He used these connections for the benefit of his country. Damaskinos acted

as a go-between trying to solve emergency issues, to prevent mass killings of hostages. He mediated in social clashes, helped the needy clergymen and fought against the policy pursed by Germany in the Balkan countries.

Once he said to me with characteristic confident sincerity: “Had I known that Thrace was promised to Bulgarians I would have gone to woods to join the partisans beating you!”

“So would I, Your Grace” – replied Hitler’s diplomat.

In the minutes of the Holy Synod of March 30, 1943, we find interesting and heretofore unknown information about the behind-the scene reaction against the Holocaust: «Then His Grace said the following: I would like to inform the Holy Synod that on the 22 day of this month, members of organizations of various kind came into my office and asked me to take action against the planned and forced deportation of Greek Israelites outside Greece that German authorities put in execution in Thessalonica and in other parts of Greece.

On the following 23th day of the same month we called a meeting to consider the abovementioned issue. At the meeting we drew

up a document addressed to the Chairman of the Government. It was duly signed by all meeting attendees representing the highest ecclesiastical institutions of the country, scientific and trade organizations [...]. Later His Grace Chairman said that on the same day the same representatives had drawn up another document addressed to the proxy representative of Germany in Greece for the prevention of the above-mentioned persecution against Greek Israelites.”

What kind of organizations asked Archbishop Damaskinos to take measures so as to cancel the deportations of Jews from Thessalonica? Who took the initiative to mobilize the said organizations? Did persons of importance in Thessalonica take part in the mobilization of Athenian society? The Holy Synod (the minutes were signed by Archbishop Damaskinos, by Alexander, metropolitan of Veroia, Chrisostomos, metropolitan of Philippi, Diodoros, metropolitan of Sisanio, Anthemos, metropolitan of Triphyllia, Germanos, metropolitan of Cephalonia, Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Zakynthos, Prokopios, metropolitan of Gortynia, Iakovos, metropolitan of Attica, Cheruvim, metropolitan of Paronaxia) approved of the initiative taken by the Archbishop.

The Holy Synod, after the announcement made by His Grace Chairman of the Synod in support of Greek Israelites addressed to the Government and to Occupation Authorities, unanimously approved of it as it was in full

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accordance with the teachings of the Lover of Man and Savior. We must love our brothers and even enemies, as love is the distinctive characteristic of the disciples and followers of the Preacher. It is in full accordance with the long lasting traditions of the Holy Church of Christ which respects the freedom of religion and avoids bigotry.

A good evidence of cooperation between the Archbishop and Gennadios regarding the Jewish issue is the fact that Damaskinos: «secretly transferred the cash contributions of the Israelites who lived in Athens to their congeners in Thessalonica. All transfers were made out by the Archbishop in the name of Gennadios, metropolitan of Thessalonica».

By April 1943, many thousands of Thessalonica Jews had already been deported to Poland. According to German reports, upon agreement between Simonidis and the Metropolitan Gennadios, the chief rabbi Korets had a meeting with the new Prime-Minister Rallis in the Metropolitan palace and asked, in vain, for his mediation. In the report issued by the press center of the exile Greek government in Cairo, the attitude of Simonidis and of other state authorities of Thessalonica was characterized as indifferent to “all these horrible events”. The Athens government was criticized for its late and mute reaction. After his meeting with Rallis, Vislitseni ordered the arrest of Korets. The consul of Germany excluded any possible measures against Simonidis and Gennadios. [...]

After the failure of all attempts to prevent deportations, Gennadios, who was fighting zestfully for the cancellation of death sentences and for the release of prisoners, made up his mind that the situation was irreversible for the Jews of Thessalonica. This opinion was reinforced mainly after the ghettoization of Jews and after the second arrest of the Chief Rabbi Korets.

It became even stronger in view of Bulgarian oppression and aggression against the Greek population. The danger of a mass exodus from the Bulgarian occupation zone and of political mobilization required from the representatives of the Greek population of Thessalonica more pressing tactics against the German authorities.

As a Shepherd, Gennadios had a strong sense of duty and responsibility for his compatriots. The emergency conditions and the assessment of his capabilities restricted his choices even more.

After the tragic events in Thessalonica, people in Athens decided to take more drastic measures in support of Jewish community. Solidarity groups were formed to provide medical treatment to the refugees from Thessalonica and to distribute free meals, while the Italian and Greek authorities were showing active interest in these activities.

Many Jewish families left their homes and fled to the countryside. The most courageous of then joined the Resistance groups. Damaskinos, the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece (mundanely known as Dimitrios Papandreou, 1891-1949), in a secret circular letter addressed to all churches encouraged the priests and all Christians to afford the persecuted “Jews the greatest measure of assistance”.

Local hierarchs in many regions of the country adopted the same attitude. Among them were: Grigorios metropolitan of Chalkida, Ioakim metropolitan of Dimitriada, Gennadios metropolitan of Thessalonica and others. By joint efforts with the priests they assisted in fleeing the Jews, members of resistance groups and the hostages, who were in deadly danger.

A great number of cross marriage weddings took place in different churches in Athens and in the suburbs. More than 500 Jews converted to Orthodox Christianity and received baptismal certificates from the Archbishopric. Many of them got registration with the Consulates of neutral countries. About 1.200 false identity cards were issued by order of Angelos Evert, chief police officer of Athens to present them as Orthodox Christians».

look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness Anne Frank

poems for the Holocaust

THERE IS A PAIR OF RED TINY SHOES

THE NIGHT OVER BIRKENAU

by Joyce Lussu

There is a pair of red tiny shoes number twentyfour almost new: on the internal sole you can see still the brand name Schulze Monaco there is a pair of red tiny shoes on the summit of a pile all of children shoes in Buchenwald not so far there is a heap of blond curl hair of black and chestnut brown locks in Buchenwald they were used to make blankets for soldiers nothing was wasted and children were undressed and shaved before to be pushed into the gas chambers there is a pair of red tiny shoes in Buchenwald

they belonged to a child three years old perhaps three and a half who knows which were the colour of eyes burnt in the ovens but about the cry we may imagine all know how children cry his tiny feet too we may imagine shoes size number twentyfour for the eternity because the tiny feet of dead children don’t grow up there is a pair of red tiny shoes in Buchelwald almost new because the tiny children feet don’t get the soles consumed

By Tadeusz Borowski,

Ni­ght aga­in. Aga­in the grim sky clo­ses circ­ling like a vul­tu­re over the dead si­len­ce.

Like a cro­uching be­ast over the camp the moon sets, pale as a corp­se.

And like a shield aban­do­ned in bat­tle, blue Orion- lost among the stars.

The trans­ports growl in dark­ness and the eyes of the cre­ma­to­rium bla­ze.

It`s ste­amy, sti­fling. Sle­ep is a sto­ne.

My bre­ath rat­tles in my thro­at.

This lead foot cru­shing my chest is the si­len­ce of three mil­lion dead.

Ni­ght, ni­ght wi­tho­ut end. No dawn co­mes.

My eyes are po­iso­ned from sle­ep.

Like God`s jud­ge­ment on the corp­se of the earth, fog de­scends over Bir­ke­nau.

By Tadeusz Borowski, Polish writer and Journalist.

He survived Auschwitz and Dachau but he committed suicide at his 28.

Order of Dieter Wisliceny to issue ID’s for the 55.000 Jews of Saloniki.

Courtesy of Paul Isaac Hagouel According to Elias Venezis, the Archbishop Damaskinos called in the general director of the Athens Town Hall Administration P. Chaldezos and said to him: «I crossed myself, talked to God and decided to save as many Jews as I can even at the risk of losing my own life.... I will “baptize” Jews and you will provide them with certificates issued by the Town Hall so that they can have identity cards as Christian Greeks.…

Indication of the religious identity on Greek identity documents proved to be the salvation for a large number of Greek Israelites. 560 Jews from Athens and many others from other towns who took cover in the capital city till the end of war finally survived pretending to be orthodox Christians.

SAY NO TO ANTISEMITISM

reminded him of the principles of the Christian culture.

Altenburg’s promises were quite elusive. He confessed that the Jewish issue was the key element of the national socialist theory and program. The decision had already been taken by the central government and the issue was out of his power.

Damaskinos didn’t want to leave it only at oral appeals. He invited representatives of the Highest Ecclesiastical Institutions, scientific and professional organizations to Archbishopric. All together they decided to send, under the protection of the Church, two historic petitions. The first one was addressed to Constantinos Logothetopoulos the Prime Minister in occupied Greece, the second one to Altenburg. The first one dated March 23, 1943 reminded of the terms of the armistice of 1941.

“All Greek citizens, without distinction of race or religion, are to be treated equally by the Occupation Authorities”.

Elias Venezos rememberes the dialogue between the Archbishop Damaskinos and the Proxy (Ambassador) of the 3rd Reich in Athens Günther Altenburg when the hierarch was informed about the beginning of the persecution of Greek Jews. ` Archbishop: You mean that all Greek Jews who are citizens of Spain will go to Spain, Italian Jews will go to Italy. Greek Jews will stay in Greece, won’t they? Why should they be deported to Poland?

Altenburg: They’ll go there to work …

Archbishop: If so, why should children and aged people follow them?

Altenburg: It would be heartless to separate families … They’ll be better together…

1. “The Greek Jews have proven themselves... valuable contributors to the economic growth of the country [and] law-abiding citizens who fully understand their duties as Greeks”.

2. “In our national consciousness, all the children of Mother Greece are an inseparable unity: they are equal members of the national body irrespective of religion...”

3. “Our holy religion does not recognize superior or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek’ (Gal. 3/28) and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate or create racial or religious differences.

The Archbishop tried to argue the German Proxy out of his decision, appealing to his humanness, and

This excellent piece of writing by Angelos Sikelianos, a poet, is unique as it is the only official protest against

Today we are... deeply concerned with the fate of 60,000 of our fellow citizens Jews... “

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the Holocaust in the Nazi-occupied Europe. It is a stark contrast to many Catholic and Protestant religious leaders who either supported or did nothing to stop the Holocaust. The Archbishop and the representatives of the Highest Ecclesiastical Institutions and of other personalities of the Greek public sent a similar letter to Altenburg. The second memorandum of March 24, 1943 was sent directly to Altenburg, official Proxy of the 3rd Reich in Greece. Both memoranda had been signed by many prominent figures of the Greek public life who thereby displayed great courage. The activity carried out by the Archbishop in support of his copatriots and Greek fighters for freedom excited anger and hatred of the occupants, particularly, of the SS members, who attempted his assassination. Many friends and advisers recommended him to flee the country. He replied: My duty is to serve my nation. I’ll never abandon my people. In case I am forced to leave Athens, I’d better go to the mountains than flee abroad.

According to Professor Ioannis Georgakis, secretary of the Archbishop Damaskinos, he and Evert were informed about the fact that the Gestapo agents had been trying to find someone in the Athens underworld to order the assassination of the Archbishop. That is why Evert asked him to live his residence at Psychiko and to move temporality to 1 Dimokritou Str. Georgakis with his family lived the flat upstairs. The Gestapo men who were overlooking the Archbishop discovered that he had not returned home in the evening. They were looking for him. Georgakis understood that Damaskinos was in danger and warned Evert. The latter sent four policemen to guard the building at Dimokritou St. 1. Gestapo cars arrived at dawn and ordered the Greeks policemen to go away. Gestapo men knocked hard at the door and burst into the house. They asked the Archbishop Damaskinos to follow them but he refused to obey. The Gestapo men found themselves in a bind. They decided to put him under temporary home

confinement and full isolation until he was transferred to Auschwitz. Evert, Dinos Doxiadis, the Tsatsos family, the Swiss Ambassador, the International Red Cross and the allied wireless receiver at Villia in Attica raised the blockade of communication.

Evert and Doxiadis were considering the ways the Archbishop could departure from custody. He refused one again:

ZAKYNTHOS S U RV I VA L O F A L L J E W S O F T H E I S L A N D THE UNIQUE CASE IN THE NAZI-OCCUPIED EUROPE

The best fighters of the Greek Resistance are transferred to concentration camps. How could I possibly be expected to flee the country refusing to share their fate?

Finally, the matter was brought to a close. The Archbishop was enjoying high reputation with the Greek people and the international community. That’s why the SS men dared not to murder or deport him to a concentration camp. General Jurgen Strump was in charge of the Gestapο organization in Athens. He threatened that the Archbishop would be executed for his intention to take lead of the Greek Resistance. The Archbishop’s response was very courageous, honest, and historic, in line with the traditions of the Greek orthodox clergy: «Greek hierarchs, General Strump, are never executed by shooting. They are strung up. Please, respect this tradition and keep with it. »

CHRYSOSTOMOS, METROPOLITAN and in the town. […]. The Metropolitan was OF ZAKYNTHOS & LUKAS KARRER, heading for the office of the Commandant and Guard officer. It was the first time he THE MAYOR One morning at the end of 1943, the Mayor of Zakynthos Loukas George Karrer was called in to the office of the German Commander of the Guard Berens. No more or no less, holding a pistol to his chest, Berens ordered him to turn in, as soon as possible, a list of the Jewish families in Zakynthos. The Mayor tried to explain to him that it was impossible, as the Jews were no different than other citizens of Zkynthos. The Guard Commander «in a huff» got tough with it. Holding the pistol, he said: «That’s my order and you will carry it”.

The Mayor left the office. […] He thought of Chrysostomos Dimitriou, the Metropolitan of Zakynthos. The Metropolitan said:

“You won’t give any list to Germans.

Rely upon me”.

They arrived at a common decision. The Mayor undertook its implementation. Late at night, without telling someone, the Jews fled from their homes. The Zakynthians hid them in their houses in rural villages

made use of his “weapon” i.e. the authority he held with the Germans. He visited the Guard Commander first and pretended to know nothing. The Guard officer himself informed the Metropolitan about the order to arrest Jews he had given to the Mayor.

The Metropolitan protested:

This evil shouldn’t be committed. The Jews of Zakynthos are Greek citizens. They are good people, peaceful, hard-working.

They are part of my congregation and pure Zakynthians. They are not dangerous. Please, make an exception for the Jews of Zakinthos.

Otherwise it’ll be the worst crime.

The Guard Commander showed understanding, but the order couldn’t be ignored. The Metropolitan was concerned about it very much. That could never end in anything else but evil. He could hear the echo of God’s commandment «Love your neighbor as yourself». The Metropolitan was ready to continue his struggle as he saw “himself” in the faces of his “neighbors” Zakynthian Jews. At that tragic time, the “Neighbors” and God met in the very heart

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of the Bishop. In the middle of horrible and deadly events, in the ruthless battle between the moral forces of noble intentions and the powerful forces of material violence, embodied in the egregious order, the Metropolitan took a risky decision:

and exchanged views on National Socialism.

He earnestly asked Hitler not to arrest the Jews of Zakynthos as he and the Mayor guaranteed that they were undangerous and peaceful.

If we, the Mayor and me, fail to save the Jews, I’ll follow them and die in the fires of sacrifice.

The decision inspired the Metropolitan The Ambassador of Israel in Greece Mr. Irit Ben Abba with and the Mayor and empowered them Metropolitans Chrysostomos and Dionysios in Zakynthos. to wage their struggle to the end. The Metropolitan and the Guard Commander continued to fight their battle in a less combative way. Finally, they agreed to discuss the issue with Here is the list of the Jewish families in Zakynthos. the mediation of the Commandant Alfred Lit. The Commandant took the paper. There were only Immediate danger for the Jews was temporarily two names written on it in the Greek and German avoided. It was a sign of hope. On the following day, languages: «Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan the Metropolitan visited the Commandant. Both of of Zakynthos» and «Loukas Karrer, the Mayor of them were speaking in line with their duty. Everybody Zakybthos». The Bishop continued: stood by his argument. The Commandant had received an order from «the highest General Staff I am at your command. You can arrest me instead of of the Axis». It was his duty to execute the order. them. If it isn’t enough for you, I will stand together «I cannot ignore it, can I? It’s too risky» he said to with the innocent Jewish families. I’ll follow them the Bishop. The Metropolitan tried not to be too on their dramatic path and get into gas chambers persistent. Little by little he tried to gain time and and crematoria with them. to change Commandant’s mind. Finally, he made him reconsider the issue. Time was passing by. The Commandant stood dumbfounded. He was Just what they wanted. The Metropolitan and the shocked by the overwhelming, peremptory and Mayor didn’t let their guard down. They were under determined words of the Metropolitan. He was a constant nervous strain and emotional load. Their looking at him speechless. He had never expected to be faced with such a proposal. The power life turned into a nightmare. of Bishop’s words cracked the Commandant The writer of these words was an eyewitness of down. Their psychological impact on Alfred Lit all those dramatic days, nights and moments that was tremendous. The uncompromising and tortured the Metropolitan. All his thoughts were tough military man, the almighty German officer focused on the problem. He was planning his steps surrendered to a true character. The Commandant and taking decisions. One afternoon, I was in his grew milder and assured the Metropolitan that he office and we were talking. The idea struck him would do his best so as to make an exception for suddenly: “I will refer to Hitler’. We decided to keep the “Jews of Zakynthos”. it between us. It was to be his last attempt. The last Then followed a dramatic fight between the but one attempt was the following. I don’t know Commandant and the highest General Staff of the whether the Mayor was aware of it. I never asked Axis. The Metropolitan stepped in again. He went him. Probably, he knew about it. The Mayor was in to the Commandant to make his last attempt. He despair when the Commandant called him in. He prayed to God and decided to make the last throw went breathless. The Commandant again began of the dice. He wrote a very personal letter in the to press him for the lists, arrests and orders. The German language and asked the Commandant to Bishop met all those orders with a firm and sharp send it wirelessly to Hitler. It was a very personal refusal. It was too risky. At the very crucial moment and touching letter of request. He reminded him of their discourse the Metropolitan made his last that: attempt. He took a paper out of his pocket, handed it over to the Commandant and said:

[...] in times gone by, in 1924, they had a chance to meet in Munich at the dawn of Hitler’ political rise

The Commandant delivered the letter.

They were waiting for the response in great suspense. Days were passing by.

The Metropolitan and the Mayor passed through the most difficult and dreadful days in their life. They had an undercover messenger the young Christos Komninos, a grammar-school boy, who was deeply concerned about the Jews. Moreover, they had to deal with the Commandant’s dismay caused by his involvement in the matter.

He arrested them and was waiting for the order to come so as to be on the safe side.

The execution of the order was unallowable.

The Metropolitan and the Mayor exerted desperate efforts to make the Commandant change his mind.

At this point, I feel it my duty to put the historical record straight and to mention two incidents which I got to know much later. Both of them are very characteristic of the desperate attempts made by the Metropolitan and the Mayor. The first one concerns the patriotic activity of two important persons from Zakynthos who were supporting the Metropolitan and the Mayor with their intercessions and appeals to the Commandant. They were well-known in the “high” social and ecclesiastical circles of Athens and Zakynthos. Their names were: Earl Dionysios Romas, former

Member of Parliament, scholar and writer, and Dimitrios Katevatis, a physician. The second incident concerns the attitude adopted by the Resistance organizations of the time - the National Republican Greek League and the National Liberation Army. The leaders of the above-mentioned fighting organizations and all Zakynthians closely followed the desperate struggle of the Metropolitan. They passed a joint decision and agreed, that in case of failure, the NLA and NRGL in Zakynthos would team up on a common national basis, to square off against the Germans, to free the Jews and to protect them at any sacrifice. Their sacrifice wouldn’t have been small. It would have cost much in terms of human and material resources. Even the existence of the town would have been at stake!

The answer came at last, after a dark and tense period of breathless expectation. [...] Glory to God! The response came from the Highest General Staff of the Axis. The Commandant called in the Metropolitan and announced the following: The Jews will remain in Zakynthos under the responsibility of the Metropolitan and the Mayor.

About 275 Zakynthos Jews escaped certain death. It was the only instance known in Europe and in Greece. The Israelites honored the Metropolitan Chrysostomos Dimitriou and the Mayor Loukas Karrer with a special medal “Righteous among the Nations”.

In 1953 when Zakynthos suffered a massive earthquake, Israel was the first country to send humanitarian aid accompanied by the letter saying: We, the Jews of Zakynthos never forget the Mayor and our beloved Metropolitan and what they have done for us.

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I O A K I M , T H E M E T R O P O L I TA N O F V O L O S The town of Volos was within the Italian occupation zone until September 8, 1943. On the 12th of September 1943 it came under the command of Germans.

In September 1943, the Jewish community in Volos consisted of 882 Jews. The community was headed by Joseph Kohen, a physician. He formed a small Vigilance Committee in order to collect information and protect its members from Nazi atrocities. The above-mentioned committee and David Levi arranged, in cooperation with Ioakim, the Metropolitan of Dimitriada the distribution of false baptismal certificates with Christian names among the Jews. On September 30, 194, the German Commandant Kourt Richter demanded from the Chief Rabbi Moses Simeon Pessach a name list of all Jews.

Pessach pretended to be unable to turn in the list.

A 24-hour deadline had been set for him to get the list ready. Right after that he rushed to see the Metropolitan Ioakim, with whom he was on friendly terms, to ask for his help and to learn about the intentions of the Germans. The Metropolitan tried to ease his anxiety and sent a confident priest to Helmut Sefel, the German Consul and secret philhellene to collect information. The Consul made it clear that all Jews had to leave the town immediately.

The chief rabbi Moses Simeon Pessach, the historian Joseph Nehama and other survivors remember: The alarmed Jews of Volos, assisted by the great-hearted Orthodox Bishop …, fled into the

Jews remained in the town…. On the night of March 24th to 25th, 1944 the CC arrested 120 Jews who still remained in the town...

Metropolitan Ioakim, Rabbi Pessach & Konsul Helmut Scheffel

As to the Jews hiding the villages of Pelion, the Metropolitan gave an order to all village priests to take care of them, to meet all their needs without any distinction. At the same time, he provided the Chief Rabbi Pessach with a reference letter addressed to all village clergymen and Resistance fighters asking for the protection of all persecuted Greek Jews (according to Chief Rabbi’s

son). The Metropolitan Ioakim is among those honored as “The Righteous among the Nations”.

Nikolaos Saratsis, the Mayor of Volos, Zisis Mantidis, the Municipal Council, Elias Agdiniotis the Chief of Police, and many other residents of Volos also played an important role in saving Jews.

The assistance provided by the Greek Resistance Army was very significant, as regards its role in the survival of Jews and their accommodation in the villages of Pelion and in the hinterlands.

suburbs. Only few lonely, disabled and less courageous Jews remained in the town…. On the night of March 24th to 25th, 1944 the CC arrested 120 Jews who still remained in the town...

As to the Jews hiding the villages of Pelion, the Metropolitan gave an order to all village priests to take The town of Volos was within the Italian occupation zone until September 8, 1943. On the 12th of September 1943 it came under the command of Germans. In September 1943, the Jewish community in Volos consisted of 882 Jews. The community was headed by Joseph Kohen, a physician. He formed a small Vigilance Committee in order to collect information and protect its members from Nazi atrocities.

The above-mentioned committee and David Levi arranged, in cooperation with Ioakim, the Metropolitan of Dimitriada the distribution of false baptismal certificates with Christian names among the Jews. On September 30, 194, the German Commandant Kourt Richter demanded from the Chief Rabbi Moses Simeon Pessach a name list of all Jews.

Pessach pretended to be unable to turn in the list.

A 24-hour deadline had been set for him to get the list ready. Right after that he rushed to see the Metropolitan Ioakim, with whom he was on friendly terms, to ask for his help and to learn about the intentions of the Germans. The Metropolitan tried to ease his anxiety and sent a confident priest to Helmut Sefel, the German Consul and secret philhellene to collect information. The Consul made it clear that all Jews had to leave the town immediately.

The chief rabbi Moses Simeon Pessach, the historian Joseph Nehama and other survivors remember: The alarmed Jews of Volos, assisted by the greathearted Orthodox Bishop …, fled into the suburbs.

Only few lonely, disabled and less courageous

Metropolitan IGNATIOS with President of Jewish Community Mordochai SOLOMON

Hand written memo of Metropolitan Ioakim to Chief Rabbi Moshe Symeon Pessach .

Memorial for the Jews of Volos, Greece

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MOTL

GRIGORIOS, THE METROPOLITAN OF CHALKIDA REMEMBER

2019

SOME EXCEPTIONAL CASES C O N C E R N I N G T H E S TA N C E O F OT H E R C H R I S T I A N C H U R C H E S

THE ENCOURAGEING SIGNS.....

The Jewish community in Chalkida consisted of 325 people. Their life was under ominous threat right after the capitulation of Italy in September 1943. The declaration of the Greek Resistance Army encouraged the residence of Chalkida and of the island of Euboea to fly to give assistance to their townspeople Jews. All Jews were immediately transferred from Chalkida to the mountain villages of the island.

All of them were provided with false baptismal certificates that had been

issued by the gendarmerie and by lieutenant Ekonomidis.

The Jews who remained in the town together with their Rabbi were arrested with the help of collaborators.

However, they were never deported to concentration camps. The Metropolitan Grigorios, putting his life at risk, hid the six cases of Sefer Torah in his house.

The Community lost only 18 of its members.

Lately, the Roman-Catholic Church has been treating its attitude to the Holocaust during the parlous years of the Nazi occupation with some self-criticism. Since the times of Pope John Paul II and his historic visit to Jerusalem (Yad Vashem), to Western Wall (Wailing Wall), to Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau and his touching words of self-criticism and repentance we have been witnessing gradual change in the attitude of the Catholic Church which is

quite different from that adopted by Pope Pius ΧΙΙ during the occupation. Both Pope Benedict ΧVI, (a German) and the present Pope Francis have explicitly condemned the persecution of Jews seeking forgiveness from Israelites.

Very characteristic is the fact that the Vatican consecrated a saint the Carmelite nun of Jewish descent who was murdered at Auschwitz.

EDITH STEIN, (St. Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross) «We make a low obeisance before the martyrdom and the sacrificial death of Edith Stein, the distinguished daughter of Israel and daughter of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a personality who lived a full life and experienced the dramatic events of the 20th century. Her life was a history of profound wounds that are aching to this day, the quintessence of a true character. Her restless and «disgruntled» heart found repose in God. As a Catholic she remained faithful to our crucified Lord Jesus Christ. As a Jew she devoted her life to her people. She refused to abandon them and to save her own life». (Pope John

His Eminence Metropolitan of Halkida CHRYSOSTOMOS: at the footsteps of his predecessors

April 2019: the authorities commemorate the courage of those who saved Jews risking their own lives.

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Paul ΙΙ during the canonization of Edith Stein in Cologne on 1/5/1987) Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany in 1891. She was the 11th child in observant Jewish family. Coincidentally, she was born on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). She was an extremely talented and gifted girl. In adolescence she set herself up as an atheist.

At a very young age she got a teaching position at the University of Freiburg. Edith Stein was baptized in January 1922 and later became a nun. After Hitler’s rise to power she had to resign her teaching posts. She asked Pope Pius ΧΙΙ to openly denounce the Nazi regime, «to put a stop to abuse of Christ’s Name...»

She helped a lot of persecuted Jews and refused to leave her monastery in Germany.

In the end, she was forced to move to the Netherlands with her sister Rosa. On August 7, 1942 she was deported with other 987 Jews to the extermination camp in Auschwitz– Birkenau. She had refused any help or exception rendered to her due to her Christian identity. «All you who are trying to prevent me now from the abandonment to the will of God and turning me from sharing the faith of my brothers and sisters, you are accomplices in the crime against me destroying my soul...».

On August 9, 1942 Edith Stein, her sister Rosa and many others were murdered in gas chambers.

In her last will dated 6/6/1939 we read: “Ι pray the Lord to accept my life and my death …to take it as a plea, a sacrifice, for all pains caused to His holy heart and His Holy Mother … I beg the Lord to accept the people of Israel in the Kingdom of Heaven when He comes in Glory, to save Germany, to bring peace in the world and I beg for the salvation of all the beloved ones, the living and the dead.”

HANS DIETRICH BONHEFER (1906-1945)

Europe, particularly, in her fellow-student and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who characterized her as “a martyr and hero of the civilized free humanity”, were the factors that led to her canonization by the Vatican. The statue of St. Teresa-Benedicta in the facade hovel of Saint Peter’s Church in Rome is representing her with a cross and a Torah roll in hands. St. Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross icons show her as a Saint holding a Cross, with the Jewish Star on her breast.

It is worth noting that, near Karditsa in Greece, not long ago lived one of Edith Stein’s relatives from Germany. She is an Orthodox nun Gerontissa Abbess Diodora, a wonderful highly educated woman that loves Greece.

She even received Greek citizenship from His Excellency Mr. Pavlopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic.

«It’s tragic for a Christian to support Nazi ideology...»

«I denounce the Antichrist Hitler and his accomplices and call all true believers for holy disobedience...»

Hans Dietrich Bonhever was a German Lutheran Priest and theologian. He was a Nazi martyr strung up on Holy Friday in Germany for his active fight against Hitler’s National Socialist Party. Dietrich Bonhefer was a student of the great German Protestant theologian Harnakkai Bart. In 1930 he was elected Professor at the University of Berlin. Like Karl Bart, follower of the dialectic theory, he required the return of Protestantism to the biblical traditions of the early Christianity.

In fact, he tried to rid Theology from Scholasticism and metaphysics and from their social consequences. Dietrich and other Protestants founded the “Confessing Church”.

It fought against the incorporation of the German Evangelical Church in the National Socialist Party of Hitler.

Hans Dietrich was brave enough to publish the following: «the narrow-minded clergymen and the major part of them who are irreparably self-interesting, have found a supporter of their class interests in the person of the maniac dictator. I denounce the Antichrist Hitler and his accomplices and call all true believers for holy disobedience, as they represent neither worldly nor heavenly legality». He was accused of participation in the attempted assassination of Hitler. In April 1943, Dietrich was imprisoned, tortured and executed. Nineteen volumes of his writings were published posthumously under the title «Resistance and Compliance».

The good moral character of Edith Stein, philosopher and nun, and the sensation of poignancy that her sacrifice caused in

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THE SAINTS OF ORTHODOX CHURCH WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIFE TO SAVE JEWS

MOTL

2019

REMEMBER

ANTI-NAZI ORGANIZATION «WHITE ROSE»

RUSSIAN SAINTS THAT DIED IN FRANCE DURING THE HOLOCAUST The Ecumenical Patriarchate established the 20th of July as the day of commemoration of the assembly of Russian Saints. They gave up their souls in France.

The names of Saints are:

Saint Martyr Alexander Schmorell, commemorated on the 13th of July and other fighters against Nazism: Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Sophie Scholl Saint Martyr Alexander Schmorell was a student of medicine during the Second World War and one of the founders of the anti-Nazi organization «White Rose».

Together with other members of the «White Rose», attempted to attract popular support of Germans, so as to resist Hitler and the Nazi regime. In February 1943, at the age of 25, he was arrested, cast into prison Stantelheim in Munich. He was executed on July 13, 1943. On February 5, 2012 he was canonized as a Saint Martyr of the Russian Church. The Saint is commemorated on the 13th of July.

The Saint is represented in white doctor’s overall holding a cross and a white rose, the symbol of life and resurrection.

The young people from the «White Rose» organization had initially been fascinated by the enthusiastic mottos of the Hitler’s youth organization. Eventually, «they came to their senses» and managed to overextend themselves and to reject, as Christians, the temptations of tyranny, to denounce the moral degradation of their countrymen who were serving the attainment of the goals set by the tyrant regime. The victory of the Nazis in the battlefield could have turned the world to hell. Schmorell’s love for his homeland was a true love. The nation which strays from the ways of God is bound to be defeated. In other words, “hubris” is always followed by Nemesis, bringing catastrophe not only to the few inflamers and instigators

Saint Dimitrios (Klepinin) the Presbyter, Saint Mother Maria (Skobtsova), nun (1891-1945), Saint Yuri (Skobtsov) son of Maria Skobtsova, Saint Elias (Fontaminsky) (1882-1942), Saint Alexey (Medvedkov) the Archpriest, Alexey Yzin Savoy (1867-1934).

Basically, they were New Martyrs under the Nazi who were murdered died at concentration camps, with the exception of Alexey Yzin, who gave up his soul in peace before the war.

(1934).

«Synaxarion» or the life story of...

Saint Mother Maria (Maria Skobtsova) of criminal acts, but to many who show tolerance, pretend to know nothing and feel convenience with the products of criminal activities... The «White Rose» organization, being the moral voice of the German people had warned but never got a chance to be heard. .. It warned about the hypocrisy of the Nazis, who, in attempt to deceive people, claimed to be the defenders of the Christian civilization. In reality, the undermining of Christianity was their goal.

In volume 4, the fighters wrote: «Every word said by Hitler is a lie. When he speaks of love he means war, when he, committing blasphemy, pronounces the name of God, he favors the evil force, the fallen Angel. His mouth is the miasma of Hell and his power is dad-blamed from its very source».

When, during the Lenten Fast of 1932, the Metropolitan Eulogios accepted the monastic vows of Elisaveta Skobtsova at the Saint Serge Church in Paris, many people were in perplexity.

She was a divorced woman who had been married twice, and had a son out of wedlock.

She was a leftist, and, generally, a special case from many points of you. As she said, she took the name Maria in honor of Saint Maria the Egyptian, whore was a hermit practicing strict asterism. She was a pious person. However, Mother Maria was still scandalizing people as a true «God’s Fool». Her «angelic schema» was usually grease-spotted after work in the kitchen and in the laboratory. Mother Maria used to go to night spots. She seemed to have little patience to stand the long course of

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Orthodox liturgies and strict repeated Lents. They seemed too burdensome to her. And –oh, the horror! The nun smocked i1n the public!

She was born to an aristocratic family in Latvia in 1871 and given the name Elizaveta Pilenko. Her father died when she was a teenager, and she embraced atheism. In 1906 her mother moved the family to St. Petersburg, where she became involved in the radical intellectual circles. In 1910 she married a Bolshevik by the name of Dmitriy Kuzmin-Karavaev. During this period of her life she was actively involved in literary circles and wrote much poetry. Her first book, Scythian Shards (Скифские черепки) was a collection of poetry from this period.

By 1913 her marriage to Dimitri had ended and the latter subsequently became Eastern Orthodox. Through a look at the humanity of Christ — «He also died. He sweated blood.

They struck his face» — she began to be drawn back into Christianity.

She moved—now with her daughter, Gaiana—to the south of Russia where her religious devotion increased. In 1918, after the Bolshevik Revolution, she was elected deputy mayor of Anapa in Southern Russia. When the anti-communist White Army took control of Anapa, the mayor

fled and she became mayor of the town. The White Army put her on trial for being a Bolshevik. However, the judge was a former teacher of hers, Daniel Skobtsov, and she was acquitted. Soon the two fell in love and were married. The political tide was turning again. In order to avoid danger, Elizaveta, Daniel, Gaiana, and Elizaveta’s mother Sophia fled the country. Elizaveta was pregnant with her second child. They traveled first to Georgia (where her son Yuri was born) and then to Yugoslavia (where her daughter Anastasia was born). Finally they arrived in Paris in 1923. Soon Elizaveta was dedicating herself to theological studies and social work. In 1926, Anastasia died of influenza. Gaiana was sent away to Belgium to boarding school. Soon, Daniel and Elizaveta’s marriage was falling apart. Yuri ended up living with Daniel, and Elizaveta moved into central Paris to work more directly with those who were most in need.

Her bishop encouraged her to take vows as a nun, something she did only with the assurance that she would not have to live in a monastery, secluded from the world. In 1932, with Daniel Skobtov’s permission, an ecclesiastical divorce was granted and she took monastic vows. In religion she took the name Maria.

Her confessor was Father Sergei Bulgakov. Later, Fr. Dmitri Klepinin would be sent to be the chaplain of the house.

Mother Maria made a rented house in Paris her «convent». It was a place with an open door for refugees, the needy and the lonely. It also soon became a center for intellectual and theological discussion. In Mother Maria these two elements—service to the poor and theology—went hand-in-hand. A

bystander described the “monastery” as «a strange pandemonium»: «… there are young girls, insane, exiled, unemployed workers, and και, at the moment, the Russian Opera Chorus and the Gregorian choir of the missionary center at Dom Malherbe, and now we have services day and night in the chapel…». The Monastery hosted discussions and speeches held by speakers the Saint Serge Institute in Paris. The strong spiritual convictions of Mother Maria did not prevent her from wide-scale organizational work. She founded a sanatoria for the needy, suffering from tuberculosis. She was one of the main initiators and founders of the «Orthodox Action» organization engaged in many charitable events.

When the German troops occupied Paris, the monastery of Mother Maria became a hiding-place for the persecuted Jews until they could find a way to flee. She provided false baptismal certificates to those who required one. The Nazi found out about their activity. Mother Maria, her son Yuri, the archpriest of the chapel

and the lay manager were imprisoned and sent to concentration camps.

Only the lay manager survived.

All those who got to know Mother Maria in the concentration camp could witness her courage, hope and optimism inspiring all around her in the worst possible conditions. The date and the circumstance around her death are not exactly known.

They say that her name appeares on the list of those who were led to gas chambers on April 31, 1945 and that she herself asked to go in place of a young Polish girl. But the fact has not been fully confirmed.

On January 16, 2004 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized by act the saintliness of Mother Maria. The canonization of Mother Maria, her son Yuri and Elias Fontaminsky together with Dimitri Klepinin took place in the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris on May 1 and 2, 2004. Their memory is kept on their feast day on the 20th of July.

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« THE HOLY NEW NEOMARTYRS OF JASENOVAC ARE HEROES AND SAINTS OF THE ENTIRE ORTHODOX CHURCH..! »

THE DEATH CAMP OF JASENOVAC, CROATIA THE 3rd LARGEST IN WW2 IS ALSO THE LEAST KNOWN IN THE WEST «Most of the 40.000 Jews who lived in the independent state of Croatia were murdered here in the Jasenovac...» President of Israel Reuven Rivlin during His visit in 2018.

The «little-known» extermination camp was located in Croatia. Hundreds of thousands people were barbarically slaughtered here by the Ustashe militia, the Nazi’s collaborators in the period 19411945. Among the victims of the genocide are 20.000 children.…

Jasanovac was the biggest and the deadliest extermination camp established by the Ustashe dictatorial regime.

His All Holiness The Ecumenical Patriarch BARTOLOMEW in Jasenovac during His visit in 2016: “ THE HOLY NEW MARTYRS OF JASENOVAC ARE HEROES AND SAINTS OF THE ENTIRE ORTHODOX CHURCH..! ….Be under the shade of Serbian Martyrs, that tree of blessed Serbs… follow the path of your forefathers, heroes and Saints. Only in this way, you are about to receive the wreath of glory that is borne by numerous victims of Jasenovac of the Nazi totalitarism…never forget your martyrs, who cannot be a cause for revenge but for tolerance, love and peace.”

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WITH THE NEW HOLY MARTYRS The Monastery of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist in Jasenovac “Wonderful Holy Martyrs of Christ, Heavenly flowers from the banks of the river Sava, innocent Lilies of our Saint Sava’s genus, Your Holy wreaths, as a constellation of the stars, adorn the sky of the church through baptismal history and illuminate our path into Resurrection.

Pray to Christ the one who carried the Cross first and the Leader on our path to the Kingdom of Heaven, to give the world repentance and eternal salvation to all.”

Logor Jasenovac was established in May 1941 twenty-eight kilometers away from Stara Gradiska. Prisoners themselves erected the first barracks. Later a new complex of barracks was built to extend the first one, called Jasenovac 2

Jasenovac as seen today from the air

In November 1941, the Sava and the Strung rivers floods destroyed both camps the prisoners had to build a third one. During the construction of the new camp complex about 650 prisoners, who had been exhausted by hard work, were literally axed by the Ustashe guards.

Jasenovac was divided into 4 parts: for Serbs, Jews, “dissidents” Croats, and the Roma. The camp was intended to accommodate 4.000 people. The inflow of new prisoners was stable and the killings never stopped. Every day the prisoners had to dig new graves to bury the dead. Many corpses were thrown into the rivers Sava and Strung.

In contrast with what was going on in other extermination camps, at Jasenovach, the Ustashe realized different tactics “similar” of that applied by the Nazi. In fact, between January and February 1942, they put into operation two crematoria that had been designed by Hinko Pitsili, the Ustashe. The crematoria had been working day and night without a stop until May (after 3 months of operation, they were put out of action). Within the said period they cremated about 15.000 people.

For some time children stayed in barracks together with their imprisoned families. In December 1941, there were 400 children from 4 to 14 years of age. By order of Vjekoslav

(Kondakion the the Holy Martyrs of Jasenovac)

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Nazi collaborators Ustace and innoscent people deported to Jasenovac death camp Luburic, head of the extermination camp, a separate barrack was made available, where chosen imprisoned teachers could teach children to write, read and sing. The staged compulsory education had a single purpose.

The Commandant of the extermination camp was expecting a group of journalists and international observers accompanied by a team of Croatians. Four days after the visit, all children and their teachers were murdered.

The Italian journalist Alfio Ruso was among the observers who surveyed Jasenovac at the end of January 1942. He tried, in vain, to put questions to prisoners (they were forbidden to speak).

In expectation of the visit, the camp was “cleaned” and the atrocities covered up with tragic consequences. The Italian journalist wrote: «New prisoners arrive every day and are given a number. However, other prisoners dye of pain and exhaustion and

“leave” the camp The macabre atmosphere at the camp became obvious to the Italian journalist.

However, Don Giuseppe Mazzucci, Secretary of the Vatican delegation, and the Priest Stepan Latskovic, Secretary of His Holiness could see nothing. Both of them were members of the group that visited the camp and was accepted by the Chief of the Ustashe Police Eugen Kuaternik–Dido.

On November 19, 1943 about 800 Jewsprisoners at Logor Jasenovic boarded a floating platforms. They were taken across the river Sava, where they were made to dig their graves. As soon as they finished digging they were literally beaten to death by the Ustashe. At the end of the month, Ivitsa Matkovic, the new commandant of the camp, chose 160 imprisoned intellectuals (teachers and professors) so as to carry

Roman Catholic Archbishob Aloize Stepinac & other clergy in nazi salutation

The chief executioner francescan monk Miroslav Filipovic Majstorovic or «father Satan’» executed in 1945 for its crimes. out an “experiment”. He wanted to find out how long they could survive without food and water. Many of them died in several days. About forty people who had been “exposed” to the experiment managed to survive. They ate grass growing at the camp and, in some cases, the flesh of their dead co-prisoners.

On the rainy Christmas Eve, the survivors managed to climb over the barbed wire into the river Sava. The Ustashe guard caught 35 of them in the river? They had been locked up naked in a barrack with a temperature 30 °0 below zero and died of cold.

In the winter of 1944 to 1945, the number of executions at Jasenovac grew considerably. At the end of the dictatorship, the prisoners were executed right after their arrival at the camp. The survivors had to bury thousands of dead people. Later, in

Adolf Hitler and Ante Pavelic, happy to meet.

Aloize Stepinac with the Ustace leader Ante Pavelic

the attempt to cover-up the atrocities, part of the extermination camp was set afire.

On the 20th of April the survivors at Jasenovac ventured a mass breakout. Only 50 of them managed to escape, all others were killed by gunfire. T the Ustashe guards mined and destroyed the remnants of the Jasenovac camp just before the arrival of the Yugoslavian Liberation Army.

The first commandant of the Janasovic extermination camp was the Ustashe officer Ljubo Milos. In 1948, as a criminal of war imprisoned in Zagreb, Milos had hourslong conversations with the British writer G. Bileigin. Among other things, he expanded on the special blades and hammers the Ustashe used to speed up slaughters women and men, on how the killers stepped on the heads and bodies of children and killed them.

Entire serb christan families slaughtered in their beds...

where

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More than 12.000 children wher slaughtered there...

Milos’ successor at Jasanovac was Miroslav Filipovic Maistorovic, Franciscan monk called ”Brother Satan”, personal friend of Poglavnik (he raised him to the rank of Major of the Ustashe National Guard). “Brother Satan” had a perfect “service record” when he got the appointment of the Commandant of the extermination camp.

Ljubo Miloš 1st The Catholic Franciscan commander monk had been the Chief of Jasenovac: Guard of the “Poglavnik executed in 1948 Bodyguard Corps”, the Ustashe extermination groups, which in October 1941 slaughtered more than 4.800 Serbs in the area between Banja Luka and Motitsa. Moreover, in November 1941, at the primary school in Krivania they hacked to death all children of Orthodox Serbs. At the camp, “Brother Satan” did not limit himself only to the duties of a commandant. He personally took part in mass killings, according to Sime Riboli, a prisoner at Jasenovac: «It’s hard to believe that a Franciscan monk can be such a bloodthirsty murderer. In contrast with Matkovic and Milos, whose behavior was reflecting their low spiritual level, the monk Filipovic had gentle manners and was always sweetmouthed, except for the hours when he took part in manslaughters. He cruelty was beyond compare. At Gradina, he was the most active participant in mass

«Serb-cutter» the special knife to kill Serbs!

cases deportations involved more than 1.500…people. The permanent number of prisoners at the camp was 3.000. What had happened to all others? It should be noted first that there were 2 categories of prisoners at Jasenovac. The names of those sent by decision of a court were usually entered in a special registry [competent office] of the camp. The names of those who arrived without a court decision were never registered. Those of the 2nd category were the majority and they were subject to immediate extermination. As regards those who arrived under a court decision, there were people with different terms of imprisonment, from 6 months to 3 years.

Those sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment

were also executed for the most part. There was an agreement on the matter. Luburists agreed to kill immediately all prisoners sent without court decision along with those sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment.

As far as I know, every time Luburic went to Zagreb he was accepted by Pavelic and reported to him. Luburic said to me many times that he had done nothing on his own initiative. He only executed orders given by the superiors, particularly, by Pavelic.

Every time when the number of prisoners at Jacenovac exceeded the set limit due to arrival of new groups, it had to be reduced through mass killings. Old people were killed first, then the ill and disabled people who could not work».

slaughters. He would go out every evening to oversee the killings and go home at dawn with his robes blood-spotted. He was an incomparably active murderer. One day he was eating at a table when an Ustashe came up to him and whispered something in the ear. The Ustashe went towards the camp gates and returned back with a prisoner.

The monk Filipovic stood up and killed the prisoner. The unfortunate man dropped dead on the floor. The monk sat down again at the table and continued eating. When he had finished eating he cried out: “Call for the body-snatcher!”».

The atrocities of the catholic monk caused many protests and the Croatian Archbishop Stepinac was under pressure. It was too late when the Archbishop of Zagreb decided to interpose. In 1943 he issued the decision to “disengage” the monk-slaughterer and avoided taking more drastic measures.

Undoubtedly, Miroslav Filipovic was one of the most brutal Ustashe slaughters.

Certainly, he was not the only catholic priest involved in camp atrocities.

The organization of mass slaughters at Jasenovac was described by one of their instigators Ljubo Milos, former commander of the Jasenovac camp, when he stood before the court of Zagreb on 9 June 1948: «After the establishment of Camp III Brick Factory, new large groups of prisoners began to arrive. At the beginning the groups consisted of 300 people, later of 500, 1.000 up to 1.500 people. In some

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MOTL

THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL REUVEN RIVLIN AT JASENOVAC DEATH CAMP

2019

THE WORLD’S DEBT TO THE OLD TESTAMENT *

Copyright: GPO/Amos Ben-Gershom

REMEMBER

President Reuven Rivlin with Croatian President Kolinda Garber-Kitzrovic at the Jasenovac Death Camp

During his visit in Croatia on July 2018 the President of the State of Israel visited the Jasenovac death camp, recited the Kaddish, (prayer for the deads) and stated: “We are all obligated to make every effort to honor the memory of those who perished, and not to lend a hand to legislation or any attempt to damage or silence historical research of what the Nazis and their collaborators did….On the eve of World War II, 40,000 Jews lived in the territory of ‘the Independent Croatian state’. The Jewish communities flourished here. Small communities - but vibrant communities, patriotic.

At the present time many people cast doubt on the significance of the Old Testament and on its contribution to human civilization. Some people are even fighting and condemning the Old Testament. They are absolutely wrong. The Old Testament is the second gift given to a man by God. The first one was the logic and life with free will. At the times when other peoples were shadowboxing in the dark, the biblical Israel was talking to God. When other peoples could merely guess the existence of God and were trying to discover Him in the multi-faced idols, Israel made agreements with God. When other peoples sacrificed their children to propitiate Gods, Israel was glorifying God and tried to trim off the distance between them and God. The Old Testament helped humankind leave behind the centuries of barbarity and to go forward to the blessings of civilization. With the “building materials” found In the realm of God, the chosen people constructed the basis for eternal religiousness on the planet.

Lections from the Old Testament are read multiple times as they command confidence in God and reestablish confidence when it is disturbed. Up to now, everyone has been a Jew inside in his relation with God.

For hundreds of years Croatia was a comfortable home for Jews, but during the Second World War, this home turned into a mass grave for most of the Jews of Croatia. Thousands of Jews, most of the members of the Jewish community, babies, children, women, the elderly and men, were murdered, exterminated with terrible cruelty just because they were Jews,…Most of the Jews who lived in the independent state of Croatia were murdered here in the Jasenovac camp.

With them a great many thousands of Christian Serbs and Romany and opponents of the regime who were brutally murdered.”

The Christian Church should never forget the debt owed to the Old Testament and to the Israelites-«teachers of Jesus Christ». There were tough times when Church forgot it. As a result it acted in antiChristian an unhuman way.

It’s about time that we spoke on the basis of the Old Testament and respected its contribution to civilization. In order to understand this necessity, take away for a moment the Old Testament from jurisprudence, ethics, art and humanity. Then you’ll understand how tragically poor and insubstantial the world could be. Try to read the New Testament without having read the Old Testament first, and you will understand very little.

Whether we like it or not, «they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all» (Rom. 9, 4-5).

It’s useful to remember it forever. And to acknowledge it.

* Anthimos, Metropolitan of Alexandroupolis, Greece

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56 MOTL

2019

O N E P H O T O, A THOUSAND WORDS‌ REMEMBER

Out of Auschwitz death camp with our banner and the greek flag

International March of the Living 2016

At Birkenau with polish survivor Ed Mosberg holding the scrolls of the Torah.

At the Birkenau ramp shouting loud against Antisemitism...

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Last Greek Non-Jewish Auschwitz survivor Mrs Vaso Stamatiou (No. 82224) at her 93 is still a living testimony and a powerful example for the younger generations.

ΕΚΔΟΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΟΥ ΙΣΡΑΗΛΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΤΟΜΟΣ 39ος ΑΡ. ΦΥΛΛΟΥ 246 ΙΟΥΛΙΟΣ - ΔΕΚΕΜΒΡΙΟΣ 2016 ΤΑΜΟΥΖ 5776 - ΚΙΣΛΕΒ 5777

At the notorious Birkenau gate to hell

During the I.M.O.T.L 2016...

Metropolitan Ignatios of Volos with the Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau

«Έρχομαι εδώ, όπου εκατομμύρια Εβραίων και άλλων αδελφών μας δολοφονήθηκαν βάρβαρα, ως ταπεινός προσκυνητής, στο Όνομα του Κυρίου μας Ιησού Χριστού, του πράου και ταπεινού τη καρδία. Εύχομαι και προσεύχομαι, ώστε το φως αυτής της δάδας να φωτίσει τις διάνοιες και τις καρδιές όλων μας, για να ακολουθήσουμε το Ευαγγέλιο, προς ένα κόσμο συνύπαρξης, ανεκτικότητας, αγάπης και ειρήνης! ΠΟΤΕ ΞΑΝΑ ΚΑΝΕΝΑ ΟΛΟΚΑΥΤΩΜΑ!»

ΤΕΥ ΧΟΣ

ΑΦΙΕΡΩΜΑ

Π

Ι ΕΡ

Ε ΕΧ

VD

ΙD

Special edition’s cover page of the magazine of the Central Committee of the Jewish Communities in Greece

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60 MOTL

REMEMBER

2019

Fighting Antisemitism in Volos, Greece...following the paradigm of our Spiritual Leaders.

His Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos honoured our event for the Holocaust Remembrance Day. The german activist and antifascist Mr. Reiner Hoess, (grandson of Auschwitz commander) was the main speaker and met with survivor Mrs. Vaso Stamatiou (No.82224)

ΙΕΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΗ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΑΔΟΣ

Ορθόδοξοι Άγιοι: Κλήρος και Λαός

Remember, it didn’t start with gas chambers.

It started with politicians dividing the people with “us vs them”. It started with intolerance and hate speech and when people stopped caring, became desensitized and turned a blind eye.

στον Πόλεμο, την Κατοχή και το Ολοκαύτωμα ΠΟΤΕ ΞΑΝΑ

ΠΑΛΜΟΣ

ΝΑΖΙΣΜΟΣ

07.30-11.30 Ιερός Μητροπολιτικός Ναός Αγίου Νικολάου 10ΕΤΕΣ ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΟ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΔΟΥΛΟΥ

18.00-20.00 Ιερός Ναός Αναλήψεως του Χριστού Ομιλητές: ο Μητροπολίτης Σιατίστης κ. ΠΑΥΛΟΣ, ο Επίσκοπος Σλαβονίας κ. Ιωάννης, ο ιστορικός κ. Γιώργος Πηλιχός και η κ. Βάσω Σταματίου, επιζήσασα του Άουσβιτς

Σάββατο 3 Φεβρουαρίου 2018 vivlos.net

Posters of our “Yom HaShoah” events organized in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Volos, the Diocese of Demetrias and Thessaly Region. 2016-2017-2018 ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΗΜΕΡΑ ΜΝΗΜΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΗΡΩΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΟΛΟΚΑΥΤΩΜΑΤΟΣ

ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΗΜΕΡΑ ΜΝΗΜΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΗΡΩΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΟΛΟΚΑΥΤΩΜΑΤΟΣ

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_vrabelpeter1'>vrabelpeter1 / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

μνημησ

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_kmiragaya'>kmiragaya / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

ημερα

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_kmiragaya'>kmiragaya / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

ΠΕΡΙΦΕΡΕΙΑ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΙΑΣ ΠΕΡΙΦΕΡΕΙΑΚΕΣ ΕΝΟΤΗΤΕΣ ΜΑΓΝΗΣΙΑΣ & ΣΠΟΡΑΔΩΝ ΙΣΡΑΗΛΙΤΙΚΗ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΒΟΛΟΥ

ΠΟΤΕ ΞΑΝΑ

ΝΑΖΙΣΜΟΣ θΑ ΜΙΛΗΣΕΙ Ο ΔΙΑΠΡΕΠΗΣ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΟΣ ΑΝΤΙΝΑΖΙΣΤΗΣ

ΧΑΝΣ ΡΑΪΝΕΡ ΕΣ

(ΕΓΓΟΝΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΡΑΤΟΠΕΔΑΡΧΗ ΤΟΥ ΑΟΥΣΒΙΤΣ ΡΟΥΝΤΟΛΦ ΕΣ)

Κυριακή 4 Φεβρουαρίου 2018 10.30 π.μ. στο Μνημείο του Ολοκαυτώματος (2ας Νοεμβρίου και Ξενοφώντος, Βόλος)

Κυριακή 4 Φεβρουαρίου 2018

11.15 π.μ. στο Συνεδριακό Κέντρο Θεσσαλίας στα Μελισσιάτικα Η μεταφορά από το Μνημείο στο Συνεδριακό Κέντρο και αντίστροφα θα γίνει, για όσους το επιθυμούν, με λεωφορείο

ΠΑΛΜΟΣ

Με την υποστήριξη

vivlos.net

ΙΕΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΗ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΑΔΟΣ

Με την υποστήριξη

ΙΕΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΗ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΑΔΟΣ

vivlos.net

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Bibliography

We will never forget the 44.141* (-96%) innoscent Jews from Thessaloniki that where murdered during the Holocaust..!

HOLY SCRIPTURE – THE OLD & NEW TESTAMENT PILICHOS GIORGOS. “Auschwitz-Greeks, Number of the Condemned”, Athens 2018 RIKA BENVENISTE. «Those who survived. Resistance, Deportation, Return. Jews of Thessalonica, Jews in the forties», Polis 2014.

FREZIS RAFAIL «Dedication to uprising of Jews at Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz –Birkenau», Volos 1992 IOANNIS ANASTASAKIS “Shame of Civilization. Concentration Camps 1933-1945”, Chania 2003 FRANGISKI ABATZOPOULOU. «Holocaust Witnesses of Greek Jews» Thessalonica 1993 YAKOEL YOMTOV. “Memoirs 1941-43», Thessalonica 1993 VENETIA SLOMO «SONDERCOMMANDΟ. The Hell of Gas Chambers «, Athens 2009 CHECH DANUTA. «Greek Jews at Aschwits» 1979 DANIEL GOLDHAGEN «Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Ordinary German and the Holocaust», Athens 1998 MARCO AURELIO RIVELLI. «The Archbishop of Genocide», Proskinio 2000 SERGEI HACKEL «Maria Skobtsova, Holy Fool for Christ in Modern Timeэ», Akritas 2010 GIZELA HEIDENREK. “Hitler’s Children «, Athens, 2007 GERALD GREEN. «The Holocaust», Athens, 1979 MOSHE ΡOSTONE. «Historians and the Holocaust”, Ioannina 2007 GUNΤER GRASS. “Writing After Auschwitz» Thessalonica 2005 SERGIO ROMANO. “Ι falsi protocoli. Il complotto ebraico dalla Russia di Nicola II a oggi”, Corbaccio srl. Milano 1992 DAVID KERTZER. “Ι Papi contro gli ebrei. Il ruolo del Vaticano nell’ ascesa dell’ antisemitismo moderno”, Rizzoli 2002.

WILLEM J.J. GLASHOOUWER. «Why Nation Israel; Understanding Israel, the Church and the Nations in Doomsday » Atha Maran Thessalonica 2009 EDWARD H. FLANNERY. “The Anguish of the Jews. 2300 years of Antisemitism», Nisides 2006 DIONYSIOS CHARALAMPOUS. «Martyrs, Persecution 1942-1945» Ι.Μ.V. HEINZ SALVATOR KOUNIO. «Facing Death. The diary of Number 109565», Thessalonica 1982 COLLECTIVE WORK. «Thessalonica 1850-1918. The city of Jews and Awakening of the Balkans», Hecate 1994.

RENA MOLCHO «Thessalonica Jews 1856-1919. Peculiar Community», Themelio 2006 YAD VASHEM. “Eclipse of Humanity. The history of the Shoah”, Jerusalem 2002.

THOMAS KING. “What Every Christian Needs to Know About All of the Christians Who Saved Jews in the Holocaust Era”, Shoebat Foundation.2015 Dedijer, Vladimir. The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs during World War II. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1992.

Romans, J. Jews of Yugoslavia, 1941- 1945: Victims of Genocide and Freedom Fighters, Belgrade, 1982 Fotich, Konstantin. The War We Lost: Yugoslavia’s Tragedy and the Failure of the West. New York: Viking Press, 1948.

Brochure of the Jasenovac Research Institute, written by JRI Research Director Barry Lituchy, (c) 2000.

Gutman, Israel,ed. The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 4 vols. New York: Ustaša Camps by Mirko Percen, Globus, Zagreb, 1966. Second expanded printing 1990.

Ustashi and the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945, by Fikreta Jelic-Butic, Liber, Zagreb, 1977.

US National Archives Special thanks to the USHMM

Web links: www.youversion.com www.faithcomesbyhearing.com www.bible.is www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90082.htm www.pravmir.com www.incommunion.org www.holocausttaskforce.org www.gjst.ha.uth.gr/el/testimony.php www.tovima.gr/society/article/?cid=755&aid=455607 thess.gr/blog/2713 www.antipliroforisi.blogspot.gr/2011/04/blog-post_19.html www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/international/ index.asp

www.churchandstate.org.uk/2015/10/christianity-in-europeduring-wwii/ www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_ doc_19981011_edith_stein_en.html www.saint.gr http://e-theologia.blogspot.gr/2014/04/blog-post_2040.html http://www.hsir.org/pdfs/2015/03/17/20150317aAgAlexand rosSmorell.pdf http://www.hsir.org/pdfs/2016/02/16/20160216aNeomartyr esNazismou.pdf www.theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/ecumenicalpatriarch-new-martyrs-of-jasenovac-are-heroes-and-saintsof-the-entire-orthodoxy/ www.spc.rs/eng/remembrance_holy_martyrs_jasenovac www.jasenovac.org

* jct.gr

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ÂŤIt is tragic for a Christian to follow the nazi ideologyâ&#x20AC;?

Artwork: courtesy by Viktor Koen, www.viktorkoen.com

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Pastor (1906-1945)