The Jewish Museum of Sydney co-hosted for the first time in its history an event with the Greek community of New South Wales (NSW) last Sunday.
Honouring the memory of the victims of the Jewish community in Greece, at the hands of the Nazis in 1943, as well as the 80th anniversary of the NSW chapter of AHEPA, a special function was held on June 1, where the story of the rescue of hundreds of members of the Jewish community of Zakynthos was told in public.
The main speaker was Macquarie University academic Dr Elizabeth Kefallinos, who was born on the island of Zakynthos.
During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Mayor of Zakynthos Loukas Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos refused Nazi orders to turn in a list of the members of the town’s Jewish community for deportation to the death camps. Instead, they offered themselves to the Nazi authorities as candidates for deportation and they hid the town’s 275 Jews in rural villages. Subsequently, the order to deport the Ionian islands members of the Jewish community was retracted by the Nazis. Every member of the Jewish community of Zakynthos survived the war.
In 1978, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel, honored Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karrer with the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, an honour given to non-Jews who, at personal risk, saved Jews during the Holocaust.
After the war, all of the Jews of Zakynthos moved either to Israel or to Athens.
Dr Kefallinos was introduced in last week’s event by the Sydney Jewish Museum CEO Norman Seligman. The Consul General of Greece in Sydney was represented by Mrs Elizabeth Kyrimis. Amongst others, Ms Kyrimis reminded the audience that both the Greeks and the Jews were familiar with the phenomenon of genocide. It is our responsibility to remember, to educate others and make the words ‘Never Again’ a reality, she said.
On behalf of AHEPA NSW John Kallimanis, state president, introduced the founding principles of his organisation, especially those relating to combatting discrimination.