Language:
English
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
20,1 (2006) 34-56
Keywords:
Antisemitism
;
Jews
Abstract:
Traces the outbreak of antisemitism in the Macedonian city to tensions dating from 1922, when Mustafa Kemal's forces took Anatolia in Turkey, which put an end to the vision of reconstructing the Byzantine Empire. This resulted in the uprooting of the Muslim population of Salonika and an influx of Greek refugees from Anatolia, and engendered Greek insecurity about national identity and territorial claims. While the Greek government under Venizelos then pushed for assimilation, including of the Jews, Salonika Jews resisted by opposing the Venizelos "liberals" and by adhering first to the Zionist party and then to the communists. Since the ideologies of both groups were considered anti-Greek, ultranationalist movements, especially the Ethniki Enosis Ellados, and the media, such as the newspaper "Makedonia", began to portray Salonikan Jews as "traitors". An additional, non-national factor was rising antisemitism in the Balkans, Romania, and Hungary, which influenced the Greek scene. All these elements combined to spark a pogrom in June-July 1931: Jewish properties suffered extensive damage, houses were set on fire, and Jewish inhabitants were terrorized; one or two Jews were killed (according to different sources). Although there was a temporary improvement between 1936-41, when the antisemitic organizations and press were curbed, it is possible that the non-Jewish population's failure to protect Salonika's Jews when the Nazis occupied the country reflected the deterioration of relations between Greeks and Jews in the previous decade.
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