The country suffers from a lack of moral leadership
denouncing the embarrassment of anti-Semitism.
The repeat arson attacks on a synagogue in Greece
demonstrate that Turkey is not the only Mediterranean democracy cursed with
anti-Semitism. Arsonists have attacked the Etz Hayyim synagogue in Chania, on
the Greek island of Crete, twice this year. The fires on Jan. 5 and 17 have
inflicted substantial damage on a structure that was only restored in 1999
after lying derelict since the Holocaust. The attempts to destroy Crete's only
synagogue follow a spate of vandalism of Jewish graves in Ioannina in
northwestern Greece.
After the attacks: The two fires this month have inflicted
substantial damage on the Etz Hayyim synagogue in Chania, which had been
restored only eleven years earlier.
Compounding these acts of violence is Greek society's
shameful indifference to anti-Semitism. This was amply demonstrated during the
arson incidents in Crete. Non-Greeks played an admirable role in saving the
synagogue. An Albanian immigrant was the first to spot the fire in the early
hours of Jan. 5. The Albanian caretaker of the synagogue and a Moroccan also
rendered vital assistance. Nikos Stavroulakis, the director of the synagogue and
the man behind its restoration, has written about the "the lack of
'locals'" on the scene after the first attack—all the more shocking given
that these 'locals' would have lost their homes and businesses had the fire
spread.
Those who sleep through the night while a synagogue burns in
their own town are a metaphor for Greece's attitude to anti-Semitism. The
fundamental problem with Greek anti-Semitism is not that it is rampant. It is
that in a country of 11 million with just 5,000 Jews, few Greeks care to resist
it. Greece suffers from a lack of moral, religious and social leadership
denouncing the embarrassment of anti-Semitism, be it vandalism or the now banal
comparison of Israel with the Nazis in the national media.
The indifference of many Greeks is unsurprising. The
official version of the history ensures that few know of the Jewish component
of Greece's past. Many Greeks do not know that their second largest city,
Salonika, had a Jewish majority for most of its modern history. Instead of the
Holocaust being treated as a moment for moral and historical reflection, it is
portrayed as an opportunity for national self-congratulation because of the
rescue of a small number of Greek Jews. The genuine heroism of Greek Christians
who saved Greek Jews from the Nazis in such places as Zakynthos and Athens is
used to obscure the collaboration and indifference that helped condemn tens of
thousands of Greek Jews to death in Salonika and northern Greece.
This ignorance has been reinforced by historians, Greek and
foreign alike, who have largely skated over collaboration during the Holocaust.
Like the Greek government, historians prefer to emphasize the rescue of Jews
rather than prompt an examination of the often shameful and ambiguous stance that
too many Greeks took during the Second World War. The leaders of Greece's
barely 5,000 strong Jewish community take a similar historical approach for
obvious political reasons. Over sixty years after the Holocaust, myths prevail
over scholarship.
Most Greek politicians are complicit, failing to take
anti-Semitism seriously as a local problem. With the admirable exception of
former conservative prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis, who has vigorously
condemned the arson attacks, Greek politicians have responded lethargically to
the latest incidents. This is despite the tremendous and commendable efforts of
such organizations of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which has sought to
educate Greek opinion leaders. The AJC's efforts have convinced some Greek
politicians that their country is diminished by ignoring anti-Semitism.
Unfortunately, too many still regard anti-Semitism as a public relations issue
that affects Greece's image abroad, rather a moral question bearing upon its
social sanity at home.
Very occasionally, some principled citizens express their
disgust, but national figures generally do not bother to support these small
local initiatives. In December 2009 hundreds of non-Jews in Ionnina formed a
human chain around the Jewish cemetery there to protest its repeated
desecration. In Salonika a few young historians have begun to ask questions
about the massive theft of Jewish property during the war.
What these handfuls of activists have understood is that
anti-Semitism can be as harmful to non-Jews as to Jews. Only a handful of Jews
remain in Chania and Ioannina. These are places more of Jewish memory than of
community—over 90% of Chania and Ioannina's Jews were murdered during the
Holocaust. The non-Jews in these towns now have to live with the lingering hate
and immoral ambivalence that over sixty years ago allowed so many Greek Jews to
be taken away to their deaths.
Mr. Apostolou is writing a history of collaboration during
the Holocaust in Greece.
Anti-Semitism