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Members of the Amarillo family pose outside their home in Salonika. Front, from left to right, are Tillie Amarillo and Sarika Yahiel. Seated behind them are their mothers Louisa Bourla Amarillo and Regina Amarillo Yahiel. Standing are Saul ... See more photographs |
GREECE |
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On October 28, 1940, Fascist Italy invaded Greece from bases in Albania, which Italy had occupied and annexed in April 1939. Within a matter of days, however, the Greek army drove the Italians back into the Albanian mountains, where the conflict reached a stalemate. In order to secure the Balkan flank in anticipation of the attack on the Soviet Union, planned for June 22, 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. On April 6, 1941, the Germans and Italians, supported by Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Romanian units, attacked. Yugoslavia, already in a state of political disintegration, surrendered on April 17. By April 28, most of the Greek mainland had been subdued. After the Greek surrender in June, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria divided the country into zones of occupation. Germany occupied western Macedonia (including Salonika), eastern Thrace along the Greco-Turkish border, the environs of Athens, western Crete, and the Greek islands in the north Aegean Sea close to Turkey. Bulgaria occupied western Thrace. Italy took the remainder of the Greek mainland, eastern Crete, and the Greek islands in the south Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean, the Ionian, and the Adriatic Seas. Germany and Italy jointly occupied Athens, the Greek capital. |
At the time of the Axis occupation in 1941, about 100,000 Jews lived in Greece. Their fate was greatly influenced by the differing priorities of Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria with regard to the Jews. ITALIAN-OCCUPIED AREAS OF GREECE |
GERMAN-OCCUPIED AREAS OF GREECE |
BULGARIAN-ANNEXED AREAS IN THE BALKANS GERMAN OCCUPATION OF THE GREEK MAINLAND Romania's decision to switch sides and join the Allies on August 23, 1944, and the Soviet occupation of Bulgaria in early September rendered the German military position in Greece untenable. The German Army High Command ordered the evacuation of Greece through Yugoslavia. By this time, at least 60,000 Greek Jews had died in the Holocaust. Thousands were able to survive by hiding with friends or by joining the partisans. |
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