hiding in the mountains

Over 70,000 Greek Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Victor and his extended family of eight survived due to the help of righteous gentiles.

When the Nazis invaded Greece in 1941, word spread to Patra that Victor’s entire maternal family of 90 had been murdered in Salonica. Friends urged Victor’s father to take his family and flee before the Nazis entered Patra. With the help of his father’s friend, the Chief of Police, the family obtained Christian IDs and escaped to hide in a series of mountain villages.

Everyone suffered, not only the Jews. “We were all hungry. One day my father was in the hills looking for food, he ran in to a man from our town. ‘What are you doing here, the Nazis are looking for you and your family.’ As my father turned to leave, the man handed him a small bag of wheat. It was all he had. That bag of wheat helped keep us all alive until we came out of hiding.”

“I am alive today because of the people who protected us. I feel obligated to let people know.”