Content area
Full text
Holocaust survivors living in Salonika, Greece, say they are fighting for compensation denied to them by Germany.
In addition, the residents of what was once a capital of Sephardic Jewry say they are also demanding recognition of their suffering after being ignored by world Jewry.
Spearheading the effort on behalf of survivors is David Saltiel, the recently elected president of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the official name for Salonika. Mr. Saltiel paid a visit to heads of restitution groups in New York in December to drum up support for what he says are 160 aging survivors who originated from his city and are now living in poor economic conditions throughout Greece.
Mr. Saltiel's effort is one in an ongoing struggle by Sephardic Jews, who descended from Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century, to correct a common misconception that only Ashkenazi Jews suffered during the Holocaust. Salonika lost at least 95% of its Jewish population during the Holocaust, the largest percentage of any European city. Although Jewish groups are beginning to chronicle the fate of Sephardic Jews at the hand of the Nazis, some survivors still feel they are being ignored.
"We people of Salonika feel discriminated against," said Mr. Saltiel, whose parents fled the city and went...