Μαυρο Σαββατο 11/7/1942 Θεσσαλονικη Part 2 - Eichmann Trial

Theo Le Grec

[ΕβραικηΙστοριαΕλλαδος]

3. Q.Are these Jews at the Square, on that Saturday?
A. Yes.

Q.Do you know the place? Can you identify it?

A. Certainly.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/975.

State Attorney Bar-Or: I now show you a photograph of a man having water poured over him from a bucket. Maybe you can remember and tell the Court what this is?

Witness Nechama: There were many like this. He was not the only one.

Q.What is it?

A. I shall tell you. They dealt out so may blows that people fainted, so then they would lift them up, pour water over them and start again.

Q.What were they actually doing there?

A. I'll tell you: An order had been given to form lines without moving, and the sun was very strong and the Jews were not able to stand in the sun for a long time; but they were so slow making their arrangements, that many could not stand it. They also wanted to have fun, they did it for laughs. When they were in a certain row, an SS policeman would come and push them away and start hitting and fooling around. And at the windows there were Germans taking photos of them and applauding.

Presiding Judge: Who is pouring the water?

Witness Nechama: Soldiers from the SS.

Presiding Judge: And who was looking on? Show us the photograph again.

Witness Nechama: This is a soldier. He is pouring from the bucket and these are Jews who are looking on and who are afraid, Jews who were in that row.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/976.

State Attorney Bar-Or: I show you another picture. Tell the Court what you see.

Witness Nechama: They are tired already, the Jews, they are tired, and the SS man is showing them what to do. He is not tired and he wants to force them to copy his movements exactly and they have to go on until they fall.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/977.

Dr. Servatius: May I see it?

State Attorney Bar-Or: I am very sorry, I ask for a copy to be passed to Counsel for the Defence. [The copy is handed to Dr. Servatius]

State Attorney Bar-Or: I show you a photograph of a man being beaten with a whip, and in the background you can see people from the Navy. What was this? Can you identify it?

Witness Nechama: I'll tell you. You see one man is already down and the soldier has a stick in his hand and is beating him. You do not have to look hard to see it. And the German soldiers are there and laugh at that, also soldiers from the fleet, from the Navy.

Q.In white uniform?

A. Yes.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/978.

Judge Halevi: Are there people from the Navy beating Jews here?

State Attorney Bar-Or: It seems that all kinds of different units took part in this spectacle.

Witness Nechama: [pointing to the photograph] It continued. You see that they cannot do it and they are "camouflaging, " every one, they are no longer able to make this movement. This was not an hour or two, it was from 8:30 until 2:30 in the afternoon that this exercise lasted.

Presiding Judge: this will be marked T/979.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Another picture, please, Mr. Nechama [hands the picture to the witness]. Is this from the same event?

Witness Nechama: It is from the same event.

Presiding Judge: All this from the same Square?

Witness Nechama: All this at the same square. Those who wore hats had to take them off, it was forbidden to stand with your hat on.

Presiding Judge: This picture is marked T/980.

State Attorney Bar-Or: What is this, please? [handing another picture to the witness].

Witness Nechama: The same thing.

Q.The same Square?

A. Yes.

Q.Do you recognize the building?

A. Of course.

Presiding Judge: This picture is marked T/981.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Here [the picture he hands the witness] one can see a man lying on the ground, and in front of him people not in uniform motioning to the people in front of them. Will you kindly explain this? What is happening here, Mr. Nechama?

Witness Nechama: I'll tell you, it could be that the people from the army became tired and that they took Jews and put them in their place, so that they would show the others the movements they had to make.

Q.Who is demonstrating the movements here?

A. These are Jews.

Q.Who were forced to demonstrate this to other Jews?

A. The people from the Army had become tired and told the Jews to demonstrate it to the others.

Presiding Judge: This picture is marked T/982.

State Attorney Bar-Or: In this picture [which he hands to the witness] you see people standing in a line and in front of them a smaller number of people exercising. Will you please explain this.

Witness Nechama: These people were taken out of their lines and made to stand in the middle of the Square so that the others could see what they had to do, how the exercises were to be carried out.

Q.Were there special people who were taken out of their lines, or was this at random?

A. No, there were special guards there, special guards with rifles and other weapons. They were afraid that the Jews would revolt somehow, because there were so many Jews.

State Attorney Bar-Or: I understand.

Presiding Judge: I did not understand, Mr. Bar-Or. Would you explain, Mr. Nechama?

Witness Nechama: The soldiers took some Jews out of the rows and made them stand in the middle to do the exercises.

Presiding Judge: Why those and not others? This was Mr. Bar- Or's question.

Witness Nechama: Which?

State Attorney Bar-Or: I asked you: Were those Jews who were taken out in order to demonstrate the exercises, were they taken out at random, or...?

Witness Nechama: Any Jew, whichever, it was at random.

Presiding Judge: This picture is marked T/983.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Finally, Mr. Nechama, I show you a picture [handing it to him] exercising at the orders of a soldier - Army or SS, it is impossible to specify this here - who is standing in front of him. Do you recognize this picture?

Witness Nechama: It is me.

Presiding Judge: Is this you with your knees bent?

[ΕβραικηΙστοριαΕλλαδος]

2.
A. Salonika was the military centre and soldiers came there every day from all kinds of units.

Q. When you returned did you continue to go about your business?

A. Of course.

Q. What was this?

A. A stationery business. I had a partner who was a Yugoslav citizen and did not go to the front. He did not go to the front because he was a Yugoslav citizen.

Q. And he remained and ran your business?

A. Yes.

Q. In which quarter was this? Was it a Jewish quarter?

A. No in a Greek quarter.

Q. Tell the Court what happened to the Jewish businesses in Salonika in those days.

A. I shall tell you, there were troubles for the Jews every day. They would come and take merchandise without paying, without anything. In Salonika there were very rich Jewish businessmen, one can definitely call them rich, one can call them millionaires. There was a shop for glassware there - they took the very last glass.

Q. They took things and did not pay?

A. They did not pay. There were shops, iron warehouses - they took all the iron and did not pay anything. Perhaps they "bluffed, " giving out chits as they did for the radios. They gave us slips of paper which were not worth anything.

Q. What can you tell the Court about the concentration of Jews in certain quarters in Salonika?

A. We had a very hard life. We had difficulties in every way...

Presiding Judge: Mr. Nechama, do not give a general description. What did the Germans actually do to you?

Witness Nechama: They made every kind of trouble for us. Sometimes we had to go and look for food.

Presiding Judge: This is not what you were asked. Did you understand the question? Were you concentrated in a certain quarter, in one neighbourhood?

Witness Nechama: This is just what I want to recall - on 11 July 1942 - there was an official newspaper they had, Das neue Europa (The New Europe).

Presiding Judge: A newspaper belonging to the Germans?

Witness Nehcama: A newspaper belonging to the Germans. It was a morning paper. And there was another newspaper in the afternoon, and there appeared an order that all the Jews aged 18 to 45 had to report on the morrow, Saturday (this appeared on Friday) at "Liberation Square, " a very large square.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Mr. Nechama, I show you document No. 1117. Please look, there is something in Greek and underneath is the Hebrew translation. Please look at it and tell the Court if you remember this.

Witness Nechama: Of course I remember this.

Q. What is it?

A. This is the order which I am talking about.

Q. Is this the order about which you were telling us?

A. Exactly.

Presiding Judge: Let us see it. [The document is handed to the Bench].

This will be marked T/974.

State Attorney Bar-Or: This was on Saturday. You were ordered to report at the...

Witness Nechama: "Liberation Square, " (Plaza Elefteria).

Q. Did many Jews come?

A. 9, 000 Jews reported there.

Q. At that Square?

A. Yes.

Q. And you were among them?

A. Certainly.

Q. And what happened at the Square?

A. I shall tell you. I had hardly managed to get there - I was wearing my Sabbath clothes - when they started beating us, at once, at once, at once!

Q. Who were "they"?

A. They must have been the SS.

Q. I show you a picture. Look at it and tell us what it is.

A. This is Liberation Square, exactly.

[ΕλένηΡοντήρη]

Δυστυχώς δεν καταλαβαίνω απολύτως τίποτα. Η βασική γλώσσα είναι Γερμανικά; Αλλά τουλάχιστον ας αφήνατε να ακουστεί η μετάφραση στα Αγγλικά ή να βάζατε υποτίτλους επειδή φαίνεται να είναι σπουδαίο ντοκουμέντο.

[ΕβραικηΙστοριαΕλλαδος]

4. Witness Nechama: That is me. If you could have seen me on Saturday at 2.30, the state I was in after these exercises, the blows I got, why - I do not know. I did not do anything to them, I did not owe them anything and in the end they gave me a bloody thrashing. And not only me, but my family also.

Q.Who took these pictures, Mr. Nachama?

A. It could be that the German girls up on the balconies, that they photographed such things. There were girls standing there and every time there was a beating or something like that they applauded gleefully.

Q.You were at any rate not aware that pictures were being taken?

A. No, I was told about this later, because I was unconscious at the time.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Mr. Nechama, what happened after these gymnastics?

Witness Nechama: I will tell you, they took me and beat me and organized all kinds of exercises and after that there were more beatings and more. And then I was taken to a doctor. If I were in Salonika now I could bring the doctor; he is alive and well; it is Dr. Kopers.

Q.What happened?

A. The doctor was fetched and he treated me. I was sick for two weeks; for four days I was unconscious.

Q.Were you given special documents after that?

A. Yes.

Q.What were the documents you received?

A. After three weeks, when I was beginning to recuperate, there appeared a notice in the newspaper that numbers so-and- so had to report for work immediately. The notice was from Mueller.

Q.Did this follow the numbers of the personal papers?

A. No, it was by lot.

Q.How did you know that you had to go to work?

A. On the document I had there was a number, and if I am not mistaken, my number was 190, and in the newspaper this number was also listed.

Q.Was the number published in the newspaper?

A. Numbers, numbers, numbers. There were 540 of us. We reported at some community, our community, "Yosef Nissim, " that was the name of the community.

Presiding Judge: You mean synagogue?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

Q.What is the name of the synagogue?

A. "Yosef Nissim." And there were two Greek doctors there. They were not really Greek, but German, they were only called Greek, and they had to confirm that they had examined us and that we were alright.

State Attorney Bar-Or: What really was the condition of the people who went to work?

Witness Nechama: They were weak.

Q.Why were they weak?

A. Because they had already suffered for a year under the Italians during the War. We had no food. We suffered from starvation.

Q.Did you suffer from starvation even before the Germans came?

A. Exactly. We suffered more than the whole of Europe.

Q.And in spite of this you were all summoned to work, and you went?

A. Yes. The Germans themselves did not think that we would go to work so quietly and willingly.

Q.Where did you go from there?

A. First we showered, then we reported for duty, and I went to Ueberland. The work was at some kind of factory. It was a firm of some kind.

Presiding Judge: Where?

Witness Nechama: It was at an aerodrome.

Q.Where?

A. In Greece. I had to do quarrying there and preparatory work for an aerodrome.

Q.Could you give that name again?

A. Ueberland.

Q.Is this name Greek?

A. No, German.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Do you remember the name of the German who was in charge of all this work?

Witness Nechama: Mueller.

Q.How long did you work there?

A. I worked there for three weeks and there was no food. We had a hundred grams of bread every 24 hours and one litre of soup made of sour cabbage. Everybody had dysentery, and everybody's legs were swollen. It was impossible to work. And if you could not work, you were beaten. We had a foreman, a Croat, curse him - if he is alive!

Q.After these three weeks you returned to Salonika?

A. We did not return because we had many casualties; many people had died. So the women went to our Community, they cried and caused an uproar there. And the heads of the Community decided to buy off the work of the Jews. They paid about 10, 000 dollars for it. If you want to know exactly, this was 2 1/2 billion drachmas.

Q.And the Community paid this?

A. Yes.

Q.To whom did they make the payment?

A. I'll tell you, the Community did not pay from its funds, the rich people paid, every one of them, until the whole sum was collected.

[ΕβραικηΙστοριαΕλλαδος]

1. The Trial of Adolf Eichmann
Session 47
State Attorney Bar-Or: I shall now call Mr. Itzchak Nechama.

Presiding Judge: Do you speak Hebrew?

Witness: Yes.

[The witness is sworn.]

Presiding Judge: Please answer Mr. Bar-Or's questions.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Where were you born, Mr. Nechama?

Witness Nechama: In Salonika, in 1910. I am 50 years old.

Q. Were you in the Greek Army, Mr. Nechama?

A. Yes.

Q. When were you recruited?

A. I was recruited just in time for the war with Italy, on 24 October 1939.

Q. Which front were you at?

A. I was on the Tepelenee front, if you know this area in Albania.

Q. What was your state of health when you were released?

A. It was very bad, but I was very lucky to be in a hospital. I worked as a male nurse in the military hospital and therefore I was lucky I was not up at the front. I was in Korytsa. There were casualties, quite serious casualties.

Q. When were you released from the army?

A. When the Greeks left everything, when the Germans came.

Q. When was that approximately?

A. Approximately at the end of March 1941.

Q. At which front were you released?

A. At Ioannina.

Q. Did you return home from the front?

A. I walked for 28 days. This is easily said, but hard to do. When I arrived at home I was exhausted. While I was on my way home we had trouble with the Greeks all the time - they wanted to take us for work, to help them and be forced to work for 24 hours. I had to work, I had no choice. So when I arrived at home my situation was very bad.

Q. After the 28-day march, were the Germans already in Salonika?

A. They were already there and when I came home I was told that our radio had already been handed over. I had a very good radio.

Q. So when you came home the radio had already been handed in?

A. Yes.

Q. To whom?

A. There was an order that all Jews had to hand over their radios within twenty-four hours, otherwise they would be executed, and because they were afraid they did not even wait for me before handing over the radio.

Q. Did other things also have to be handed over in those days?

A. Every day there was something new. Next one had to hand in the pianos; most Jews owned pianos and every Jew had to give up his piano. Then the telephones. Jews were forbidden to use the telephone. It had to be handed over to the Company. One day three trucks arrived and took the complete library of holy books which we had in the Community, books from before the time the Jews left Spain. Our Rabbis cried so much when they took those books, I remember it to this day. I recall the tears of these learned men who said: Nothing matters to us, only these books.

Q. Mr. Nechama, you were in the army, are you familiar with uniforms?

A. Yes.

Q. You were able to recognize uniforms. These people who took the books, or those who occupied themselves with the delivery of the pianos and all the things you mentioned - how were they dressed?

A. That was the Gestapo.

Q. What does that mean?

A. How can I tell you?

Presiding Judge: What colour were their uniforms?

Witness Nechama: The colour was brown, a kind of brown.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Could you distinguish them from German army personnel?

Witness Nechama: No.

Q. How did you know that they were not soldiers of the German Army?

A. That is hard to say. At that time I was a complete stranger.

Q. Were there German Army personnel walking around in Salonika?

A. Of course.

Q. Were there also soldiers from the German Navy?

[ΕβραικηΙστοριαΕλλαδος]

5. Q. To whom was this sum paid?
A. To the Commandant's office.

Q. And after this payment you were freed and returned to Salonika??

A. Yes.

Q. And you remained in Salonika?

A. But there were still problems. There were young men, blessed be their memory, and among them was my brother...The partisans appeared on the scene and they wanted to take their revenge on the Germans. And who were the victims? - the Jews. So the Germans decided to put Jewish guards in places where the railway had to pass. Every 20 kilometers there had to be a guard manned by young Jews, who were replaced every 24 hours. And they let it be known that if, heaven forbid, something were to happen along the railway line they would kill the entire Jewish guard. Imagine under what conditions the Jews lived then! The partisans knew about this and they refrained from doing anything.

Q. Were you in Salonika at that time?

A. I was in Salonika. I am telling you things which I know.

Q. Until when did you remain in Salonika?

A. I remained in Salonika until 26 April 1943.

Q. And what happened then?

A. They started the transports.

Q. And then what happened?

A. Before the transports, after we were finished with the work, we were left in peace for a short while. Then, suddenly, they announced that the Jews had to have a designation. First of all a sign had to be posted on every Jewish business saying "Juedisches Geschaeft" (Jewish business) - I myself had to do this...

Q. In Greek and German?

A. In Greek and German. And any German soldier could walk into the shop and take whatever he wanted without saying a thing. Next they announced that the Jews had to be put into a ghetto. But there were 60, 000 Jews in Greece and it was difficult to put them all into a ghetto. So what did they do? They employed special engineers to prepare plans for constructing ghettos, and they put up six ghettos. Those people whom they could not crowd into the ghettos were ordered to leave their homes and move into some shed or wherever, only they had to be in the ghetto.

Q. But not in their home?

A. Not at home; the homes were taken over by the Germans. I have to mention an important event prior to that: There was a Rabbi Gaon of blessed memory in Salonika, who lived on the ground floor of a house occupied by Germans, and on the third floor of that house there lived a German General. Suddenly one day, at 5.30 in the morning, he sent a soldier to call the Rabbi upstairs. An hour and a half later the children downstairs heard a noise. What happened? Father has not come down? When they opened the door they found the Rabbi lying on the floor unconscious, and with no hair. His hair and beard had been shorn off. And this was such a disgrace for him, that he wanted to live no longer.

Q. Now we shall perhaps come to April 1943. What happened then?

A. Do you wish to hear about the ghettos?

Q. No. We have already heard about the ghettos.

Presiding Judge: You were asked what happened in April 1943, that was the question. Please reply to it.

Witness Nechama: Do you want me to tell you what happened to me, or what happened to all the Jews.

State Attorney Bar-Or: To you, Mr. Nechama.

Witness Nechama: I remained in my home in Salonika because in my house there was typhoid, the neighbour upstairs had typhoid and the building had been put in quarantine. The Germans had heard about the quarantine and kept kilometers away. They were afraid and did not come to me. The quarantine was to be for 21 days. Meanwhile there were no Jews left in Salonika. They were all gone, partly on transports and partly to "Baron Hirsch, " which was the centre, the ghetto.

Q. They had to be collected there?

A. Yes. I was sure that my house in Salonika would be spared, and I made all kinds of plans to escape. I had a brother-in-law living outside Salonika and he made all the preparations so that I would be able to stay with him.

Presiding Judge: Were you a bachelor?

Witness Nechama: No, I was married - I had a plan how to escape the next day. At 6 o'clock in the morning they came from the Gestapo with a list and said: In half an hour you have to be ready to go to "Baron Hirsch." So I called the Police Commander in my district and he started to argue.

Presiding Judge: Was he Greek?

Witness Nechama: Yes, Greek. He started to argue with the Gestapo Doctor. At that time I did not know German at all, but he knew it well. There was quite a serious discussion, but then he said: Itzchak, nothing can be done, you have to go.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Did you go?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. When I came to "Baron Hirsch, " it was full of lice. My wife began to cry. What was I to do? One had to be patient.

Q. How long did you stay there?

A. Only 24 hours, one night. Then (we had to go) to an office where we were told that we would have to change all our money and that we would get zlotys "because you are going to Poland to a place named Beserko." I do not remember exactly, near Sosnowiec. They said this was in Cracow. They told us that we had to hand over our money and eceive zlotys

"and you will be in communities, the Greeks separately, like a Jewish state it will be there." I said to myself: It is no good dying, we shall live there. If I had known the conditions in which I would live I would rather have died on the spot, I would not have lived at all.

Presiding Judge: What happened? Did they deport you?

Witness Nechama: Yes, they deported me.

State Attorney Bar-Or: Where did you get to?

Witness Nechama: Do you want to know exactly?

Q. Where did you get you? Where did the train go to?

A. To Auschwitz.

Q. How long did you remain in Auschwitz?

A. I stayed 38 days in Auschwitz.

Q. And from there you were sent to work?

A. Yes, to a factory for anti-aircraft tanks.

Presiding Judge: Perhaps artillery?

Witness Nechama: Artillery, perhaps that was it?

State Attorney Bar-Or: And from there?

Witness Nechama: I worked there for 18 months.

Q. Where were you sent after that?

A. To Mauthausen.

Q. And from there you went to...

A. Gusen 1.

Presiding Judge: Where is this?

Witness Nechama: It must be in the neighbourhood of Vienna.

State Attorney Bar-Or: When was this?

Witness Nechama: This was in March 1945.

Q. Where were you released?

A. I was released in Wels near Vienna on 4 March 1945.

Presiding Judge: That is to say, you were outside of Greece for two years?

Witness Nechama: Exactly.

State Attorney Bar-Or: When you arrived at Auschwitz and climbed down from the train - what happened? Not what happened the next day, but what happened when you actually left the train? How many of you were from Salonika?

Witness Nechama: We were exactly 78. That was the smallest number. The situation was terrible. Imagine, men and women, young men and girls, how could they live in such conditions. We had been told we were going to Cracow, take with you what you want. Some people took umbrellas because it snows there and rains, so one needs an umbrella. There was so much baggage that one could not move. We did not sleep at all.

Q. When you climbed down from the train in Auschwitz - what happened?

A. I shall tell you. I was one of the first to climb down. When I came down I saw immediately people wearing pyjamas. I was lucky they were French and I understand French quite well. I said to them: "What is going to happen here?" "You will find out later, " they replied. "Alright, explain!" "It is forbidden to explain now!" I did not even manage to see my wife. The beating went on, the crying, father looking for son...

Q. Did you know the people who came with you from Salonika to Auschwitz?

A. Certainly.

Q. As far as you know, are there others still alive, and how many?

A. I'll tell you, 56, 000 Jews left Salonika on the transports and only 1, 950 of them returned.

Presiding Judge: How many of those who went with you and whom you knew returned?

Witness Nechama: I can tell you exactly: Four live here.

Q. In Israel?

A. Yes. Three live in America. Altogether there must be ten.

Q. Out of the 78 whom you mentioned?

A. In our transport there were 2, 700.

State Attorney Bar-Or: What does the figure 78 you mentioned - persons in one carriage?

Witness Nechama: Yes. On the whole transport there were 2, 700.

Presiding Judge: And out of these, out of those who went with you, only 10 are alive today?

Witness Nechama: I am talking of the whole train.

Presiding Judge: Dr. Servatius, do you have questions?

Dr. Servatius: No, I have no questions to the witness. I just wanted to explain, with reference to the pictures, that there is no SS man here, these are German soldiers and it seems that some wearing foreign uniforms are also among them. But that I cannot explain exactly from this (from the pictures).

Judge Halevi: Were you sent to Auschwitz together with your wife and your family?

Witness Nechama: Only with my wife, since my parents had left before me. I told you that I should have escaped. My parents had already left two weeks before me.

Q. Did you wife travel together with you?

A. Yes. Only I remained alive. Of the whole family, my father, my mother, four sisters, my brother and my wife, I alone remained.

Presiding Judge: Thank you very much, Mr. Nechama, you have completed your evidence.