Jewish Property in Nazi Occupied Greece - New document shines a light on property reclamation

A historical document that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the management of Jewish property in Greece during the Nazi Occupation was discovered by researcher Dr. Leon Saltiel, representative of the World Jewish Congress at the United Nations in Geneva.

The document, signed by Max Merten and dated March 11, 1943, describes the transfer of management of the agricultural estates of Greek Jews to the Agricultural Bank.

"The document that I recently discovered and will donate to the Holocaust Museum of Thessaloniki under construction is an order from Merten, with an authentic signature, a swastika stamp and a registration number," Leon Saltiel told the Athens/Macedonian News Agency. As he explains, it is an original document, unknown until today, that is not even in Michael Molho's work “In Memoriam,” which is the first record of the Holocaust in Salonika and includes a multitude of orders from Merten.

This specific order explicitly refers to the transfer of Jewish agricultural properties to the jurisdiction of the Agricultural Bank. “According to this order, the local branch of the Agricultural Bank acquired the responsibility for managing the fields that belonged to Jews in each prefecture,” explains Dr. Saltiel.

The discovery is important not only for its content, but also for the fact that it confirms, for the first time, the existence of a central plan by the Nazi administration for the confiscation and exploitation of the agricultural property of the displaced Greek Jews. “We are talking about something unknown - until now - that perhaps opens new avenues to see how this property was managed,” emphasizes Dr. Saltiel, leaving open the question of the fate of these properties after the war.

In fact, the finding is reinforced by additional documents found in Imathia. As he himself states: "I also located another document from June 1943, a few months later, from Imathia, which discusses how this order will be executed. In fact, it is noted that the entire process is progressing very positively. "He is carrying out this service normally and diligently," it states."

Dr. Saltiel emphasizes that there were indications of this process through fragments of files, such as in the YDIP archive, but for the first time the order is officially recorded. “For the first time we find the order itself, where this was done centrally by the Germans and with Merten’s signature. So we also learn about a new bureaucratic process,” he points out.

The donation of the document to the Thessaloniki Holocaust Museum is not only an act of historical significance, but also a challenge for further research. What happened to these properties after the war? Did they return to their rightful owners or their descendants? Are there still archives at the Agricultural Bank or other public services that document this management?

This document may be the beginning of answering questions that have been pending for decades, and of approaching one of the darkest periods of modern Greek history more holistically.

The historical context of the era: Thessaloniki in the gloom of 1943

We were in Thessaloniki in February 1943, in one of the darkest moments in the city's modern history. An SS echelon from Adolf Eichmann's office arrives with a mission to implement the so-called "Final Solution". Dieter Wisliceny and Alois Brunner take charge of the Nazi organization of the extermination of the city's approximately 50,000 Jews, with the assistance of the local administrative apparatus. According to Leon Saltiel, "in this process they find a willing collaborator, Max Merten, who is a military command advisor to the German administration of Thessaloniki-Aegean. He is a thirty-something, quite ambitious officer, responsible for political affairs and the relationship of the German administration with the local population". Merten takes charge of issuing orders concerning Jewish issues. "Many of the orders issued in February and March 1943 bear his signature," Dr. Saltiel points out. "He himself, at his trial, which took place in Athens in 1959, claimed that he was signing on his behalf, that is, on behalf of General Krensky."

The orders begin with the imposition of the yellow star, the compulsory settlement of Jews in the ghetto, their expulsion from professional associations (such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bar Association), and end with the mass confiscation of their property.

“Don’t forget,” Saltiel emphasizes, “Thessaloniki had 50,000 Jews in a city of 250,000 inhabitants. So the whole management of the so-called Jewish properties became a big issue at that time, with discussions between both the Greek Administration and the Greek merchants, but also the German Administration.”

The absence of Jews from the city's economic fabric led to the creation of the YSIP, responsible for managing the homes, household goods, businesses, and assets of the displaced. The questions that arose were numerous and daily: "Who would open the locked safes? What would happen to the safes? What about the merchandise that had been left in Jewish stores?"

Thousands of properties were transferred to Christian “trustees”, while some businesses ended up in the hands of traitors or were looted by the occupying forces. “A large percentage of the security battalions were financed from these properties”, reveals Dr. Saltiel.

The phenomenon took on such a massive dimension that, as he notes, "even furniture prices fell. The State Theater of Northern Greece had bought chairs and furniture for its sets. Imagine now, fifty thousand people, everything they owned, going out to the bazaar... We are talking about major changes in Thessaloniki that have left their mark to this day."

In conclusion, the discovery and donation of Merten's original document by Dr. Saltiel is not just a historical act. It is a reminder that memory is alive only when accompanied by knowledge and action.

Because History does not end with the events, but with the way we choose to remember them - and most importantly, to understand them.