Tea at Trianon: The Brave Greeks Who Saved the Jews of Zakynthos

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 3, 2024

The Brave Greeks Who Saved the Jews of Zakynthos

From The Greek Reporter:

On September 9, 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Greece, the German commander of Zakynthos, an officer named Berenz, asked the island’s mayor, Loukas Karrer, to give him a full list of every single one of the Jewish residents of the island. Shocked by the demand, and knowing what would certainly happen to all these individuals, Mayor Karrer went to consult with the bishop of the island, Chrysostomos. They both took the courageous and obviously perilous decision to not abide by Berenz’s request. They would not reveal the Jewish residents to the Germans. The following day, the German administration of Zakynthos was furious with the decision taken by the mayor and Bishop Chrysostomos.
Both Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos were quickly summoned to appear before the German Commandant, where they were ordered to immediately prepare the list of all the Jewish residents of Zakynthos. Karrer flatly rejected the request for a second time. In a great display of courage and defiance to the powerful occupiers of Greece, the mayor and the bishop handed a simple piece of paper to the Nazi commander. On that scrap of paper, only two names were written: Mayor Loukas Kerrer and Bishop Chrysostomos.

The Bishop told the German commandant of the island that although the Jews did not share the same religion with the Orthodox Christians and the other Christians of the island, Jews had been living alongside the Zakynthonians for centuries in a completely harmonious and peaceful manner. Chrysostomos allegedly told the Germans that the Jews of Zakynthos were equal to the other Greek citizens of Zakynthos, explaining that if anything untoward happened to them, this would be detrimental for the entire community of the island. (Read more.)