My husband and I recently visited the Greek island of Santorini. White stucco hotels and blue-domed restaurants nestled into cliffs. Cobbled streets formed a labyrinth; small doors hid beneath secret staircases. Sounds of cutlery clinked in the cafés and blended with a dozen languages. The Aegean Sea stretched below; not even cruise ships disrupted its serenity.
And it was in The Aegean Sea— off the coast of Santorini— the Jews of Crete vanished seventy-three years ago.
Crete, the largest Greek island, had a Jewish community for over two thousand years. They survived centuries of war and natural disaster, but in 1944, the Germans arrested the 300 remaining Jews (including 100 children). The Jews suffered horrible conditions before being locked in the hold of a cargo ship called The Tanais. The Tanais set out for mainland Greece; from there, the Jews would go to Auschwitz by train. But the Tanais never reached the mainland. The British fired four submarine torpedoes into what they believed was an enemy merchant ship. The Tanais sank within minutes.
Only seven Jews from Crete survived the war.
Although many Greek civilians (and some highly ranked church officials) attempted to save Jews, the Germans murdered eighty-one percent of the Jewish population. Today, less than six thousand Jews live in Greece.
Greece, according to the Anti-Defamation League, has become one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe. During the early 1980’s, neo-Nazis formed The Golden Dawn Party. It is now the third largest political party in Greece. Ilias Kasidiaris, one of the party leaders, said: “History has not yet given a final verdict on Hitler.” Not only does The Golden Dawn Party use Nazi imagery, it denies both the Holocaust and existence of gas chambers. Michael Arvanitis, a Golden Dawn MP, is adamant Germans never targeted Jews other than for use as labor. He claims photographs of burning bodies only serve as evidence that Jews —along with many others—died from typhus.
In 2014, Holocaust Denial became a crime in Greece. (The law also covered denials of other genocides.) The Greek Parliament has three hundred members. Ninety-nine showed up on the day of the vote. Fifty-five voted in favor of the law.
Fifty-five out of three hundred.
While my husband and I were on Santorini, we sat in a cafe with a spectacular view of Mount Thera, the volcano down below. We began to chat with a man from Athens who taught history in a high school. He was eager to talk about the devastating effect Mount Thera had on the ancient Minoans when it erupted in 1600 BC. Most Minoans on Crete died from the volcanic blast; those who survived were weakened and conquered by invaders. “Imagine that,” the man said. “An entire civilization wiped out by a volcano. Such a tragedy.” Later in the conversation, I asked if he knew exactly where The Tanais sank in 1944. He rolled his eyes and echoed sentiments of The Golden Dawn Party. “Those Jews were sent off to work. So were the other Jews. And the Germans didn’t kill them. A British submarine torpedoed the boat. It just happened. Like the volcano and the Minoans.”
Not only did this man’s views lurch into Holocaust Denial territory, he displayed a disturbing viewpoint regarding choice. In his mind, the Jews died in a military attack, and the Germans did not blow up that ship. Looking for someone to blame? Blame the British.
Or perhaps he meant: Blame no one. Mount Thera’s eruption destroyed the Minoans, and we don’t make moral judgments about volcanoes. Similarly, the deafening explosion of The Tanais with shards of metal flying and lungs filling with water just happened. No need to point fingers.
But Jews understand our actions lead to results, both positive and negative. We have the gift of choice. How we use that gift is up to us. It says in Deuteronomy 11:
“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you will heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the Lord your God but turn away…”
The issue isn’t whether it is worse to die from the blast of a volcano or four torpedoes. What matters is that human beings chose to force three hundred people onto The Tanais and send it into waters patrolled by British submarines. The Germans had a plan, and plans have consequences. Choice and consequences go hand in hand; together they shape the world. Life’s segments are like a series of standing dominoes. The first to fall sends the others tumbling.
“One good deed will bring another good deed. One transgression will bring another transgression.” Sayings of the Fathers 4.2
On that beautiful day in Santorini, with the sky so blue and the sun blazing orange, my husband and I met a man who taught history to children. Someone who denied the existence of mass murder. Someone who believed death by volcanic catastrophe was morally equivalent to the death of 300 Jews on a cargo ship with Auschwitz the final destination. Someone who couldn’t understand that not only does God judge us by our choices and the history we create, He judges us by what we choose to remember.
This article was published in The Jewish Advocate on September 3, 2017.
