Between April and May 1912 the Kingdom of Italy seized the islands of the Dodecanese, in the Aegean Sea, from the Ottoman Empire. Under the Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923, the annexation was formerly recognized by the Allied Powers that had won the First World War. The inhabitants of the islands were given the right to choose between Turkish or Italian citizenship (the latter as so-called ‘small citizenship’). Among the Jewish population, settled peacefully in the archipelago since their expulsion from Spain in the late 15th century, the majority chose the second option, adopting the Italian language and culture.
In 1931 the Jewish population in Rhodes and Kos numbered some 4,500. That figure fell by around half over the following decade, initially due to economic migration and then as a result of the anti-Jewish laws passed in 1938. Those who left moved to Africa, the United States, Latin America and Mandatory Palestine. A gubernatorial decree introduced the same restrictions on civil rights and individual freedoms as in Italy. Expulsion from schools, termination of employment in public offices, and enforced sale of any property exceeding the limit set by law were just some of the punitive measures.
Like the rest of Italian territories, the Dodecanese was invaded by German troops on 11 September 1943, following the signing of the Armistice between Italy and the Allies. Not until June 1944, however, did the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) order the commencement of the Shoah on Rhodes and Kos. The preceding nine months of inaction by the Germans had lulled the islands’ Jews into a false sense of security, which would prove fatal. On 13 July the German command ordered all Jews to reside in Rhodes, or in the nearby villages where many had fled to escape the allied bombing raids that were causing many casualties in the Juderia. On 19 July a second, stricter order was issued, whereby all men above the age of 15 must report to the Italian air force headquarters to show their identity cards and work permits. Having turned up en masse in response to what had seemed merely an administrative procedure, all the men were summarily interned, forbidden either to leave or to give any news of themselves. A second deceitful ordinance was then issued for women and children: they were to report in person within 24 hours, bringing cash and valuables to secure the release of the men who had been arrested. By 20 July the entire Jewish population was in German custody. Only 42 prisoners with Turkish citizenship were released, after the consul of Turkey, a neutral country, managed to intervene on their behalf.
On 23 July 1944 the whole Jewish community, including children, pregnant mothers and the elderly, were marched down to the harbour through the eerily deserted streets, emptied of people after the Germans had sounded a false air raid alarm. More than 1.700 men, women and children were crowded into the airless holds of three cattle freighters. On that single day, the populous, centuries-old Jewish community of Rhodes was uprooted. Shortly after leaving port, the convoy waited for a fourth vessel, a collier, laden with the Jews who had been rounded up on the island of Kos.
Kept below deck in the suffocating heat of the ships’ holds, without water or toilets, several deportees died during the crossing. Once the ships had docked in Piraeus, the port of Athens, the prisoners were transferred by truck to the Haidari concentration camp north of the city. The German guards beat their charges mercilessly, old and young, causing further deaths.
On 3 August, the whole group were taken to the station in Athens and loaded on sealed cattle wagons, headed for the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. On 16 August 1944, just over three weeks after leaving Rhodes, the survivors arrived at their destination, where over a thousand were sent immediately to the gas chambers.
