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On April 9,
1941, the Germans occupied Salonika, which had a Jewish population
of 50,000. Within a week, the members of the Jewish community
council were arrested, Jews’ dwellings were expropriated, and the
Jewish hospital was requisitioned for the use of the Wehrmacht.
Three Jewish newspapers in French and Ladino were shut down and
replaced with antisemitic and collaborationist papers. In April-May
1941, Einsatzstab Rosenberg (Rosenberg Operational Staff), aided by
units of the Wehrmacht, systematically looted 500-year-old literary
and cultural treasures in dozens of private and public libraries and
synagogues in this city. Most of the booty was taken to Frankfurt,
where the Nazis were establishing a library for the study of
Judaism. |
