The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During the Second World War

Rating:
Summary: Holocaust
Review: Dear Amazon
I read the book The illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During the Second World War. In a word, superb. Michael Matsas has written a book that is thoughtful, measured, scholarly while at the same time providing a personalize accounting of yet one more chapter in the Holocaust experience and literature. What makes his book particularly useful is his careful separation of cool scholarship and his own autobiographical experience. Having contributed to Holocaust literature myself (in a small way) but read extensively the work of others, I can only conclude that the Matsas book makes a considerable contribution to what we have learned about the Holocaust. Perhaps we might actually learn lessons from our collective history.

H. J. Weingartner
Potomac MD

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: I read the "Illusion of Safety" with great interest. The author explains in great detail why he believes that the story of the Holocaust in Greece is totally different from that of any other German occupied country in Europe. Greece was divided into three zones of occupation; German, Bulgarian and Italian.
Up till February 1942 any Jew could legally leave the German or Bulgarian zone and go to the Italian zone where they were welcomed by the Italians.
By September 1943, when Italy capitulated they could have found shelter in the Free Territories controlled by the EDES and the ELAS. If they did that, the losses in Greece according to the author would have been 5% instead of 87%.
The Germans started the deportations in Greece in March 1943 and ended in July 1944. All this time the Greek Jews had this illusion of safety since they knew nothing about the "final solution".
It's appears that the author did extensive research in the USA, British and other archives, and believes that the Western Allies carry indirect responsibility for the death of some 67000 Greek Jews.
The Allies knew the German secret of the "final solution" and did not warn the Jews while they had the means to do so. This is a great tragedy, which is meticulously exposed, with documents and interviews. The American Consul, Burton Berry, gave warnings and advice as to how the Jews could be saved, advice which was regrettably ignored by the State Department.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: I read the "Illusion of Safety" with great interest. The author explains in great detail why he believes that the story of the Holocaust in Greece is totally different from that of any other German occupied country in Europe. Greece was divided into three zones of occupation; German, Bulgarian and Italian.
Up till February 1942 any Jew could legally leave the German or Bulgarian zone and go to the Italian zone where they were welcomed by the Italians.
By September 1943, when Italy capitulated they could have found shelter in the Free Territories controlled by the EDES and the ELAS. If they did that, the losses in Greece according to the author would have been 5% instead of 87%.
The Germans started the deportations in Greece in March 1943 and ended in July 1944. All this time the Greek Jews had this illusion of safety since they knew nothing about the "final solution".
It's appears that the author did extensive research in the USA, British and other archives, and believes that the Western Allies carry indirect responsibility for the death of some 67000 Greek Jews.
The Allies knew the German secret of the "final solution" and did not warn the Jews while they had the means to do so. This is a great tragedy, which is meticulously exposed, with documents and interviews. The American Consul, Burton Berry, gave warnings and advice as to how the Jews could be saved, advice which was regrettably ignored by the State Department.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: In this book, Dr. Matsas chronicles the Greek Holocaust based on his personal experience as an adolescent refugee in the Greek mountains during the WWII German occupation of Greece; on an impressive array of personal witnesses he has collected over decades from those who survived the brutal ordeal by the Nazis; and on scholarly archival research. His book is a MUST READ for anyone interested in the history of that period, especially since the Greek Holocaust is, sadly, a more or less neglected subject. I found his personal memoir especially gripping and powerful. The entire book is an impressive achievement.

Rating:
Summary: A very useful survey of the Holocaust in Greece
Review: Matsas' book covers the little-known history of the Holocaust in Greece. With personal memories and stories told by other survivors, this book is a haunting memorial to a civilization that no longer exists. Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: A review of "The Illusion of Safety" by Michael Matsas
Review: The book is one more accusation that the "so-called civilized western world, British and Americans, thought that the Jews were expendable" (page381) and that they are co-responsible for the Holocaust. Matsa, Matsa..., the Allied command did not want to give out hints to the world to realize that the World War was a confrontation of JEWS AGANST GERMANS. ------------------------------ What is interesting in the first part of the book, the collection of writings, is what is omitted. The hundreds of thousands GOLD COINS that the Allied planes were dropping on the mountains to "finance" the communists and create the "Adartiko", but in reality, to distort the people's healthy judgment and create a Greece-madhouse for the German Forces. With the gold, the communist MONSTER EAM-ELAS was created and terrorized Greece for a decade, mostly after the Germans left and the British - Americans took over. --------------------------------- The authors' memoirs, the second part, is a good source for the study of HATE; the authors hate and contempt for the Germans and the non-communist Greeks. In his own words, "... the teacher had been stabbed to death, his blood could be seen on the street in front of the post office. I immediately went to see the coagulated blood and felt not only joy for what had happened to my enemy, but I also wished I had the guts to have been his executioner"(page 337) The stabbed man was his Greek teacher and a father of four who had made anti-communist and anti-Semitic remarks, and the incident happened in the city a year before the Germans came, and well before he even knew of any anti-Jewish action. ----------------------------------- Because I grew up in the same village that the book describes, and know what really happened then, I am deeply saddened by Matsas' defamation of those very poor, hardworking but healthy large families, who assisted him in the mountains. All his descriptions of village life are slander; and he must also know but conceals that the neighboring non-communist village Agalianos, which they (communists) hated, was destroyed because of them (visitors). When they ran away to the forest, the Jewess that stayed and spoke German, lied to the Germans saying that the Communist supporting Jews were staying not at Psilovrahos, but at the neighboring village Agalianos and even described a house there. The Germans raided the wrong village and even executed the owners of the house she described. In 1947, well after the Germans left, the monster communist organization that the Matsas family so much still love and supported, completely annihilated the Village Agalianos to the last stone. A few of the men (fathers) who they caught were brought to a communist "peoples court", charged as "counter-revolutionary", were sentenced to death by "prolonged torture", and were allowed no burial. This was the reality everywhere in Greece of those times.