Words are harder and more carefully identified when they are called to revive the story of a deceased person, and even more so one A Thessalonian Jew killed in the Holocaust.

Employee of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, o Menachem Benbeniste he was fired from his job during the German occupation due to a “disrespectful” absence. To this day, 80 years after the expulsion of the Jews and the destruction of their prosperous community in Thessaloniki, this decision has not been reversed.

Menachem Benveniste was born at the beginning of the last century in Thessaloniki. His life was discovered after months of research in archives and historical books by the author and former curator of the Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki, Evangelos Hekimoglu and what he reveals is the uncomfortable truth about the period before and during the occupation.

Menachem Benveniste graduated from the private school of commerce Alcheh, which at that time gave knowledge that no other Greek high school graduate had. This paper would have secured him a good position in the office, while he also knew French, commercial correspondence and accounting. Menachem went even further and received a bachelor’s degree from the French School of Athens, which was the equivalent of finishing high school and high school.

In 1935 he was hired by the Treasury Service of the Municipality of Thessaloniki with the rank of assistant, becoming a full-time officer about two months later. Although Menachem is described in a performance report as a “competent and efficient employee” with “an excellent professional background as an accountant”, his day-to-day work and progress was problematic and rocky.

Anti-Semitism in the service of the municipality

His colleagues start petitioning him, describing him as arrogant and flippant, accusing him of constantly talking about Zionist organizations. Someone does not even hesitate to call him “zifuti” – a stereotype reproduced at that time against the Jews. There are more and more incidents against a municipal employee. When he is transferred to another position unrelated to his previous service and protests, he receives a phone call to apologize because he is leaving with a “bang on the door” behind him. The second time, he is called to apologize for being seven minutes late, and also for doing something even worse: he blamed the city hall’s pendulum for never showing the time correctly. “It seems the microclimate, that is, there were those who supported it and the majority were against it. And note that we are talking about a time when the corresponding official opposition was a pro-Jewish party. But there was another side. However, it is one thing to see him at the city level, and another – at the level of a provincial youth, the son of a rabbi from a poor family, who, thanks to his sacrifices, was able to go to a good school to work somewhere as a clerk and receive a good salary. On a personal level, the drama is visible“, Evangelos Hekimoglu commented in an interview with K.

The last “blow” is when, instead of the promotion he asked for, he and another Jewish colleague of his are demoted, as – according to the chief of staff, who verbally conveyed the opinion of the Macedonian General Directorate, commercial school degrees and a bachelor’s degree were not recognized as sufficient qualifications for the position. The mayor, a former teacher, wonders how it is possible that a diploma is enough to get into a university, but not enough to work in the public service. However, it seems that his intervention is not given any importance. Menachem is demoted and appeals to the Council of State. But the war overtakes him.

From the Greek army to the ghetto

The young man was twice called up for service in the Greek army, the first time after the Italian invasion, and the second on March 23, 1941, two weeks before the invasion of the German army. He returns to service in May, and a few months later, in October, pass and pass exams to earn a public vocational school diploma and be judged worthy for a coveted promotion. For a long time he did not succeed in facilitating this success. On February 25, the concentration of the Jewish population in ghetto and two days later this man was recognized as admitted to the rank of secretary B. He was overtaken by German measures to exclude all Jews from registers and organizations. Menachem’s rise never took place.

Imprisoned in the ghetto, he manages to get out and go to his office to apply for a permit.

On March 15, the shift begins with the departure of the first train he will send. 2800 Jews in Auschwitz. Menachem and his colleague are imprisoned in the ghetto. However, he manages to get out and go to his service for a leave with a start date on the day of his internment in the ghetto, March 8th. In a typewritten letter, he specifically writes that “for reasons beyond my control, I could not appear at my service.” The leave was taken and gives him an extension of his life.

“These people worked until they were fired. Some continued to work until early April 1943. Menachem asked for leave because he rationally calculated that he would run away. Dramatically see the illusions of these people“, notes Mr. Hekimoglu, who felt his story.

Traces of Menachem are lost. At the end of May, at a meeting of the mayor, it was decided that Menachem Benbeniste and Solomon Sevi, the only Jewish municipal employees, are fired for being “unfairly absent from work.”.

Necessary memory recovery

“What does the regulation say? Close the application. He didn’t show up for a month, so he gets fired. From the point of view of ownership, this can be interpreted in any way. I am not in favor of a strict interpretation because the situations were too complex to judge from the safety of home 80 years later. Today though it is inconceivable that no steps were taken to reverse the layoffs and reinstate these people“, – stressed Mr. Hekimoglu in an interview with “K”, adding that such a restoration will not have a significant impact in terms of compensation claims of the municipality after so many years.

“Those unfortunate, municipal employees, did not return for anything. Their relatives did not return either, and for this reason we cannot trace them.. Without relatives and property, a victim of the Holocaust cannot be found. We have no information about these people, except that they did not return, ”the author notes.

Contrary to the position of the municipality, he paraphrases his practice American consulate: “There was a Jewish employee at the American consulate who was shot dead as a spy before the start of the deportation. For this person, the American consulate holds an annual event. If the municipality wanted to honor something, it had to honor its own workers, whom it treated the worst while they were employees, because they were Jews.”