It was a tribute that was decades late. A story that wasn’t covered the way it should have been, with the main characters being members of a great Jewish Philhellenic family who served the ideals of humanity with self-sacrifice and morality. And if in Greece the contribution of the Swiss businessmen Spirer, the real saviors of thousands of our compatriots during the second Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia (1916-1918), as well as during the destruction of Smyrna, was recently enormous, then in their homeland, in Geneva, no one knew about their action. . Therefore, at the event organized in early May by the Greek Consulate and our active consul Alexandros Gennimatas, there was a massive participation, as well as great emotions. And the Tribune de Geneve devoted a long article to the unique evening.

Spierers, who traded tobacco from Ionia to Macedonia, helped the inhabitants of Kavala and Drama with financial support, labor and food, when the Bulgarians showed their immense cruelty to the conquered. Later, they saved men, women and children from certain death by hiding in their smokehouses and chartered ships to send them away from the burning Smyrna. Now in Greece, they again provided assistance and work to the refugees. The Greek state honored them twice in the 20th century as national benefactors, and many Smyrnas had their photographs in their iconostasis. The impressive thing is that they never blamed themselves for their actions, even in front of their own children. The thread with the past was lost because of modesty.

All this was discussed at a solemn reception in Einardo’s Philhellenic palace, which was filled ahead of schedule. The “gift” was presented by representatives of local authorities, including the well-known vice-mayor of Greek origin Christina Kitsos, as well as, of course, all the descendants of the Spierers, prominent representatives of the Greek diaspora, the historical researcher from Drama Dimitra Hatsidimitriou and also the historian Kostas M. Stamatopoulos, who talked about their role, as well as the friendship that binds his family to their family for three generations. “It is a great honor for me to come from people with such high humanitarian ideals. The values ​​of justice, altruism, solidarity. They were distinguished by such humility and modesty that I think they would be uncomfortable even at today’s solemn event,” grandchildren Emil Spirer and Daniel Halperin emphasized, looking back at the actions of their ancestors. “Post tenebras lux,” said in turn consul Gennimatas, referring to the famous phrase identified with Calvin and also with Geneva, in order to symbolically thicken how truth sheds its light in the darkness of oblivion.