By EDITOR
Devoid of any logic – because the Germans were clearly losing the War at that stage – but driven presumably by a fervent desire to rid the world of Jews, the deportation of the Jews of the Mediterranean island of Rhodos (Rhodes), largely to Auschwitz, took place in July 1944. The annual commemorative event on the island geared to mark the remembrance of these terrible events took on even greater poignancy this July, since the anniversary reflects a milestone of 80 years since the deportations – one of the last deportations from Europe – took place.
A few Capetonians attended this year’s event, and here two of them share their stories with the Cape Jewish Chronicle.
Carole Levin (nee Notrica)’s grandparents were gassed on arrival in Auschwitz and her young uncle was sent to the men’s camp in Mauthausen where he was murdered. Carole’s Aunt Sara Notrica (married name: Sara Jerusalmi) was one of just 150 survivors of the 2 000 Jews from Rhodos. She lived in Cape Town.
Carole’s father had left the island in the 1930s and settled in the Belgian Congo, later making his way to South Africa.
Carole explains that, “The commemorative event was put together by Carmen Cohen and Magda Giorgiopulu from Rhodes, and Mrs Claudia Restis from Athens, whose family was from Rhodes, and the programme ran from 16-23 July. We participated in various cultural activities, such as a Sephardic cuisine cooking demonstration and lectures on the Ladino language. In addition, we watched a documentary movie that recorded the last days of the Jews of Rhodos.”
In addition to the cultural activities, a range of commemorative events was celebrated, including the reciting of prayers at the Jewish cemetery on the neighbouring island of Cos, whose small Jewish population suffered a similar fate to their brethren from Rhodos.
Carole and her family also went on a tour of the old Jewish Quarter led by another Capetonian, Isaac Habib, who spends a few months every summer on the island, taking visitors on guided tours of the ancient Jewish Quarter, the Shalom Synagogue (dating from 1577) and the Jewish Museum.
Isaac explains that, “On 23 July 1944, Jewish life in Rhodes ceased to exist after a Jewish presence on the island of Rhodes from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple.” The deportations and subsequent murder of the Jews of the island had a devastating impact on his family. While his father had left the island for the Belgian Congo prior to the War, Isaac’s paternal grandfather, Mussani Habib, and grandmother, Lea, and aunt, Allegra, were all killed. And on his mother’s side, many perished: his grandmother, Regina, and his mother’s two sisters, Rachel and Matti.
“My mother was deported to Auschwitz, and then she was sent with a group of about 80 girls from Rhodes to Bergen Belsen,” Isaac says. “Only 15 of them were still alive when the British forces liberated the camp. My mother, Lea Lucia Capelluto, was the only survivor among those of her family on the island at the time of the deportations.”
Lea Lucia made her way to the Belgian Congo after the War, and she met Isaac’s father, Guershon Habib, there. They married in 1946, subsequently moving to Cape Town during the 1960s following the turmoil in the Congo after independence.
There are no survivors of the Rhodos community still alive in South Africa, One survivor attended the 80th commemorative event: Sami Modiano, aged 94, came from his home in Rome.
Isaac recounts the meaningful ceremony at the Jewish cemetery on Rhodos: “The surname of every family from Rhodos was read out by the Rabbi from Athens who led the service at the cemetery.” The group then moved from the cemetery to a British War cemetery close by. “There is one tombstone in that cemetery of particular significance for those of us from South Africa,” he comments. “On the tombstone there is a Magen David and a springbok, and an epitaph written in both English and Afrikaans.”
For Isaac and Carole – as for many others – the commemorative event is a crucial element of the drive to ensure that future generations are not ignorant about the potential outcome of racism and of hatred. “Telling the story of what happened
in Rhodes and elsewhere in the world must continue,” Isaac concludes.
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