Figure 1.-- Rhodes was only small island with a rather small small Jewish community. Even so, it maintained its own Collegio Rabbinico (Rabbinical school), reflecting the long hidtory of Jreish sclsarship on the islnd. Here Jewish boys studied under Rabbis from Italy, Istanbul, Jerusalem and Alexandria. The students also came from many places, including Egypt, Syria and Turkey -- not only Rhodes. The students boarded in the Collegio. And those who were not from Rhodes were invited to Jewish homes for holidays. Instruction was in a mixture of Hebrew, Italian, French, and Ladino.

Rhodes at the southweestern tip ofthe Anatolian Pemindsula was an important commercial center with its ancient trading port notable as early as Minoan times. It was famous for the Colossus towering over the harbor -- one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Rhodes was conquered by a series of great empires. After the fall of Rome, it was seized by the Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. The Knights Hospitaller held out for a time before Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent deployed a huge force to capture it (1522). Jews are known to have lived on the island for 2,300 years. Rhodes is mentioned in the Bible. After the Spanish expiulsion, the The Rhodes Jewish community became Sephardic (16th century). It became one of the most renowned Sephardic communities in the world. The Kahal Shalom Ssynagogue was built (1575). It is the oldest functioning synagogue in Greece. Rhodes remained in Ottoman hands until the Italo-Turkish War which preceded World War I (1912). The Italians proceeded to fortify the port and modernize the island. There was a small Turkish Jewish community on the island and Jews were among the Italians who moved to the island. The Italian Government was trying to Italianize the population. The island was in Italian hands during the first years of the War. This changed when Italy withdrew from the War and the Germans occupied Italy and Italian controlled areas (September 1943). The Italians on Rhodes had not bothered the Jews until the Italian anti-Semitic Laws (1938). They new laws were not genocidal, but some 2,000 Jews wisely fled the island. The Germans were amotyher matter. Some individual Turkish diplomats helped save Jews. Turkish diplomats even issued false papers to Jews in NAZI-occupied areas. Turkish Consul Selahattin Ülkümen arrived on Rhodes just before the Germans. When the Germans seized Rhodes, repression of the small Jewish community began in earnest. The Germans made life miserable for the Jews on the island. Most were Italians, but a few were Turkish citizens. The Germans began rounding up Jews on the island for deportation (July 1944). This was not a SS operation, but carried out by the German military shortly after a new commabder arrived on the island--Otto Wagener. He was by this time a major general and, for a time had been Hitler's economic economic advisor and confidant (just before and after Hitler seized power. Wagener had to act fast becasuse of the deteriorating German military dituation. He ordered the male Jews aged 16 and older to appear with their identity cards and work permits at the Air Force Command Center. The Germans beat the Jewish men that assembled. Their permits and IDs were taken and they were herded into a basement. The following day, the Jewish women and children were assembled with their valuables. The Germans seized their valuables. Ülkümen intervened maintaining that some were Turkish citizens. He helped save 32 Jews and their families. The Germans were outraged and remember this was not the SS and Gestapo, in was the German military, in this case on a Luftwaffe base. Ülkümen's pregnant wife was killed in a subsequent German bomb strike. He then helped rescue 32 Jews from the island's Italian Jewish community. The 1,673 Italian Jews were loaded onto three crowded boats which took then to Greece on an 8-day voyage with little food and water. Once in Greece, the Jews were forced into rail cattle cars and transported to Auschwitz. Only 151 survived. The timing of the deportation is especially tragic given that less 3 months later, the Germans absandoned leave Greece. The deportations from Rhodes and Corfu were the last conducted by the Germans in Greece. The NAZIs also deported Ülkümen, but only to Piraeus--the port of thens. He spent the rest of the War there in a NAZI jail. He survived the War, nut only because he was an accredited Turkish diplomat. The Turkish Foreign Ministry does not appear to have demanded his release.

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Created: 7:51 PM 7/13/2007
Last updated: 2:07 AM 4/30/2022