Transcription
Michalis: Let us welcome Mrs. Astro Tarampoulos, who grew up in Didymoteicho and will tell us today about herself and the customs of Didymoteicho, before and after the war. So Astro, I would like to ask you your maiden name and the name of your father and mother.
Astro: I am Astro Tarampoulos. Of course, when I was born my father wanted to also give me the Jewish name. So my name is Astro Kochava Tarampoulos. My father was Nissim and my mother was Regina. I was born in Alexandroupolis, but my homeland is Didymoteicho because that is where I grew up.
Michalis: At home did your mother and father speak Ladino, Greek or Hebrew?
Astro: Ladino and Greek.
Michalis: From the Jewish customs and traditions. What do you remember—Rosh Hashanah, Pesach, Purim? How did you celebrate them?
Astro: Of course we knew the Jewish holidays. But we didn’t know many things, as children. For us religion was simply to be a good person. That is what my father taught me, and that was it. And of course we knew we were Jews. What we knew were the holidays and, in short, with very beautiful—short stories they taught us the holidays we had.
Purim came from Thessaloniki and from the community of Thessaloniki they would send us the novias (pastries). So we waited for them with great joy.
For Pesach we all gathered, the other members of the community together in one house, especially that of Mr. Izaki Skainazi or of Djivre, Daviko Djivre. Because Mr. Izaki knew how to read well. So that’s how we learned. We didn’t know many things.
On Purim our mothers also made sweets and we shared them with friends, in Christian homes. Just as they would bring to us when it was Saint Barbara’s day and they had the celebration of Saint Barbara. They would bring us things accordingly… That’s what we knew.
Michalis: So there was no Jewish school.
Astro: There was not. There was before the war. Afterwards we had nothing. There was also the Alliance [...].
Michalis: Very long ago, when it was.
Astro: Children, that is very long ago. It begins from the very beginning. First of all, I would like, as a tribute to my parents and my grandparents whom I never met, to speak briefly about Didymoteicho. You must first know what Didymoteicho was. Now it may be… unfortunately, it has fallen into great decline.
In 1321 the first Jewish community was formed under the reign of Kantakouzenos. In 1883 the imposing school was founded. The one I mentioned. Later, in 1897, the French Alliance Israélite school began to operate. Later, when it closed, in 1955, it became a hospital for a few years and of course afterwards there was nothing.
Michalis: Before the war, how many Jews lived in Didymoteicho?
Astro: Before the war, there were 1,000 Jews. From 1941, excuse me, there was a very important Jewish community. There were wealthy people, wealthy Jews in Didymoteicho. They worked in the trade of silk, cereals, in trade in general. They even did exports. So the economy of Didymoteicho grew immediately, not only of the people. And of course, they were the notables, the Jews of Didymoteicho. They were the bourgeoisie, as it was called at that time.
I had an uncle, my grandmother’s brother, who was wealthy and had a large mansion, in which he hosted King Alexander, the Tsar of Bulgaria. They all slept in my uncle’s house, all the ministers too, they all went there. That means they were very prominent.
Later that house was taken over by the Air Force club, I think it still exists today and I need to find out, I don’t know.
Let me tell you a little about how the Jews left and how the new community was later created. In 1941 the Germans began to come to Greece. Of course there were already rumors that they were looking for Jews. In 1943 some tried, rather, some tried to leave.
Michalis: Through Turkey.
Astro: The Turks did not allow many to continue. They sent them back to Greece. Others managed to escape, to go to Palestine. My father together with my uncle managed to leave.
When in 1943 the Germans came to Didymoteicho, someone warned my uncle, who was then also the director of the Jewish school. He was warned that the Germans were coming, (and his name was Nissim) “leave.”
So he took my father, whose name was also Nissim, and told him we are leaving. They quickly made false identity cards and left through Lavara. Lavara is a village near Didymoteicho. They had arranged things with the Resistance. Naturally the Greeks, their friends, helped them. They arranged with the Resistance and were taken across the next day to the Turkish coast.
From there, with great hardship of course, they went to Palestine. First they went to Aleppo and from there to Palestine. When the war ended, they went there of course to serve in the Greek army. At that time the Greek army was there. And they went as volunteers. My father as a volunteer, (my uncle) was a soldier.
When they returned, of course, they found Didymoteicho destroyed. Destroyed. Of course the Jewish community was destroyed. There was no one. Only about 20 people returned. 97% never came back. They were all taken in 1943, when the Germans entered. They locked them all in the synagogue and the next day put them in the wagons to be sent to Bingenau and Auschwitz.
Michalis: How did the synagogue function?
Astro: There was a large synagogue. Very impressive. In Sephardic form, in Sephardic style. All the Jews before the war went very much. They did not open their shops on Friday in Didymoteicho. But afterwards the Greek state forbade this. And only the very religious managed not to open their shops. But when the Germans came back they had destroyed it. It was later renovated a little by the Greek state. Because it was turned into a catechism school. And later the Red Cross.
From that synagogue now there remains only a small mosaic. A small mosaic, and there the memorial has been built. In memory of the Jews who lived in Didymoteicho.
So when my father returned he found no one. His parents and his wife and his sister had all been taken by the Germans. He was alone. Very soon he married. The next year he married. He married my mother, who was from Drama. And I am the first child of post-war Didymoteicho.
Michalis: In your home did you keep kosher, that is, as much as you could, the Jewish dietary laws?
Astro: Listen. In Didymoteicho we did not have, as I said, Jewish education. We did not know much. As small children we only knew that we were Jews. Nothing more. And when at some point I asked my father, as I told you before, what is religion, he told me: my child, to be a good person. Help those in need. That is religion. And do good deeds. Very important. And with that I go through life, of course.
We knew only a few things. Not much. And of course what I remember very strongly, apart from the holidays we celebrated—Purim, Pesach and Rosh Hashanah of course, we knew those holidays. But I did not know what Sukkot was. That was a holiday I did not even know. We did not know many things.
But it was also important that once a year we all went together, all the members of the community—afterwards we were five families and nine children—we went to Kavala for the commemoration of the Jews who were lost. For us to understand who we are. We, the children, had to see. It was the first time I entered a synagogue. I didn’t know anything before. I had never seen… until Kavala. I had never seen anything before. I didn’t even know what a synagogue was like. The first time was in Kavala.
And then, from inside me, I began to feel more Jewish. And to want to remain. Because I was growing up. Of course my environment was among Christians. And I said, no, I am Jewish. I must not forget. I am Jewish. Yes, all my friends are good, I love them. But I am Jewish. I felt it, it entered deeply in my heart.
Michalis: Did your parents speak about the trauma?
Astro: My parents, no. No. Very little. My mother suffered in the mountains like all the others. My father left for the Middle East. And I think he even had a very good time there. Very good. He had the financial means he carried with him. He also helped the higher officers. So he lived well.
Michalis: What was your father’s occupation before the war?
Astro: Colonial goods. He had a business which he continued later. We had a store of glassware. Half of it was glassware, half colonial goods. And twice a year he imported from Turkey—fish, tunny and bonito. And people came even from Kavala to buy from us to make Constantinople Lakerda, which was my father’s specialty. And he dealt also with other goods. Trade of course, apart from the store we had.
Michalis: I wanted to ask, whatever property he left behind, did he find it again?
Astro: He left his house. Which he found, of course, empty. Later, when he was in trade, you know trade sometimes gives you certain blows, as he used to say. And in a difficult moment he was forced to sell it.
But I was very lucky that about 14 years ago, I think 10 years, a couple of visual artists bought it. They wanted to learn the history of the house and came to meet me because they learned who the descendant was. They restored it, brought it back to its old form. They even scraped the walls themselves to reveal the original colors of the house.
It was an old mansion which also hosted many prominent people. And now Didymoteicho began again to feel like my homeland. Even though I left, I feel it so much as my beloved own. Because it is the house, my father’s house. And now when I go, when I visit, I feel as if I am going…
Michalis: From all that you learned, those holidays as you celebrated them in Didymoteicho, did you pass them on to your own family? Do you keep the customs and traditions?
Astro: As I told you, our company in Didymoteicho of course was… Because all the children were younger, I was the oldest. We had many friends. And as a girl, you know, with little flirtations and all that. But always, in my mind, I had that I had to marry a Jew.
And I was very lucky to marry a Jew in Larissa. I entered a wonderful family and whatever I learned about religion and generally about Judaism, I learned from my husband’s family. They were exceptional. They kept the holidays. I finally saw what the Kal (synagogue) is, I entered and… ah, I entered the Kal, I went to see. It was something I always carried within me.
Even at school, in the essays I wrote as a child, I always wrote that I want to enter the synagogue, I want to see the Magen David, and my teachers asked me, what is that you are saying? I had such a desire. So I tried myself.
Later we came to Thessaloniki. Of course I had the foundations from Larissa. But when we came to Thessaloniki, my children began to go to school, to kindergarten, and I began to learn along with the children, to learn something more. So I try in my home, as much as I can, to keep the customs and traditions of our religion. I am very proud of that. Because my children truly follow.
Astro Tarampoulos recounts her personal and family story, speaking about her childhood in Didymoteicho and the Jewish customs she experienced there. She refers to the flourishing pre-war community with the Alliance school and the large synagogue, as well as to its dramatic destruction in 1943, when almost all Jews were taken to concentration camps. Through her narrative, she highlights the rescue of her father, who managed to escape with the help of resistance fighters, and his return after the war. She describes her memories of the holidays, the importance of the synagogue, the absence of Jewish education, but also the deep sense of identity that she developed while growing up. Finally, she speaks about her family life after marriage, the continuation of traditions in Larissa and Thessaloniki, and her pride in having managed to pass on the Jewish tradition to her children.
Astro Kohava Taramboulous
Transcription
Michalis: Let us welcome Mrs. Astro Tarampoulos, who grew up in Didymoteicho and will tell us today about herself and the customs of Didymoteicho, before and after the war. So Astro, I would like to ask you your maiden name and the name of your father and mother.
Astro: I am Astro Tarampoulos. Of course, when I was born my father wanted to also give me the Jewish name. So my name is Astro Kochava Tarampoulos. My father was Nissim and my mother was Regina. I was born in Alexandroupolis, but my homeland is Didymoteicho because that is where I grew up.
Michalis: At home did your mother and father speak Ladino, Greek or Hebrew?
Astro: Ladino and Greek.
Michalis: From the Jewish customs and traditions. What do you remember—Rosh Hashanah, Pesach, Purim? How did you celebrate them?
Astro: Of course we knew the Jewish holidays. But we didn’t know many things, as children. For us religion was simply to be a good person. That is what my father taught me, and that was it. And of course we knew we were Jews. What we knew were the holidays and, in short, with very beautiful—short stories they taught us the holidays we had.
Purim came from Thessaloniki and from the community of Thessaloniki they would send us the novias (pastries). So we waited for them with great joy.
For Pesach we all gathered, the other members of the community together in one house, especially that of Mr. Izaki Skainazi or of Djivre, Daviko Djivre. Because Mr. Izaki knew how to read well. So that’s how we learned. We didn’t know many things.
On Purim our mothers also made sweets and we shared them with friends, in Christian homes. Just as they would bring to us when it was Saint Barbara’s day and they had the celebration of Saint Barbara. They would bring us things accordingly… That’s what we knew.
Michalis: So there was no Jewish school.
Astro: There was not. There was before the war. Afterwards we had nothing. There was also the Alliance [...].
Michalis: Very long ago, when it was.
Astro: Children, that is very long ago. It begins from the very beginning. First of all, I would like, as a tribute to my parents and my grandparents whom I never met, to speak briefly about Didymoteicho. You must first know what Didymoteicho was. Now it may be… unfortunately, it has fallen into great decline.
In 1321 the first Jewish community was formed under the reign of Kantakouzenos. In 1883 the imposing school was founded. The one I mentioned. Later, in 1897, the French Alliance Israélite school began to operate. Later, when it closed, in 1955, it became a hospital for a few years and of course afterwards there was nothing.
Michalis: Before the war, how many Jews lived in Didymoteicho?
Astro: Before the war, there were 1,000 Jews. From 1941, excuse me, there was a very important Jewish community. There were wealthy people, wealthy Jews in Didymoteicho. They worked in the trade of silk, cereals, in trade in general. They even did exports. So the economy of Didymoteicho grew immediately, not only of the people. And of course, they were the notables, the Jews of Didymoteicho. They were the bourgeoisie, as it was called at that time.
I had an uncle, my grandmother’s brother, who was wealthy and had a large mansion, in which he hosted King Alexander, the Tsar of Bulgaria. They all slept in my uncle’s house, all the ministers too, they all went there. That means they were very prominent.
Later that house was taken over by the Air Force club, I think it still exists today and I need to find out, I don’t know.
Let me tell you a little about how the Jews left and how the new community was later created. In 1941 the Germans began to come to Greece. Of course there were already rumors that they were looking for Jews. In 1943 some tried, rather, some tried to leave.
Michalis: Through Turkey.
Astro: The Turks did not allow many to continue. They sent them back to Greece. Others managed to escape, to go to Palestine. My father together with my uncle managed to leave.
When in 1943 the Germans came to Didymoteicho, someone warned my uncle, who was then also the director of the Jewish school. He was warned that the Germans were coming, (and his name was Nissim) “leave.”
So he took my father, whose name was also Nissim, and told him we are leaving. They quickly made false identity cards and left through Lavara. Lavara is a village near Didymoteicho. They had arranged things with the Resistance. Naturally the Greeks, their friends, helped them. They arranged with the Resistance and were taken across the next day to the Turkish coast.
From there, with great hardship of course, they went to Palestine. First they went to Aleppo and from there to Palestine. When the war ended, they went there of course to serve in the Greek army. At that time the Greek army was there. And they went as volunteers. My father as a volunteer, (my uncle) was a soldier.
When they returned, of course, they found Didymoteicho destroyed. Destroyed. Of course the Jewish community was destroyed. There was no one. Only about 20 people returned. 97% never came back. They were all taken in 1943, when the Germans entered. They locked them all in the synagogue and the next day put them in the wagons to be sent to Bingenau and Auschwitz.
Michalis: How did the synagogue function?
Astro: There was a large synagogue. Very impressive. In Sephardic form, in Sephardic style. All the Jews before the war went very much. They did not open their shops on Friday in Didymoteicho. But afterwards the Greek state forbade this. And only the very religious managed not to open their shops. But when the Germans came back they had destroyed it. It was later renovated a little by the Greek state. Because it was turned into a catechism school. And later the Red Cross.
From that synagogue now there remains only a small mosaic. A small mosaic, and there the memorial has been built. In memory of the Jews who lived in Didymoteicho.
So when my father returned he found no one. His parents and his wife and his sister had all been taken by the Germans. He was alone. Very soon he married. The next year he married. He married my mother, who was from Drama. And I am the first child of post-war Didymoteicho.
Michalis: In your home did you keep kosher, that is, as much as you could, the Jewish dietary laws?
Astro: Listen. In Didymoteicho we did not have, as I said, Jewish education. We did not know much. As small children we only knew that we were Jews. Nothing more. And when at some point I asked my father, as I told you before, what is religion, he told me: my child, to be a good person. Help those in need. That is religion. And do good deeds. Very important. And with that I go through life, of course.
We knew only a few things. Not much. And of course what I remember very strongly, apart from the holidays we celebrated—Purim, Pesach and Rosh Hashanah of course, we knew those holidays. But I did not know what Sukkot was. That was a holiday I did not even know. We did not know many things.
But it was also important that once a year we all went together, all the members of the community—afterwards we were five families and nine children—we went to Kavala for the commemoration of the Jews who were lost. For us to understand who we are. We, the children, had to see. It was the first time I entered a synagogue. I didn’t know anything before. I had never seen… until Kavala. I had never seen anything before. I didn’t even know what a synagogue was like. The first time was in Kavala.
And then, from inside me, I began to feel more Jewish. And to want to remain. Because I was growing up. Of course my environment was among Christians. And I said, no, I am Jewish. I must not forget. I am Jewish. Yes, all my friends are good, I love them. But I am Jewish. I felt it, it entered deeply in my heart.
Michalis: Did your parents speak about the trauma?
Astro: My parents, no. No. Very little. My mother suffered in the mountains like all the others. My father left for the Middle East. And I think he even had a very good time there. Very good. He had the financial means he carried with him. He also helped the higher officers. So he lived well.
Michalis: What was your father’s occupation before the war?
Astro: Colonial goods. He had a business which he continued later. We had a store of glassware. Half of it was glassware, half colonial goods. And twice a year he imported from Turkey—fish, tunny and bonito. And people came even from Kavala to buy from us to make Constantinople Lakerda, which was my father’s specialty. And he dealt also with other goods. Trade of course, apart from the store we had.
Michalis: I wanted to ask, whatever property he left behind, did he find it again?
Astro: He left his house. Which he found, of course, empty. Later, when he was in trade, you know trade sometimes gives you certain blows, as he used to say. And in a difficult moment he was forced to sell it.
But I was very lucky that about 14 years ago, I think 10 years, a couple of visual artists bought it. They wanted to learn the history of the house and came to meet me because they learned who the descendant was. They restored it, brought it back to its old form. They even scraped the walls themselves to reveal the original colors of the house.
It was an old mansion which also hosted many prominent people. And now Didymoteicho began again to feel like my homeland. Even though I left, I feel it so much as my beloved own. Because it is the house, my father’s house. And now when I go, when I visit, I feel as if I am going…
Michalis: From all that you learned, those holidays as you celebrated them in Didymoteicho, did you pass them on to your own family? Do you keep the customs and traditions?
Astro: As I told you, our company in Didymoteicho of course was… Because all the children were younger, I was the oldest. We had many friends. And as a girl, you know, with little flirtations and all that. But always, in my mind, I had that I had to marry a Jew.
And I was very lucky to marry a Jew in Larissa. I entered a wonderful family and whatever I learned about religion and generally about Judaism, I learned from my husband’s family. They were exceptional. They kept the holidays. I finally saw what the Kal (synagogue) is, I entered and… ah, I entered the Kal, I went to see. It was something I always carried within me.
Even at school, in the essays I wrote as a child, I always wrote that I want to enter the synagogue, I want to see the Magen David, and my teachers asked me, what is that you are saying? I had such a desire. So I tried myself.
Later we came to Thessaloniki. Of course I had the foundations from Larissa. But when we came to Thessaloniki, my children began to go to school, to kindergarten, and I began to learn along with the children, to learn something more. So I try in my home, as much as I can, to keep the customs and traditions of our religion. I am very proud of that. Because my children truly follow.