Moshe Benveniste

This is a picture of my father-in-law, Moise Benveniste.

Mari's father was called Moshe Benveniste. Before the war he had a shop selling cashmeres at Agiou Mina Street, where the tram used to take the turn. He was a well known trader and he worked together with his father Abraham Benveniste who was from Izmir.

At that time, many had come from Izmir to settle in Thessaloniki. Abraham Benveniste arrived before 1922. He was a fanatic fan of Venizelos. He had the picture of Venizelos in the lounge of his home.

Moise Benveniste was born in Smyrni and went to the same school with Onassis. While his brother, Mari' uncle who was younger than him was born in Thessaloniki. Moise got married to Berta Salmona. He died in 1978.

Berta and Morris Benveniste left Thessaloniki during the Nazi occupation. My father in law was smart enough to hire a truck after the Germans came in.

He put all his goods in the truck, cashmeres don't take so much space, and he took them down to Athens. He put them in a warehouse. Later, he opened a shop in Leoharous street. He had one employee and had this shop until he died.

Before the war I didn't know the families of Abraham Benveniste and of Berta Salmona. The Salmona family we didn't know at all. But I do remember the grandfather of Mari, Abraham Banveniste.

When we were small children, we used to go swimming in the sea at the bay. We had a boatman with a small boat who would take us swimming and after that we would go fishing. We would eat and we would fish. I remember when we would go fishing, Abraham would come at the same spot and fish too.

Mari used to tell me that he loved fishing. We knew that his name was Benveniste. We would se him at the Sailing Club too. He had his boat anchored at the Sailing Club. He would come and pick it up from there. He had a tent and sometimes he had a friend accompanying him.

Photos from this interviewee