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But when we were in France we were Greeks. According to the law in France I was ‘le petit grecque,’ the young Greek. I was the only foreigner in class, and my surname was a Sephardic family name, but they didn’t know it. The French didn’t care about religion, the only thing they cared about, if they knew it, was your origin, your nationality, and my nationality was always Greek. I never took up French nationality.
In France, when they told me I was the young Greek, I felt flattered. It wasn’t insulting, no. The French had a negative opinion of the Poles in general, and especially of the Jews that were Polish, and they couldn’t stand them. They were the ‘dirty Jews’ [‘sales juifs’], because they were an element that didn’t want to be incorporated in the French society. I didn’t know if any of my classmates at school were Jewish, such things we didn’t know.
I personally didn’t feel anti-Semitism. But I became aware of it later, by reading, learning details of what had happened until then, for instance. I had no idea at the time though. I didn’t feel it personally because we didn’t associate with the rest of society. We lived by ourselves. The Jews I knew didn’t speak of anti-Semitism. About Campbell [5], for instance, nobody spoke. Besides, my folks had many Christian friends. And my uncles had business associates who were Christian. They also had friends, colleagues, bank directors with whom they collaborated. They didn’t have a problem.
During the time I went to the Lycée, as of 1934-1935, that was the period of the rise of Nazism in Germany and Italy, but we had no idea. I don’t know how this could be, we lived in a different world, and in general people ignored this situation. Even in France people had no idea.
I don’t remember the Metaxas dictatorship [6]. I didn’t mind at all when the Jews of Thessaloniki were excluded from ΕΟΝ [7]. We had heard of ΕΟΝ, but we didn’t care. We lived in ignorance of the situation. We also didn’t know anything about the communists. There was the concept of Communism which we all knew, and we all knew Karl Marx, but we had no special opinion. We didn’t read political books and we were not interested in politics. We also didn’t speak at all about religion. Nothing. We were all liberal. We cared more about culture, reading, philosophical and metaphysical discussions, such matters. We read the works of philosophers, Germans, French, both in and out of school.
In France, when they told me I was the young Greek, I felt flattered. It wasn’t insulting, no. The French had a negative opinion of the Poles in general, and especially of the Jews that were Polish, and they couldn’t stand them. They were the ‘dirty Jews’ [‘sales juifs’], because they were an element that didn’t want to be incorporated in the French society. I didn’t know if any of my classmates at school were Jewish, such things we didn’t know.
I personally didn’t feel anti-Semitism. But I became aware of it later, by reading, learning details of what had happened until then, for instance. I had no idea at the time though. I didn’t feel it personally because we didn’t associate with the rest of society. We lived by ourselves. The Jews I knew didn’t speak of anti-Semitism. About Campbell [5], for instance, nobody spoke. Besides, my folks had many Christian friends. And my uncles had business associates who were Christian. They also had friends, colleagues, bank directors with whom they collaborated. They didn’t have a problem.
During the time I went to the Lycée, as of 1934-1935, that was the period of the rise of Nazism in Germany and Italy, but we had no idea. I don’t know how this could be, we lived in a different world, and in general people ignored this situation. Even in France people had no idea.
I don’t remember the Metaxas dictatorship [6]. I didn’t mind at all when the Jews of Thessaloniki were excluded from ΕΟΝ [7]. We had heard of ΕΟΝ, but we didn’t care. We lived in ignorance of the situation. We also didn’t know anything about the communists. There was the concept of Communism which we all knew, and we all knew Karl Marx, but we had no special opinion. We didn’t read political books and we were not interested in politics. We also didn’t speak at all about religion. Nothing. We were all liberal. We cared more about culture, reading, philosophical and metaphysical discussions, such matters. We read the works of philosophers, Germans, French, both in and out of school.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel