Oral history interview with Armando Aaron and Rebecca Aaron

Armando Aaron, born in Corfu (Kerkyra), Greece on October 29, 1920, describes his family; attending school and majoring in economics and accounting at the University of Athens; the Italian occupation and the changes when the Germans arrived in Corfu; the imprisoning of Jews in a fortress; remaining in the fortress for five days before being taken to Skadar (Shkodër, Albania); being taken to Patras, Greece, where he met a local man, Georgio Machadis, who invited him to escape and join him; going to Komi and joining the partisans, serving as a bookkeeper and economist; returning to Corfu after four months; his post-war life and marriage.
Rebecca Aaron, wife of Armando Aaron, describes being a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp; her deportation and arrival at Auschwitz; how after six months Rebecca and others were sent to Bergen Belsen where they put to work in a factory; being liberated by the British and transferred to Celle, where they stayed for about four months; being taken by train to Brussels, Belgium, where she stayed twenty days; and boarding a plane for Athens then going to Corfu where she met her husband.

Oral history interview with Perla Sussi

Oral History

Perla Sussi, a member of the Italian-Jewish community of Corfu, Greece, describes growing up in an educated and wealthy family as one of eight children; the Jewish community of 2,500 people in the city; the community’s separation from and integration with the rest of Corfu’s population; the demographics of the Jewish community; the arrival of German forces on Corfu in 1943; limitations imposed on the Jewish population; the impact of the Germans on the Jewish community; being required to gather in the town square with the rest of the Jews to receive identification cards; hiding with her entire family as a result of the goodwill of a family in a nearby village; the family later hiding separately from each other; being discovered and the entire family’s deportation to a transit camp and then Auschwitz; the journey to Auschwitz; the selection process and working; disbelief of the crematorium; collaboration between Greeks, Frenchmen, and the Germans; the evacuation of the Bund; learning about the fate of the Jews in Salonika; the evacuation of Auschwitz; working in a war supply factory; marrying the son of the family that hid her; and her postwar life and Jewish identity.

Oral history interview with Esperance Tsiridaki

Oral History

Esperance Tsiridaki, born in Kerkyra (Corfu), Greece, in 1921, discusses her early family life; the outbreak of war in 1940; the arrival of the Germans; leaving with her family and heading to the villages; going into hiding; separation from her family; her experiences and fears in hiding; her marriage to Pano Tsiridaki; her husband providing food assistance to those in hiding; her husband's illness; going to Alepoú, Greece; the war experiences of her siblings; the fate of her immediate and extended family members; feeling grateful to those who wish to listen to her talk about her Holocaust experiences; and her post-war life and family.

Oral history interview with Judita Tzeko

Oral History

Judita Tzeko describes her close-knit family from Corfu, Greece; the beginning of the war in 1940; her parents being taken to a concentration camp, from which they never returned; how their Jewish life was normal for her family before the war; the presence of some antisemitism, but Jews, Christians, and Muslims interacted; the 1940-1941 bombing and burning of Corfu by the Germans; the destruction of her father's store, after which he started another one and they all worked to maintain a normal life; the hunger and rationing; how after the Germans took over in September 1943, Jewish life became totally inactive and the Jews were afraid to go outside of their homes; how her entire family stopped working except for her father and her sister, Nata, who gave private school lessons and who also was a Red Cross volunteer and thus could circulate more freely; meeting her future husband, a sailor by the name of Jekos Satiri, a Christian whom she knew from school; getting baptized and married in a large monastery named Platitera; converting because at the time there were no civil marriages; getting married and changing her name in order to save her life; her post-war life; and her dedication to Judaism and pride in being Jewish.