Moshe Matarasso 1927-2011

 
In 1917 the entire city of Salonika in northern Greece was burnt to the ground. Everyone lost their homes including the 80,000 Jewish population. However the old French military camps on the outskirts of the city remand undamaged; and the Jewish community together with the Jewish Agency acquired them. They converted the camp barracks to an inhabitable place and lived there. Life was poor. No running water. No electricity. No heating. Just one room of 8 square meters for each family of 6 to 8 persons; a common kitchen; and a common living room for three families. Heating and cooking only by coal .One water tap for every 6 blocks. Moshe’s paintings present at small part of the history of Salonika Jewry.

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In 1997 Moshe (Moris) Matarasso was interviewed about his memories from the time of the holocaust. The interview was part of a large project of the director Steven Spielberg. In this project testimonies of holocaust survivors from all around the world are documented and saved for the generations to come. Here is the interview with Moshe Matarasso, as was recorded on his video:

«I was born around 1928 in Thessaloniki (my exact birthday is unknown). Thessaloniki is a city that was divided into separate neighborhoods. We lived around religion and the synagogue and also around sports groups like «Maccabi», «Beney Akiva» etc. My father was Chsdai   Matarasso, who was born in Thessaloniki, and my mother was Sarra nee Sias.

Chasdai   Matarasso was a son of Salom and Esther Shaul – a family from Russia that came to Thessaloniki at the end of the 19 century. Esther s father was apparently called Mantesh Shaul. It is known that Esther Shaul had a sister Yonna. Shalom, my grandfather had black hair and was skinny whereas Esther Shaul my grandmother was a high impressive woman with blond hair.

Shalom and Esther Matarasso had four boys and two girls:
Moshe, who died in his childhood from disease, Chsdai (my father), Jack Yaakov, Mantesh, Algra and Reginna.
Algra married but died in the holocaust with her husband
Reginna married Haime Pitchon. They had five children, who all died in the holocaust.
Jack Yaakov married Elvira Tsarfati. They had two children. Elvira and their children died in the holocaust.On his return to Greece Jack married Frida, who died from disease. Later he married Leah, and they have no children.

Chsdai Matarasso married Sarra Sias, the daughter of Ang l and Golda Sias. My father had a store for dried fruits at the market. Most of Jews in Greece worked as merchants. I lived in the city until the age of 14. Our lives revolved around family events. We were very poor.
All of us were refugees from the big fire of 1917. This was under the French & Turkish occupation of Thessaloniki. We received houses, which actually were barracks made of stone, from the French Army. The Jewish community distributed rooms to the families. Every family received one room with a communal kitchen. The winter was cold and snowy, drinking water was outside the house; and we used to fill cans of water and bring them home.
Maybe my parents had a better life before the fire. In fact I didn t hear anything about that.
I studied in the Jewish school until the age of13. My sister Paullina supported the family. She was a cloth cutter and dressmaker. This occupation brought her to the houses of rich Jews, where she could have good meals. My parents were worried about her figure, but regrettably none of my sisters established a family.

In 1940 war erupted between Italy and Greece on Albanian territory. There were many battles and the Greeks had the upper hand.

In the winter of 1941 Jewish soldiers that had joined the Greek army began to return from the snowing mountains, many of them had no legs from the knee down and among them my uncle. They walked around with crutches.

In 1941 the Germans invaded Greece. Their invasion brought fear to the city. Everyone had heard what the Germans were doing the Jewish people. However life kept on as usual for the next six months. Many of the families had many children but no money, so there was no possibility of escape for these people. Only those who had resources -10,000 people out of 70,000 people – escaped. (During 1934-1935 a few Jewish leaved to Palestine.  One of them was the father of my wife Yona).

In August 1942, all the men between 18 and 35 were gathered for forced labor in Greece for a period of more than a year. Among them was my uncle. Only after a ransom was paid to the Germans (the money came sale of furniture from the house) did they return home. There was no food, and the only thing every one ate was porridge from cornflour that was baked in loaves and locust honey that was brought from the nearby Greek villages. Fruits and vegetables were not available.

German propaganda was all around the streets. Jews were forbidden to travel in public transportation. They started to threaten the Jews. They closed a street from both sides, caught the Jews that were there and murdered them. A wall placard with the murdered people s photos was publicised so that everyone will see and fear.

In 1942, they collected all the young Jews (about 5000 men) into the city central square «Freedom Square «, harassed them from the morning until 18:00 in evening, and then sent them to forced labor.
We had economic distress in our family. I remember my father bringing me once a slice of bread, which was a delicatessen for me.

In 1941 they start telling the Jews that they will be taken to a state of their own; and that they are concentrate all of us together for that.
The rabbi of the Jewish community Zvi Kurts was taken to Germany. He cooperated with the Nazis and transferred to them a list of all Jews, names, addresses, working place, etc.   
The Thessaloniki Jews accused him with cooperation. Maybe the extermination would not have been so huge if he had not helped the Germans.
Shortly before the deportation in the end of 1942 it was clear that we are going to be taken from home. Everybody went to the synagogue praying to god all night for saving us.
God didn’t come!
At the beginning of 1943 we were forbidden to use public transportation, and we got a yellow patch (with the Star of David). Our Greek neighbors bought our property for pennies; and afterwards they got our houses for free.
There ware some that helped the Jews, some even established a resistance movement and saved Jews. We gave some pictures of our family to our neighbors that return them to us after the war.
At February 1943 the deportation began. Most of the Jews lived together in quarters.
The Germans took one of the quarters called the Hirsh quarter, named after Baron Hirsh, and turned it into a Ghetto. The quarter was close to the train station at the edge of the city. From there everyone was sent by trains.
One day there was an announcement that tomorrow we are leaving.  We collected all our things, packed them into boxes, and wrapped them into blankets, and went out.
Thousands of men, women and children walked about 5 km to the edge of the city, to the Hirsh quarter. The Jewish policemen watched us that we should not escape. The quarter was fenced. The policemen were very poor, and received in exchange for the guarding a little food for the family. We stay in the quarter for two days. We were about 30 men in a room – a few families together. We sat on the packages, on the floor. We waited them to take us. We really believed that it would be good in Poland. On 15/3/1943 after two days with the packages, when I was 14.5 years old, we were put on the German trains all together with shouting and beating. We were sent in 2 or 3 transports. The train wagons were for cattle. The place was very crowded. A small window was at the end of the wagons.  The people carried small bottles and buckets for doing their bodily wastes. Every one tried to find a corner to place himself.
Living in the wagons for 7 days was like hell. Children did their bodily wastes in their pants. 
The smells were dreadful. People shouted and banged on the wagon walls. The train stopped only about 3 or 4 times during the journey.
One of the people was allowed to collect the bottles and buckets and to empty them out of the train. During the journey people sang Jewish and Israel homeland songs, and believed that the future would be good.
I and my father sang without knowing we were going to die. The train travelled through Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Krakow. After 7 days of journey at approximately 3 am the train stopped, and they started to take people out of it. There, on the platform, I understood that the story was hopeless. I will never forget it all my life!! All the packages, without allocation and names remained outside the train. We were forced to jump from the train. They arranged us in rows of five, separating between men, women and children. I understood something was not right. Packages remained without their owners. It was a sign that something terrible was imminent.
Far away I saw rows of lights around Birkenau and the Auschwitz crematoriums.
We knew nothing about the place, but after the separation I remained with my father – it was very cold. My father saw that I was frozen. On the train he gave me a coat and now he gave me another one. He was left only with thin coat a kind of a jacket. I remain dressed with his coat. We was standing in a rows of five, shouting was all around us. My mother and the three girls were in the second group. All the cripples sat on the floor.
Approximately one hour pass until we were arranged.
They brought trucks and put all the cripples and the old that couldn t stand. There were a lot of people. The truck began to move and old ladies that didn’t grab something fell out of the truck. The truck continued to travel .This picture convinced me that something bad is about to happen. My father sat beside me and held my hand. They started to divide the men between youth and adults. When they reached our line the German transfer me to the youth group.
My father was 45 years old and was taken to the adult group. My father s coat made me look older and that saved me.
This was the last time that I saw my father. My mother and my sisters went also at 04:00 in the morning. The youth and I among them marched about 2.5 km to Auschwitz. The camp entrance announce «arbeit macht frei» – «work brings freedom».
At 05:00 we arrived to the camp, still dressed in our garments. They took us to do disinfection in the showers. They were sheds, nested with water pipes above and showers. They stripped us all. This was the first time I saw Jews dressed in white prisoner s clothes. I also identified some prisoners from Thessaloniki. The prisoners told us that we will not see our families again. We did not believe. Questions started to peck our mind: Maybe this is the truth?
They told us that they arrived two weeks ago with their families and have remained alone.
The Germans ordered us to shave our hair body and head. We shaved each other. In the transport we were about 2600 men; only about 500 were left.
All this procedure took about half day. We received prisoner s clothes with stripes.
The adults among us understood what was going to happen. They cried, shouted and communed with each other. We were inside the shower for about half day. After that they brought us to a building, we got   beds with 3 storeys. The windows were double-glazed.
In the roof-attic there was another floor for living. Every floor had a big room to the right and to the left. In each room 500 men were crowded together. There were 3 floors, and 3 men in each bed.
The next day a number was tattooed on our hand. We were held in the shed and disinfected for a number of days. We waited for about a week without working.
The conversations there were about parents and families: Should we see or not see our parents and families again? The ones who had families, fathers to children, were the first to be break down because they understood what had happened to their wifes and children.
As a boy watching the adults I didn t understood any more.
We were in a great fear and didn’t know what will be our fate. We cried a lot.

After about a week they distributed us to work. I was lucky; they sent me to work in the bakery. I was a lonely boy and asked to sweep the place they used to store the bread.
I was lucky because I had bread to eat. At the bakery I met a Polish Jew that spoke Hebrew. He took me under his auspices. He lost all his family and we spoke Hebrew like I learned in school. I worked at the bakery for two weeks. We have a «Misky» a red enamel bowl. Breakfast included a liter of hot colorless and sugarless tea. At noon we get a liter of potato soup, a big radish and semolina that had been cooked together inside a barrel.
Supper included a slice of bread, a spoon of jam or 10 grams of margarine. During the first days the food was tasteless, people didn’t eat. But, at the end of the week, when everybody was hungry, there wasn t a choice and people ate everything without exception.
After a week when hunger started to bother the people, we thought only abut food – not about our family, not about escaping and not how and if to rebel. After two weeks, they took all the youths and concentrated us in a building school. My uncle – my father s brother Jack – was in the bed above me. We were about 150 children, and learned how to build in block 13. The building school was opened in the attic. We studied about 3 4 months. The school manager was a Polish citizen. He was an adult person wearing a peaked cap, a different type of a person in the camp s population. He was a good person and our sunshine in the darkness. He used to bring us an additional food that had remained in the center and distribute it among the children.
Our schedule was as follows:
Wakeup at 04:30. Washing and eating.
Until 05:30 a count while we did gymnastic exercises. If anyone from the 10,000 men was missing, we stood outside in the cold until he was found.
They took us outside the camp, while on the side stood the famous Auschwitz orchestra, playing to the marchers. We were going to work on building, while others worked in the field and in factories etc.

Every month a selection takes place.
The notorious Dr. Josef Mengele was the one that chose who will live and who will die.
We didn t know him at this time. We were kids and as kids we were not interested in the meaning of this.
One day when we went out from the camp towards the fields (we were building a potato warehouse near Birkenau) we saw a group of women prisoners marching toward us. The group sang and among them I saw my sisters. This was the last time that I saw them.
We built in front of the women s camp. One sunny day we saw how the all camp passes disinfection, there were approximately 50000 naked women and girls. For me, as boy from religious house it was a shocking vision. We also saw them working.
Inside the camps the order was exemplary. We built a pool for the Germans, there were lawns and it was very clean and orderly. I was compelled to steal tomatoes and cabbage during work. Anyone that was caught was beaten on the buttocks. At the camp only children and the «old» 45 years old prisoners were left. One day I become ill, I have Otitis (ear infection). I went to the clinic; they arranged me an appointment for an operation. Meanwhile they put me a bandage around my head and ear.
A selection had started and we have to run naked in front of Dr. Mengele. I took down the bandage. I wiped the abscess that dripped from the ear. I ran in front of him and survived.

Our clothes were taken from us every two weeks. We showered only in the evening and came out naked, we ran to the building and received the clean clothes. There weren t personal clothes. On the operation day when I went to the hospital -, I didn t receive any food because I wasn t in my room

We built 20 blocks, 10 were clothing and food warehouses. 5 blocks were for Jewish girls and 4 for Germans guards. On the operation day American bombers bombed the German guards blocks. Many Germans soldiers were injured and brought to the hospital. The Americans knew where the camps were and who lived in each block. We had to build it from start.
In Auschwitz, there was a block called block number10. That was the block of gynecological experiments. Some of my school friends from Greece were used as guinea pigs in this block and underwent all kinds of experiments. Some of them had a testicle cut from them. We discussed it with them in the hospital through the windows. They thought that it was a punishment and didn’t know it was an experiment.
The snow and the cold were terrible. In the winter 1943-44 we worked at Birkenau
We moved building plates. It was as so cold that some day they told us if temperature goes down to -20C we will not go to work, and so it was.  All the winter I wasn t able to straighten and to stabilize my fingers from the cold. The clothes were very damp. The mattress was made from cloth of special paper fabric filled of straw. When we returned wet from work, the room was hot. We put our clothes in the middle of two blankets and dried them that way. Sometimes we found a bag of cement and wrap it around our foots for warmth without the Germans seeing us – so that we would not be punished.
The snow was sticky and slippery. When it melted they put sand on it so that one could walk without slipping.
There were people that disappeared, and we didn t know what happened to them. We heard abut the crematoriums, we heard of four guys from Greece and Poland that were compelled to burn corpses and afterwards they were murdered. When someone escaped, all the camp was convened and made to stand to attention – regardless the weather – and to wait until he was caught. Usually he was found and hanged in the football field in the camp.
They used to put a sign on him that this is the penalty on breakout.

In the camp were also punch competitions. A guy from Thessaloniki was the champion of the camp.

In October 1944 they took a group of children, about 50, and I was among them. We were marched to Birkenau. We thought that we were going to the crematoriums. We cried because we thought this is our end. However they put us on the train that took us to Germany. We traveled for two days until we arrived to Sachsenhausen – a camp in Germany approximately 30 Km from Berlin.
This was a huge labor camp. Every morning at 04:30 we travel to «Klinker» that was a soldering factory for the German aircraft industry. We worked from 06:00, until 18:00 in shifts.
During the day we opened the windows because we became sick from the welding gases.
At the night, the Americans used to bomb, and we had to run outside to the foxholes.
There we stayed for long hours and also breathed clean and fresh air.
We slept no more than three hours at night. We slept one opposite the other so that we could warm ourselves .I worked in the factory for about 5 months until the end of March1945.
At the beginning of April there were no airplane raw materials left, so there was no work for us. We start to disassemble airplane parts There I worked sitting for the first time in my life, since up till now. Work was done standing. The work took place in long sheds.
After about a week of work we heard American airplanes in the sky. It was 10 in the morning, and we saw about 50-60 airplanes. Two hours later, we saw an additional wave of airplanes approach, and then the factory was strafed. We started to jump outside and bombs fell beside us. We jumped to the foxholes.
We were about 150 men. About 80 were killed, and the factory was strafed. People were killed around us.

All that mattered for us was food. The factory was located near the Elba River. From the bombardments the river became full of dead fish; and we grilled and ate them.
We had to evacuate all the bodies, and then they told us that we are leaving Sachsenhausen.
We started to march; we knew that the Russians were approaching. We wanted to earn time,
because we knew that the Germans want to flee and take us with them.

We wanted to stay, in order to earn time. Every one that went out from the camp received food.
All day people were taken out in groups of one hundred men. Some of us have civilian clothes from transports that arrived. In the evening, when the artillery roared, we were the last hundred remaining. Our turn arrived and we didn’t receive any food, because there was nothing left. We march in the night, in the darkness .We stopped every two or three hours for a break in the forests. We marched the next day and evening until we arrived to a big granary. We were very hungry. They told us we will be able to rest here. We saw some Ukrainians sitting in the granary at the top floor and beside them were seeds. I saw a colossal pile of bags full of seeds. I filled my pockets with the seeds. I also filled my coat doubling with seeds.
Go down the ladder, three Germans soldiers with drawn guns stood in front of me.
I thought my end had arrived. They shouted and we trembled. I said to the Germans: «we didn t receive any food since yesterday «. The German looked at me and shouted: «Get out!»
The other Germans kicked and hit me, but didn’t harm me.
They understood that they not given food to the prisoners and this for Germans Is not right. I ran from fear into the village, a German caught me and returned me to the granary.
One who held bags of seeds was compelled to be separated from it. Who that has in his pockets has kept it. They were seeds of dry pea. I trade with it and exchange it for food that saves me from hunger. We march for ten days 30 Km per day. The ones that didn’t have the strength sit on the ground, and then was a sound of shooting. The Germans murdered them.
On the tenth day of walking, an American airplane appears to strafe motorcades of Germans citizens that fled from the Russians. We march southward. The Americans sniped on carriages of Germans that were beside us. This time we know that the end is near.
The first time they seated us the children, and gave us packages of the Red Cross.
We were 100 children; we received a box of 1 kilograms of meat every boy received a little piece and ½ biscuit. At the beginning of May, we saw that all the young soldiers disappeared; only the older soldiers stayed – it turned out that all the young soldiers run away.
There were no more stops, and we discovered that we are not accompanied by soldiers.
We understood that we are free. We lay down on the ground to rest. We were in the forest.
I saw a group of happy prisoners gathering. I saw that everyone got a piece of meat.
I have a penknife – I pushed it inwards and without seeing I cut for myself a hunk with hairs. It was 5 kilograms of horse meat. I put it in my knapsack without knowing how I was going to eat it. We continued in the direction of the forest – there we saw Germans airplanes hidden in an airport in the forest. The airplanes were burnt and were full of smoke.
We searched for a house in order to cook the meat. We saw a windmill about 3-4 Km from us.
Suddenly, the young soldiers started to shoot on us from the forest. We ran and hid.
We arrived to the middle of the forest, and rested on a pile of straw. We were weak and it took us a long time to reach the windmill. On the way, I saw a dead German family
The windmill was on the hill and in the valley there was the village. We were very dirty, but we arrived at the village. All the local residents hid in the houses. We looked inside a house and saw a hidden frightened family. We asked for food and they gave us. We saw prisoners devouring eggs and other food. People of the village were afraid that they will be killed and they brought food to their doorstep so we should take and not harm them.
We arrived at the horse s stable and rested there. Prisoners that were hungry ate a lot.
The next day, someone brought mutton and a pail, and we cooked the meat in the pail.
We were 5 guys, and we ate a full meal. The next day, we vomited and we had diarrhea. We got sick with dysentery, but we were so hungry that we couldn t stop eating.

On the 3rd day we saw the first Russian soldier arrive. The Russians soldiers arranged us. The Elba River is crossing the village. On one bank sat the Americans and on the other bank were the Russians. I said to my friend, it s better for us to go to the American side. We haven t any documents. I understood that the European refugees pass to the American side. I said that I from Greece and they let me pass.
Someone told us that the Americans located about 10 km farther in Schwerin. We walked until we arrived to the city. We saw Americans soldiers on tanks and armored carriers.
The American concentrated all the refugees in the local high school. I got very sick in malaria, and lied down in a house attic. Americans Jewish soldiers arrived, heated water for us and helped us to get a shower and clean up. They disinfected me and gave me clean new clothes. After two days I recovered. They took care for us very much and gave us food and chocolate. Those were the days of freedom!! Days of the exaltation!!
Then we knew that we had survived. I wandered in Germany about 5 months. I found my uncle Jack alive, cried a lot and we returned together to Greece. We slept in tents on the floor. We survived and lived in the new world. We passed from camp to camp. The English flew us in a bomber airplane to Greece; we set on the airplane floor. I returned to Greece, refugee, without any family; my uncle Jack who had lost his wife and his two boys took me under his care. I lived with him for 4 years until I moved to Israel. From a family of 48 only 2 survived the holocaust, myself and my uncle Jack, who passed away in 1993 in Greece. We went to live in Athens, because we hadn t found any one in Thessaloniki. Jack opened a fabric store in Athens. I worked in the store with him, from 1945 until 1949. I decided to move to Israel because I didn t see any future for me in Greece. I got accepted as guest at my family relatives in Tel Aviv: the family of my wife Yonna. I was in the Israeli Army until 1952.
And after that I joined the Israeli Police, and worked as an electronics technician. In 1953 I marryied Yonna Baruch and we have three boys Hasdi, Israel and Sharon.
Over the years I was a radio amateur, and many years doing drawing and sculpture.
I retired from work in 1996.