Morris Venezia

Morris Venezia
Born Maurice Venezia
25 February 1921
Salonica
Nationality Jewish-Italian-Greek

Maurice Venezia (now Morris Venezia) (born Thessaloniki, Greece, 25 February 1921) is a Jewish-Italian-Greek survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp; he was a member of the special squads (Sonderkommando) and he's one of the few eyewitnesses to the gas chambers.

He’s brother of Shlomo Venezia. Since the end of the World War II, he lives in California.[1]

Biography

The ancestors of Morris, Sephardi Jews, were expelled from Spain in 1492 (with the Alhambra Decree) and traveled in Europe before settling in the Greek Macedonia, under the Ottoman Empire. In their period of stay in the Republic of Venice, the family acquired the last name Venezia (Venice) and Italian citizenship.

In Thessaloniki the Morris family - with few economic means - was part of the community of Italian Jews; the sons went on the Italian school of Thessaloniki (a fascist school). His father, Isacco Venezia, a barber, left as a young man had left to join the Italian armed forces during World War I. His father died, and Morris was sent to study in Italy for free, at a high school (Istituto tecnico) in Milan, through the intervention of the Italian Consulate in Thessaloniki;[2][3] Morris family (his mother Doudoun (Angel), his brother Shlomo, and little sisters Rachel, Marika and Martha) could live in Thessaloniki with the help of their relatives.

When the Racial Laws against the Jews were introduced, Morris was expelled from Italy, without finishing his studies, and returned to Greece. In 1940, after the Italian declaration of war, the subsequent invasion of Greece and the bombardment of Thessaloniki (November 3, 1940),[4] by the Italian armed forces, the Greek police began arresting men of Italian nationality. Many Italians were captured, including Maurice, and imprisoned in a building in the center of the city; after, they were transferred around Athens and were released on arrival of the Italian Army.[2][3]

When the German troops arrived (who occupied the Northern Greece), the Italian Consulate in Thessaloniki organized a voluntary transfer of the Italians to Sicily or to Athens. The Morris family remained in Athens as refugees.[5]

After 8 September 1943, Athens came under the German power.[6]

Morris and Shlomo joined the Greek partisans,[1] while remaining in Athens. As the months passed, the control of the Nazis on the Greek Jews became more and more pressing, with deportations and with the introduction of a weekly signature to the Jewish Community; finally, in March 1944, they were detained and then all conducted to a prison in Athens (Haidari).[6] After they were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp.

Sonderkommando

The brothers Morris and Shlomo, with his cousins Dario and Jakob Gabbai and their families, arrived in Auschwitz on the day 11 April 1944[7]

Morris and Shlomo were chosen from the SS to the Sonderkommando, because they had declared to be barbers and were young and vigorous; they were assigned to different buildings, and subsequently worked together in the camp.[2]

In the units Sonderkommando the Jews were forced to work in the gas chambers and in the crematories of the camp.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 No Human Can Understand: The “Sonderkommando” and Revolt in Auschwitz. Biographical Profiles
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Shlomo Venezia, Sonderkommando Auschwitz, Penguin Books, 2007
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Carol Stulberg, Interview: Morris Venezia, October 27, 1996, Inglewood (California)
  4. ↑ (Italian)Headquarters of the Armed Forces, 'War Bulletin' no. 149
  5. ↑ Shlomo Venezia, 1.9 - Da Salonicco ad Atene, Interview (2000), on "Memoro. La banca della memoria"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Shlomo Venezia, 2.9 - La deportazione, Interview (2000), on "Memoro. La banca della memoria"
  7. ↑ (German)Gerhard Botz, Nicoletta Bertagnoli, Schweigen und Reden einer Generation: Erinnerungsgespräche mit Op-fern, Tätern und Mitläufern des Nationalsozialismus, Mandelbaum, 2005, p. 48

Bibliography

External links