Mayor Carrer
Jewish Museum of
Greece
In 1944 Mayor Carrer was ordered at gunpoint
to hand over a list of Jews residing on the island. The
list was presented to the Germans containing only two names:
Mayor Carrer and Bishop Chrysostomos. The Bishop bravely told the Germans, "Here are your Jews. If you choose to deport the Jews of Zakynthos, you must also take me and I will share their fate."

 

In the interim, all the Jews of the island were safely hidden in the mountainous villages. While the whole island knew what was happening, not one person revealed their whereabouts.

The Jews of Zakynthos share a similar history with the Jews of the Ionian islands, except that all 275 Jews of Zakynthos survived the Holocaust. The courageous actions of Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Carrer in helping these individuals led Yad Vashem to include them in the "Righteous Among Nations."

Bishop Christostomos
Jewish Museum of Greece
Zakynthos today
GNTO
There is evidence that Chrysostomos actually communicated with Hitler
himself, to beg for the lives of the Jews on the island. Unfortunately, a
devastating earthquake in
1953 destroyed all archives on
the island, making proof of the
correspondence impossible.
Historians do know that a boat
was never sent to deport the
Jews of Zakynthos and that all
275 of the island’s Jews survived
the Holocaust.
Mordos family
preceding WWII
Kehila Kedosha Janina
Synagogue and Museum
The first boat to arrive
with aid to the victims of the 1953 earthquake was from Israel, with a message that read, "The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us."