Zakynthos is a tiny Greek island at the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. Chrysostomos Dimitriou (Χρυσόστομος Δημητρίου) (1889–1958), also known by his Episcopal titles of His Eminence or Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Zakynthos or Chrysostomos of Trifylia and Olympia, was the Greek Orthodox bishop of the island of Zakynthos during World War II and the Bishop of Trifylia and Olympia after the war until his death.
On 9 September 1943, German forces arrived on Zakynthos and ordered its mayor, Loukas Karrer, to provide them with a list of the names and addresses of the island’s 275 Jews for deportation to the death camps. The distressed mayor consulted Metropolitan Chrysostomos. How could they hand them over? The Jews were as Greek as they were!
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Chrysostomos Dimitriou was born in 1889 in the city of the Piraeus, the main port of Athens. He studied theology in the Theological School of Athens and was ordained as a deacon on July 1916 and then priest on 11 March 1917 by Theoklitos I of Athens.1 He then served as a preacher in the Diocese of Demetrias and Thebes before being sent to study theology in Munich, Germany, where he learned German.1,2
After his return to Greece, he was named Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece before being ordained as the Metropolitan of Zakynthos.1 Since the beginning of his work in Zakynthos, he showed sympathy toward the Jews of the island and for that, was criticized by Orthodox fanatics.2,3 In 1935, he joined the Old Calendarist sect, but after being condemned by the Holy Synod, he issued public repentance and was admitted back as the legitimate Metropolitan of Zakynthos.
World War II
During the first part of the war, the island fell under Italian occupation. He made a commitment in favor of the prisoners of war to obtain their release. He was arrested by the authorities and exiled to Athens for a year before returning to his bishopric.2,3
On 9 September 1943, six days after Italy’s surrender, the Germans took possession of the island.4 The Nazis began making plans to deport Jews from the island, who had thus far survived the Holocaust. Chrysostomos had promised the Jews that the Greek islanders would protect them
They asked the metropolitan and mayor Loukas Karrer to give them a list of the island’s 275 Jews for deportation.2,4,5 However, Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos, who spoke fluent German, began a one-sided negotiation with the SS commander, noting that the Jews were small in number, poor, and that there was no reason to single them out. Unrelenting, the commander threatened them with death if they did not produce a list of the Jews.
Metr. Chrysostomos asked Loukas Karrer to burn the list and to advise the Jews to take refuge with Christian families. When they returned to the SS commander, Chrysostomos told him that the Jews on the island were “part of his flock” and that he could not give him such a list. Instead, he handed him two pieces of paper. One was a letter to Hitler, declaring that the Jews of Zakynthos fell under the Bishop’s authority and should not be harmed. The other, he said, was the requested list. On it were just two names: the Bishop’s and Karrer’s. “Here is the list,” said Metr. Chrysostomos. “You can arrest me, but not them. If this does not satisfy you, then know that I will march together with the Jews straight into the gas chambers.”
As this was happening, the Jewish community, having been warned by Chrysostomos and Karrer, fled to the villages in surrounding mountains. There, without revealing their presence, the local people hid and fed them. Though the whole island knew what was happening, not one person revealed their whereabouts.
Speechless, the commander sent both documents to Berlin. The order to deport the Jews was rescinded and the German forces withdrew – leaving the 275 Jews, Chrysostomos and Karrer. Not a single Jew was deported or died at the hands of the Nazis.
There is evidence that Chrysostomos actually communicated with Hitler himself to beg for the lives of the Jews on the island. Chrysostomos said that he had followed the orders of the Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, who had declared: “I have taken up my cross. I spoke to the Lord, and made up my mind to save as many Jewish souls as possible.”4
Unfortunately, a devastating earthquake in 1953 destroyed all archives on the island, making proof of the correspondence impossible. Historians do know, however, that no vessel was ever sent to deport the Jews of Zakynthos and that all 275 of the island’s Jews survived the Holocaust.
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.”
After World War II
After the war, the Jewish community financed the stained glass windows of the Saint Dimitrios Church in Zakynthos in his honour.6 Chrysostomos was then transferred, shortly before his death, to the Metropolis of Trifylia and Olympia, before dying in Athens on 22 October 1958.1
On 7 November 1978, Metropolitan Chrysostomos was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, along with Loukas Karrer, for his actions to protect Jews from the Holocaust.4
Postscript
There is a charming postscript to this story. Three years ago, Jerusalem Post correspondent Leora Goldberg accompanied her family on holiday to an unknown island in Greece”. On arrival at their villa on Zakynthos, their landlady pointed into the distance. They saw nothing unusual. ”Look again!” she insisted.
“White dots,” Leora’s father replied. The landlady responded, “The Jewish cemetery.”
Investigating, Goldberg found hundreds of graves dating from the 16th century to 1955. She visited City Hall, where the clerk asked if she had visited the synagogue. Above a small black gate was a stone arc with an open book. The inscription read:
At this holy place stood the Shalom Synagogue. Here, at the time of the earthquake in 1953, old Torah scrolls, bought before the community was established, were burned.
Behind the gate were two marble statues, above which was a plaque that read:
This plaque commemorates the gratitude of the Jews of Zakynthos to Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos.
After the 1953 earthquake destroyed the Jewish quarter, the 38 remaining Jews moved to Athens, and in 1992 the monuments were erected.
Before departing the island, Goldberg went to a bank to convert currencies, but the clerk gave her too much change. She returned to the bank and entered the manager’s office, whereupon a man sitting across from the manager rose and gave her his seat. She related her experience and the manager apologised, thanked her and invited her family to dinner. Leora declined, explaining that they kept kosher. “You don’t owe me anything,” she said. “Indeed, you have given me and my people a lot. The least I can do to show my appreciation for what you have done for the Jews of Zakynthos is return this money and say thank you.”
The man who had offered Leora his seat suddenly spoke. With tears in his eyes, he said: “As the grandson of Mayor Karrer, I am overwhelmed and I want to thank you!”
References and further reading
- Kerem, Yitzchak יצחק כרם / הישרדותם של יהודי זקינתוס בתקופת השואה / The Survival of the Jews of Zakynthos in the Holocaust in Proc World Congr Jewish Stud / דברי הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות. Division B, Volume II: The History of the Jewish People / חטיבה ב, כרך שני: תולדות עם ישראל (תשמ”ט / 1989), pp. 387–394 (8 pages)
- Μητροπολίτης Τριφυλίας Χρυσόστομος Δημητρίου (+ 22-10-1958)
- Μητροπολιτησ Ζακυνθου – Εβραϊκό Μουσείο Ελλάδος
- Επιφανείς Ζακυνθινοί στο σύγχρονο Ελληνικό Κράτος ~ 27/1 Ημέρα Μνήμης Θυμάτων Ολοκαυτώματος: Μητρ. Χρυσόστομος Δημητρίου και Δημ. Λουκάς Καρρέρ / Μουσείο Σολωμού & Επιφανών Ζακυνθίων
- Metropolitan Chrysostomos, Mayor Lucas Carrer | Righteous Among the Nations
- Dimitrios Chrysostomos, métropolite grec | Juste parmi les Nations
- Zakynthos – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (The Holocaust in Greece (USHMM).pdf)