Holocaust Survivor Reflects on the Radical Acceptance That Saved His Life
Earlier this month, almost four years to the day since the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pennsylvania – the worst attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history – the FBI warned synagogues in New Jersey about "credible threats" of violence. These threats came atop a spate of very public instances of antisemitism, including NBA star Kyrie Irving's promotion of a film that includes Holocaust denial.
November 9 marked the anniversary of 1938's Kristallnacht, the night of pogrom across Germany and Austria presaging the genocide that inspired the world's pledge "never again." For some, the impact of Holocaust, the extremes of fascism, and a violent world war may seem far removed and irrelevant to today, given rising antisemitism and open Holocaust denial. How then might we reframe the hellish stories of the past to make them more pertinent now?
To answer this question, I spoke with Jack Cohen, a Greek Jew born in 1932 on Zakynthos Island. Jack and his entire family, except his grandmother, survived the Holocaust, thanks to the heroism of others who kept them safe.
In September 1943, German troops landed on Zakynthos, where Jack lived among 275 Jews with their long family histories of peace and prosperity as Greek citizens. Upon seizing the island, a Nazi commander approached the Greek Mayor Carrer with orders to assemble a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of all Jews in Zakynthos within 24 hours. The mayor sought assistance from Bishop Metropolitan Chrysostomos of the Church of Greece, who, without hesitation, wrote a single name on the piece of paper: his own.
Chrysostomos was immediately put under house arrest and later transferred to Athens. Years after, he would be bestowed the honor of Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, an honorary title for non-Jews who risked their lives to help the Jewish people.
Chrysostomos' story proves that we each have the power to choose whether we accept people who are different from us and defend them from harm. Defined by rare courage, his example serves as a contrast to the millions in history who failed to accept and protect their fellow man.
Reflecting on this, Jack summarized the lesson he thought the world needed to hear from the Holocaust. "We need to accept people for what they are regardless of what they are, the color of their skin, their religious affiliation, their political affiliation," he said. "Because all of us are created by the same Creator."
Jack was nine when Germany and its allies first occupied Greece. Despite receiving fake passports, his family stayed in their hometown until 1943, when the Nazis began arresting Greek Jews on their island. Jack's father coordinated with the underground resistance to flee to St. George's monastery in the mountains. The family lived there for over two years with limited supplies, always afraid for their lives.
When the Germans began closing around the region, Jack's family fled again through the forest to another village. In this town, several villagers betrayed his grandmother, and the Nazis abducted her. The Cohens' only knowledge of her death is her name recorded at a death camp.
"I don't know why they made that choice, why those people were motivated to betray their own countrymen and go with the Germans – unless they were hungry," Jack said. "Those people after the war were killed or hanged. There was one that I know of that was hanged in the main square of our hometown."
After the war, Jack and most of the Jewish population of Zakynthos returned home. However, an estimated 83% of Greek Jews were killed in the Holocaust, placing them among the most affected of Europe's Jewish communities.
Jack said the Greek Jews of Zakynthos survived because of the other citizens of Zakynthos, who saw no difference between themselves and their Greek Jewish neighbors. They recognized the Jewish people as equally human.
"We hear a lot about tolerance; I don't quite agree with that word," Jack said. "The Eastern Europeans had tolerated the Jews all this time, though there were pogroms and other violence. Nevertheless, they tolerated Jews. And when the Germans came, they were glad to give them away. Why? Because they were only tolerated.
"But in Greece, we were citizens of Greece. We were accepted."
Jack defined acceptance as taking responsibility for a thing, whereas tolerance means only enduring it. Members of the resistance, he said, "disregarded their own life to help others. When I grew up and realized what they were doing, those people were my heroes."
The Holocaust did not begin with Nazis promulgating Jewish genocide. It started with small incursions of racism, discrimination, and hatred. How, then, can we resist and encourage others to resist seemingly minor instances of intolerance and choose acceptance like Jack's fellow Greek citizens?
Combating intolerance begins with individual choices: accepting another's humanity, recognizing our biases, educating ourselves to move beyond those biases, and embracing empathy.
Habib Malik, son of the late Lebanese diplomat Charles Malik, put it this way: "The key to living with ... differences is to acquire the moral position of respecting ... and celebrating when the other is authentically the other," adding, then "we have a good chance of really ... living side by side.
Listening to Jack's stories, I felt a renewed sense of appreciation for the work of The Philos Action League – Christians who are committed to showing up, physically, in solidarity and friendship with the Jewish community when an act of antisemitism happens – and other groups who are fighting antisemitism and fostering genuine acceptance. We can't simply talk about it. It's important that we take tangible action – that we show up and confront antisemitism whenever it occurs.
Following in the footsteps of the courageous Gentiles of Zakynthos, we might inspire others to embrace the kind of radical acceptance described by Malik and turn back this rising tide of antisemitism.
