Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria occupied parts of Greece and divided the country into zones in 1941. The fate of the Jews in Greece often depending on the policies of the occupying force. More than 80 percent of Greece's prewar Jewish population was murdered during the Holocaust.
![Members of the Amarillo family pose outside their home in Salonika. [LCID: 97282]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e4db38f0-fad6-4879-b90f-9e02bfa0b3aa.jpg "Members of the Amarillo family pose outside their home in Salonika. [LCID: 97282]")
Members of the Amarillo family pose outside their home in Salonika. Front, from left to right, are Tillie Amarillo and Sarika Yahiel. Seated behind them are their mothers Louisa Bourla Amarillo and Regina Amarillo Yahiel. Standing are Saul Amarillo, Isaccino Yahiel, and Isaac Yahiel. Salonika, Greece, between 1930 and 1939.
Item View![Bride and groom Laura Uziel and Saul Amarillo (center) pose with their extended families during their wedding. [LCID: 97283]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/70c13194-3add-480b-bcf5-9edb5baaa4b1.jpg "Bride and groom Laura Uziel and Saul Amarillo (center) pose with their extended families during their wedding. [LCID: 97283]")
Bride and groom Laura Uziel and Saul Amarillo (center) pose with their extended families during their wedding. Salonika, Greece, 1938.
Item View![SS troops advance during the invasion of Greece. The invasion of the Balkans began in April 1941. [LCID: 20390]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/43248dd5-81c9-45fc-b2df-46c0c29fbd0c.jpg "SS troops advance during the invasion of Greece. The invasion of the Balkans began in April 1941. [LCID: 20390]")
SS troops advance during the invasion of Greece. The invasion of the Balkans began in April 1941. Greece, wartime.
Item View![German troops in Athens following the invasion of the Balkans. [LCID: 20391]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/53899616-dbe7-4e71-b048-5f0fc8c542df.jpg "German troops in Athens following the invasion of the Balkans. [LCID: 20391]")
German troops drive in front of a government building during the occupation of Athens following the invasion of the Balkans. Athens, Greece, April 1941.
Item View![Joseph Levi, a pharmacist and the head of the Jewish community of Komotine, wearing the compulsory Jewish badge. [LCID: 79805]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/f727018b-64b8-4b16-b5db-22a1e5c78ace.jpg "Joseph Levi, a pharmacist and the head of the Jewish community of Komotine, wearing the compulsory Jewish badge. [LCID: 79805]")
Joseph Levi, a pharmacist and the head of the Jewish community of Komotine, wearing the compulsory Jewish badge. Bulgarian occupation authorities later deported him to the Treblinka killing center. Komotine, Greece, 1942.
Item View![The ruins of a synagogue destroyed by the Germans in 1943. [LCID: 41117]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/d61c15b5-8a23-4d95-ae73-27bbc3c4f21d.jpg "The ruins of a synagogue destroyed by the Germans in 1943. [LCID: 41117]")
The ruins of a synagogue destroyed by the Germans in 1943. The synagogue, originally built in 1853, was rebuilt after the war with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Volos, Greece, 1944.
Item View![Greek Jews from the provinces move into a designated ghetto area. [LCID: 80132]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/704333c4-cd78-4b16-bfb1-b37b5282a361.jpg "Greek Jews from the provinces move into a designated ghetto area. [LCID: 80132]")
Greek Jews from the provinces move into a designated ghetto area, previously the Baron de Hirsch quarter. Jews were concentrated in this western quarter, near the railway station, in preparation for impending deportations. Salonika, Greece, between November 1942 and March 1943.
Item View![Thracian Jews crowd the upper deck of a deportation ship as it leaves the port of Lom. [LCID: 79719]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/11f5ef1f-545f-48ac-a494-ad56b2d7e5dd.jpg "Thracian Jews crowd the upper deck of a deportation ship as it leaves the port of Lom. [LCID: 79719]")
Thracian Jews crowd the upper deck of the Karađorđe, a ship used for deportation, as it leaves the port of Lom. They were transported by ship along the Danube River to Vienna and then by rail to the Treblinka killing center in occupied Poland. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.
Item View![Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the Treblinka killing ... [LCID: 79737]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/552200c7-d314-46b3-982e-c7d4342b7a02.jpg "Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the Treblinka killing ... [LCID: 79737]")
Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
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