Bowman presents the sources with a critical historical introduction for the rediscovery of Balkan and Aegean Jewry from the Fourth Crusade to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. The book traces the fortunes of Greek Jews, their contact with co-religionists from Spain, Italy, the Crimea and their interaction with the variegated local populations and endemic conquerors of the region. From the beginning of the 13th century to the 16th century with special chapters on intellectual life, rabbinic interests, mysticism, Greek culture and the social and economic dimension.

In addition to the narration of his daily life in the camps, Isaac Bourla jotted down the thoughts, impressions and feelings of the young idealistic boy that he was then, the boy who was suddenly taken from one world and transplanted in another completely alien one. Like millions of other people he would never have believed that such a world existed. After the two darkest years of his life he emerged from this hell realizing to just what extent the human conscience can be debased, to what levels of degradation a human being can be led, and how much can be endured to secure one�s survival.

The accounts presented here are three of the basic sources for the post war memory of the Holocaust among the Salonikan Jews. They constitute the first official witness of those tragic years supplemented in succeeding years by a continuing current of personal memoirs in half a dozen languages. Yomtov Yacoel was the lawyer for the Community and liaison with the Nazi civilian representatives Dr. Max Merten and Dr. Muller. He maintained contact with Jewish and Christian political leaders in Athens. Dr. Matarasso was the post war physician for the survivors in Salonika. His report includes the earliest eyewitnesses stories of the fate of the Jews in Auschwitz including the medical experiments. An Appendix presents the constitution for the reorganization of the Community issued under German order in 1941.

On March 15, 1943 the first Greek transport left from Salonika and arrived at Auschwitz on March 20th. It was the beginning of the end of Greek Jewery. Among the 2,800 deported Jews was the 15-year old Heinz Kouinio. Wrenched abruptly from a comfortable upper-middle class home, Heinz found himself immersed in the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. Heinz, along with his mother, father and sister, would ultimately survive. What kept him going was his fervent wish that his murdered brethren would be remembered and that their killers would be punished. Heinz kept a diary in which he recorded his experiences. That diary is the basis of this book.

This is a journey through time to a precious Romaniote Greek-Jewish community that no longer exists, destroyed by the Holocaust in 1944. Frozen in time, recorded by one who lived and loved it, the "journey" captures a life that is no more and, until now with the publication of this book, ran the risk of disappearing from memory forever. Edited by Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos and Isaac Dostis.