{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Jewish community is suing Germany over ransom paid to Nazi occupiers' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bee3d8eafeecae13f050' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bee3d8eafeecae13f050' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nJewish community is suing Germany over ransom paid to Nazi occupiers\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eGreece's biggest Jewish community says it has taken Germany to Europe's top human rights court, seeking the return of a huge ransom paid to Nazi occupiers more than 70 years ago to free thousands of slave labourers, who were subsequently...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eGreece's biggest Jewish community says it has taken Germany to Europe's top human rights court, seeking the return of a huge ransom paid to Nazi occupiers more than 70 years ago to free thousands of slave labourers, who were subsequently sent to German death camps.\u003cbr/\u003eThe Jewish Community of Thessaloniki said it also wanted \"moral vindication\" in a lawsuit tabled last week at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. \u003cbr/\u003eIn 1942, thousands of Thessaloniki's Jewish men aged between 18-45 were press-ganged into construction projects across Greece by Nazi forces that had invaded the country a year earlier.\u003cbr/\u003eHaim Alvo, a survivor of the forced labour recalled his most vivid memory of the time - the day when the Jews were taken to Eleytheria square by the German soldiers and were given physical and strength tests.\u003cbr/\u003eThe ones that failed, he recalls, where severely beaten.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Some of them, were beaten up so severely that they succumbed,\" he said.\u003cbr/\u003eAlvo never went to Auschwitz as he managed to escape from Thessaloniki to an Italian occupied part of Greece.  \u003cbr/\u003eHe was helped by a railway employee who dressed him as one of his employees and took him out of the reach of Germans.\u003cbr/\u003eZvika Barak, the lawyer who represents the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, hopes the case will be quickly resolved.\u003cbr/\u003e\"The holocaust survivors are very few, they are becoming older, and they have to see the success of such appeal.\"  \u003cbr/\u003eThe Jewish community maintains that about 10-thousand Jewish men were used as slave labourers, building roads and fortifications or repairing railways in brutal conditions that led to a 12.5 percent mortality rate in the first two-and-a-half months.\u003cbr/\u003eThe Jewish leaders eventually struck a deal with a regional Nazi commander, paying him 1.9 billion drachmas - about 50 million euros (69 million US Dollars) in today's money - for their release.\u003cbr/\u003eBut soon after, the city's entire Jewish population was sent to German death camps, where few survived.\u003cbr/\u003eA Jewish community statement said that to raise the \"astronomic\" sum, in late 1942, the community was forced to sell its assets and raise donations from all its members, as well as from Jewish associations in other parts of Greece and the world.\u003cbr/\u003eHeinz Kounio is one of the few survivors from Auschwitz Birkenau. \u003cbr/\u003eHe believes his knowledge of the German language saved his family. \u003cbr/\u003eHis most memorable moment was the night he arrived in Birkenau.\u003cbr/\u003e\"The day of the arrival, you would tilt your head up at the stars, it was clear and beautiful, but it was (also) completely red (the sky). Five big factories, five big chimneys, the factories were always low, and underground, but the chimney was protruding. They were spilling fire.\"\u003cbr/\u003eAbout 95 percent of Thessaloniki's almost 50-thousand Jews were murdered in Nazi camps.\u003cbr/\u003eThe first convoy of Jews to the Auschwitz Birkenau death camp was on March 15, 1943.\u003cbr/\u003eErrika Perrachia Zemour, head of the Jewish museum in Thessaloniki, said that only \"1750 came back.\"\u003cbr/\u003eThe Jewish community of Thessaloniki launched their legal fight for the return of the ransom money through Greek courts in 1997.\u003cbr/\u003eBut after 16 years, in December of last year, the country's Supreme Court rejected the bid, saying it lacked the authority to rule on the matter.\u003cbr/\u003eThe German government also rejected the claim.\u003cbr/\u003eNo German government official was available to comment on camera at the time of this report.\u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide of monument dedicated to Jewish population in Eleytheria square\u003cbr/\u003e2. Various of Jewish monument\u003cbr/\u003e3. Wide of entrance to Jewish museum\u003cbr/\u003e4. Close of sign above entrance to museum, reading (Greek/English) \"Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki\"\u003cbr/\u003e5. Wide of exhibit room in museum\u003cbr/\u003e6. Wide of Haim Alvo, slave labourer from WWII, looking at exhibited Auschwitz clothes\u003cbr/\u003e7. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Haim Alvo, slave labourer and survivor from WWII: \u003cbr/\u003e\"All those that could not (do the exercises) they (the Germans) would start kicking them, they would beat them up. Indeed some of them were beaten up so severely that they succumbed. I remember there was an old breadmaker, of a certain age, he would have been around 50, he died from the beatings and the kickings.\"\u003cbr/\u003e8. Close of photos of the day the Jews where brought to Eleytheria square to be sent to become slave labourers \u003cbr/\u003e9. Mid of Alvo looking at photos \u003cbr/\u003e10. Close of photo of SS officer showing to Jews the exercises to determine who is capable to work (and therefore be taken to Auschwitz)\u003cbr/\u003e11. Mid of Zvika Barak, lawyer for the Jewish community, looking at exhibits\u003cbr/\u003e12. SOUNDBITE (English) Zvika Barak, lawyer for the Jewish community:\u003cbr/\u003e\"In our case it's the army occupation, on that time, 1942, the German occupation took property, money, from the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, for some contract, and they did not fulfil, they received the money, and they did not fulfil the agreement, and we ask the money back.\"\u003cbr/\u003e13. Close of Barak's eyes\u003cbr/\u003e14. SOUNDBITE (English) Zvika Barak, lawyer for the Jewish community :\u003cbr/\u003e\"The problem is only simple, you see here in Thessaloniki, that it will take time. The holocaust survivors is (are) very few, they are becoming older, and they have to see the success of such appeal.\"\u003cbr/\u003e15. Close of cloth with Star of David on\u003cbr/\u003e16. Mid of Heinz Kounio, Auschwitz survivor\u003cbr/\u003e17. Zoom in to Auschwitz tattooed number on Kounio's arm, UPSOUND of Kounio: (Greek) \"Here you are, 109565, 109564 is my father.\" \u003cbr/\u003e18. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Heinz Kounio, Auschwitz survivor:\u003cbr/\u003e\"We had no pity (directed at us), no chance to survive. As I said earlier, our age did not allow for us to live, they chose 18 and above, I went in at the age of 15. How was I to survive? I was supposed to be (executed) with the first ones. And my father was lame (could not walk). A lame that they did not want, the language helped us (heinz's family spoke German).\"\u003cbr/\u003e19. Close of Kounio's eyes\u003cbr/\u003e20. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Heinz Kounio, Auschwitz survivor:\u003cbr/\u003e\"The day of the arrival, you would tilt your head up at the stars, it was clear and beautiful, but it (the sky) was (also) completely red. Five big factories, five big chimneys, the factories were always low, and underground, but the chimney was protruding. They were spilling fire.\"\u003cbr/\u003e21. Mid of Errika Perachia Zemour, head of the Jewish museum in Thessaloniki, looking at pictures of notable figures of Jewish community \u003cbr/\u003e22. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Errika Perachia Zemour, head of the Jewish museum in Thessaloniki: \u003cbr/\u003e\"On the 15th of March (1943) the Jewish people of Thessaloniki were shipped to Auschwitz Birkenau. About 47 thousand Jews were sent to Auschwitz Birkenau, and 1750 came back.\"\u003cbr/\u003e23. 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