An Ode to Salonika: The Ladino Verses of Bouena Sarfatty

Notes

NOTES Preface 1. Her birth name was actually Linda, but when she was an infant it was changed to Bouena after her recuperation from an illness; such name changes reflect a Sephardi custom intended to deceive the angel of death. There is also some confusion as to her precise birth year: Bouena stated that it was 1918, but numerous relatives were certain that this was a miscalculation and that she was born in 1916 (Ely Garfinkle, personal communication, July 3, 2010). 2. Apparently, Moises went to his granary outside the city despite the fact that the area was quarantined due to the threat of the plague; while there, her father contracted this unidentified contagious disease and died upon his return home (Ely Garfinkle, personal communication, July 3, 2010). 3. Approximately 12,898 Jewish men were conscripted in Greece at this time; the majority of the 50th Regiment, nicknamed “the Cohen Regiment” of Thessaloniki, was Jewish. See Constantopoulou and Veremis, Documents on the History of the Greek Jews, 34 and note 23. 4. See Garfinkle, “The Memoirs of Bouena Garfinkle.” In the mid-1970s, her son, Ely (who was named after Eliaou), arranged for a friend of his, Veronika Kisfalvi of Montreal, to record her memoirs as she related them; Vera calculated that this took about a year to complete (Veronika Kisfalvi, e-mail message to author, November 8, 2010). For a complete analysis of her memoirs, see Levine Melammed, “The Memoirs of a Partisan from Salonika,” 151–73. 5. Garfinkle, “The Memoirs of Bouena Garfinkle,” 8. 6. See Dublon-Knebel, German Foreign Office Documents, 24–25. 7. The first roundup was carried out on the Sabbath, henceforth known as the “Black Sabbath.” Its purpose was to humiliate thousands of men who were left standing in the sun for hours without any head covering, surrounded by armed soldiers who abused them as they dehydrated. The men subsequently suffered even more terribly once they were mobilized. Freedom for seven thousand of them was purchased in October for a small fortune, some 2.5 billion drachmas, amassed with the help of outside contributions . See Yakuel, “On the Path to Destruction,” 277–82; Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece, 238–39; and Rivlin, Encyclopaedia, 272–76. The latter states that 6,500 men, and not the “exaggerated” figure of 10,000, were assembled on that Sabbath. 8. Along with the majority of the community, the Sarfattys were forced to leave their home and move into one of the three areas designated to become ghettos; they found a residence on Sigrou Street. 9. In another version, the deputy for one district did not appear, and Bouena was asked to investigate this (eulogy by Ely Garfinkle, in “Lives Lived,” The Globe and Mail, October 3, 1997). 10. The original homestead was on the corner of Tsimiski and Agias (Saint) Sofia Streets, but when they needed to be in a house with a bomb shelter they moved to 262 u Notes to Pages xi–xii Mitropoleos Street in April 1941. When the ghettos were formed, the family moved to the aforementioned residence on Sigrou Street near the Synagogue of the Monastirlis. 11. This was most likely the Monastir Synagogue, although Bouena does not specify. 12. See Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, 397. 13. Daniel gave her food and grain to help her in the initial weeks of flight. The poems describe Modiano’s demise. However, there is an interesting document that concerns him—a report by the German war administration counselor Merten to the German consulate in Salonika dated April 26, 1943. A train transporting soldiers on furlough contained eighteen Jews as well; according to the Italian consul, they were Italian citizens. Merten personally examined their papers and permitted thirteen to leave but detained Modiano, accusing him “of receiving gold from Greek Jews who wanted to prevent the seizure of their property by the German authorities” (See Dublon-Knebel, German Foreign Office Documents, 128–29). 14. This is confirmed in a letter from the Veterans Appeal Board of Canada, July 3, 1990, which summarizes some of her activities and states, “There is sufficient evidence to warrant a finding that the appellant was part of the Greek underground and thus does meet the service requirement of the War Veterans Allowance Act.” 15. This was the EDES, or Greek Democratic Organization, composed of royalists and led by General Napoleon Zarvos. There were Jews from Salonika who joined the EDES. It is difficult to find precise numbers regarding Jewish members, but...