Talking Until Nightfall: Remembering Jewish Salonica, 1941–44

by Pauline Matarasso (Translator), Isaac Matarasso (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2020

  $17.18

  'Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness.' - Elie Wiesel

  When Nazi occupiers arrived in Greece in 1941, it was the beginning of a horror that would reverberate through generations. In the city of Salonika or Thessaloniki, 60,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps during the war, and only 2,000 returned. A Jewish doctor named Isaac Matarasso and his son escaped imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Nazis and joined the resistance. After the city's liberation they returned to rebuild Salonika and, along with the other survivors, to grapple with the near-total destruction of his community.

  Isaac was a witness to his Jewish community's devastation, and the tangled aftermath of grief, guilt, and grace as survivors returned home. Talking Until Nightfall presents his account of the tragedy and his moving tribute to the living and the dead. His story is woven together with his son Robert's memories of being a frightened teenager spared by a twist of fate, with an afterword by his grandson Francois that looks back on the survivors' stories and his family's place in history. This slim, wrenching account of loss, survival, and the strength of the human spirit will captivate readers and ensure the Jews of Salonika are never forgotten.