Benjamin Albalas, Greek Holocaust survivor, is a Jewish leader and one of the key pillars on the Greek Jewish community. Among his many titles, he is the Chair of the European March of the Living (EMOTL).
Born in Athens in 1937, Benjanim Albalas was a child at the Holocaust. His family was managed to survive the war with the help of Greek Doctor Panos Macheras, who warn the family about the Nazis plans in 1943, after the persecution of Jews in Thessaloniki and helped them to escape under new identities as Christian: “We were really hidden taking all precautions to avoid any problem. We stayed there until the end of 1944 when Greece deliberated from the allied forces. During this period, on March 24th,1944 hundreds of Jews were captured in the Athens Synagogue, where I was living as baby before we went into hiding and exterminated to Auschwitz. Only few returned. My family was saved by Dr. Macheras, who had received the recognition as a righteous gentile by Yad Vashem”.
Mr. Albalas will be a guest speaker at a special event titled: “There is neither Greek or Jew” initiated by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) co-sponsored by the European March of the Living.
