Chaidari

In northwest of Athens lies a district called Chaidari and there the germans in September 1943, set up their largest concentration camp on greek soil. Before September 1943, Chaidari had been under italian control from May 1941. Until September 1943, Greece had been divided into two occupation zones, the northern part occupied by Germany and the southern part of Italy. By the summer of 1943, Italians had moved their prisoners to other camps, and when the Germans took over the camp, it was abandoned but still unfinished. During the first period, the Germans mainly imprisoned political opponents, but at the end of 1943, Jews began to be imprisoned. The political opponents were deported to other camps, mainly camps in Germany and Poland.

In spring 1944, Chaidari became the central transit camp for Jews awaiting deportation to Poland and Auschwitz. The Jews had been arrested in round-ups in southern Greece and Greek islands (Rhodes, Kos and Corfu). In Chaidari, as a rule, they had to wait for weeks before being deported and in miserable conditions. The camp existed until October 1944 when the Germans began to withdraw from southern Greece. Between 1943 and 1944, about 21,000 people were imprisoned in Chaidari and out of these, about 2,100 died in the camp itself. About 1800 were executed while about 300 died from other causes such as illness, ill-treatment or torture. The others were deported north at different times.