Jews and Greeks remember their past: the political career of Tzevi Koretz (1933-43).

Re-examines the role of the Chief Rabbi of Salonika in the Holocaust and his prevailing image as a traitor who collaborated with the Nazis. Stresses that Koretz has been scapegoated both by Jews, especially survivors from Salonika who adopted the Israeli ethos of shunning non-resisters, and by Greeks, who wanted no blame attached to their countrymen. There was considerable hostility to Koretz before the war, as an outsider, an Ashkenazi from Berlin. Opposition to him also stemmed from what some saw as his high-handed interference in the financial affairs of the community. The controversiality of Koretz was aggravated by the socio-political crisis of the Jewish community, which had lost its preeminence in the city and was split socially and politically. Furthermore, it was a target of nationalistic groups. Koretz deluded himself about the intentions of the Nazi occupiers, providing them with a list of community members. He and his family were deported to Bergen-Belsen in 1943; they all survived, but he died of typhus several weeks after liberation.