Miracle at Zakynthos

the long version

Nearly ninety percent of Greek Jews perished during the Holocaust. Most were killed at Auschwitz/Birkenau. But on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, the entire Greek Jewish community was saved from annihilation. The German commander on Zakynthos, Alfredo Litt, a vile, treacherous man, ordered the island’s Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Carrer to prepare a list of all the Jews on the island. He gave them 72 hours to deliver the list. What happened next was a series of remarkable and historic acts of human courage, compassion and cunning. The story illuminates the humanity of a people who risked their lives to save their neighbors. It documents many of the horrors and atrocities during the occupation in Greece and then takes the reader on a journey high into the remote mountain villages of Zakynthos where Greek Christians hid their Jewish neighbors to protect them from certain death. It recounts the many acts of human kindness and compassion, large and small, that restored faith in mankind and renewed hope for survival.