Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(Jewish Journal via JNS) - Before World War II, there were about 50,000 Jews living in Salonica (or Thessaloniki), the largest Jewish community in Greece. Between March and August 1943, the Germans deported more than 45,000 Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing camp. Most of the deportees were gassed on arrival. Because this represented the decimation of a community, it would go down as an especially dark moment in the darkest chapter of Jewish history.

But a few Jews managed to survive the massacre.

Two of those survivors gave birth to a man, Albert Bourla, who is now at the center of the...