The Alevi family arrived in Thessaloniki in 1492 from Spain. They settled in the area around Agia Sofia and began their journey as merchants.
Aaron Alevi was born in 1930 in Thessaloniki, the youngest of three children of Moshe and Rozina Alevi. Moshe was a doctor working at the French Hospital. The two older children of the family were already in European cities pursuing their studies, while Aaron lived in Thessaloniki and started his education in the city’s French-speaking schools.
By 1940, the family was still separated: the eldest daughter, Rachel, was now living in America, while the second son, Isaac, had completed his studies in Paris. With the onset of the war, Isaac attempted to escape to America, with plans for Moshe, Rozina, and Aaron to follow him later.
When the war broke out, Aaron stopped attending school. Initially, he was overjoyed, spending his days playing with friends in the narrow streets of Frangomahala, causing a ruckus with their games.
However, as the situation worsened and the Hirsch Hospital where Moshe worked was requisitioned, it became too late for the family to escape. In the summer of 1942, Moshe Alevi, along with approximately 6,000 other Jews, was taken to Eleftherias Square and sent for forced labor. He returned only after the community paid ransom, only to find the family’s property looted.
The following year brought greater hardships. The family was relocated to the ghetto and forced to wear the Star of David. A greater catastrophe loomed. Moshe Alevi, identified as one of 100 prominent individuals who would be executed if any of the ghetto’s thousands of detainees escaped, decided to seek help. He turned to his Christian friend, Dr. Lazaros Hadjinikolaou, who, along with his wife Maria, agreed to safeguard the family’s valuables.
In March 1943, Moshe and Rozina smuggled their 13-year-old son Aaron through a poorly guarded section of the ghetto’s perimeter. Aaron ran to the Hadjinikolaou home, where the doctor and his wife informed him that he would now be called Petros. That same night, Rozina also arrived at the Hadjinikolaou house after escaping, while Moshe was en route to Poland. They would never see him again.
Until Thessaloniki’s liberation in October 1944, mother and son hid in a single room in the Hadjinikolaou house. When the city was liberated, Aaron was 14 years old and returned to school. By then, the family’s entire property had been looted, and the cemetery where his grandparents and great-grandparents were buried had been turned into a quarry.
In the years that followed, Aaron completed his studies at the Medical School in Thessaloniki and emigrated to America with his mother, following an invitation from his sister Rachel. There, they reunited with Isaac, who had survived the horrors of Auschwitz.
Aaron returned to Thessaloniki in 1978 with his French-Jewish wife and lived there until the end of his life.
Key Landmarks of Route 1
