Born in 1904, Ioanna Tsatsou is one of the Greek figures recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for her efforts to save as many Greek Jews as possible throughout the Holocaust.
Prior To World War 2
Ioanna Tsatsou was born Ioanna Seferiadi in Smyrna, which is now known as Izmir. She had two brothers and a fairly decent education. She started speaking French from a very young age. During the Burning of Smyrna, the entire family was in Athens.
Since the fire destroyed most of the city, most refugees never returned. This incident was one of the events that marked the end of the war with Turkey, causing despair throughout the entire Grece. Ioanna Tsatsou spent most of her life in Athens after the war.
By 1937, she had already completed her studies in the legal field. Unfortunately, World War 2 started soon after that.
Ioanna Tsatsou’s Role In World War 2
Greece was occupied in 1941 by three different countries. That’s when the Holocaust began, an attempt to exterminate every Jew in the country. The regime made no difference between the traditional Romaniote community and the modern Greek Sephardim one. Everyone was counted altogether.
Ioanna Tsatsou worked in a tight collaboration with Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou to keep the local Jewish population safe. She assisted the archbishop in baptising as many Greek Jews as possible, only for them to get Christian identity cards.
No one tried to convert the Jews at that time, but only to provide fake identify cards for protection.
Apart from supporting local Jews, Ioanna Tsatou also ran a program developed by the local archbishop. Its primary goal was to financially support families of Greek revolutionaries and members of the resistance who were killed or imprisoned.
Her work didn’t stop here, as she also opened a soup kitchen in Plaka. At its peak, the kitchen fed more than 200 people a day. Most of them were Jews. Her family hid a few Jews during the occupation as well.
During 1943, Ioanna Tsatsou’s activities looked suspicious to the occupiers. Italian forces interrogated her, mainly for an investigation targeting Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, who was thought to receive money from the Middle East. She was released without being harmed.
After World War 2
Ioannla Tsatsou wrote quite a few books in Greek. Some of her work was also translated in English and French. Most of her initial work was focused on the occupation of Greece during World War 2.
One book in particular stands out because it vividly describes her experience during the war, The Sword’s Fierce Edge: A Journal of the Occupation of Greece, 1941-1944.
She changed her name after marrying Konstantinos Tsatsos, a president of Greece. She passed away in 2000.