The family of Iosif Ventouras

Iosif Ventouras might be the only still living Jew born in Chania. His parents, Rafail and Bianca, and his older sister used to live in Koum Kapi, outside the Chania Jewish quarter. The Ventouras family were included in the first list of Chania Jews, which was compiled by the local rabbi in 1941 following a command by the Nazi administration, but they are missing from the updated list of 1943.

The Ventouras family were one of the city’s affluent families. Rafail, Iosif’s father, was a merchant, following the family tradition. His father and his uncles had a chain of stores called Frere Ventoura in Chania, Thessaloniki, Cairo and Manchester. It was a family with strong connections both domestically and internationally. Iosif’s mother, Bianca, was a member of the Konstantinis family. Her father was also a merchant in Chania and, besides having Italian citizenship, the family also had a European education. Bianca had graduated from the French School in Chania, which was run by Catholic nuns, and was also an accomplished pianist.

The family escaped the displacement of the local Jewish community due to its connections and the social networks it had built in the city. During the occupation, a Christian friend had warned Rafail Ventouras and urged him to leave and seek refuge in the mainland.

Of course, the situation there was not much better. After leaving Crete, the family was forced to move from place to place in search of safe houses. In the end, Iosif became one of the occupation’s ‘hidden children’. Holding the hand of Athina Varvatakis, the family’s maid, Iosif said goodbye to his parents and his sister and stayed with Athina at the home of family friends, the Petrocheilos family in Ekali, Athens, until the country’s liberation.

Iosif talks about the time he spent at the Petrocheilos family house with Athina. He recalls memories from his everyday life in the Ekali hideout and, even though he was safe in the shelter of a welcoming home amidst a brutal occupation, he describes the bitterness he felt for the restrictions imposed on him as a child: ‘The young son of the family and little Kleio […] would run around naked. We were kids and there was a fountain in the garden that we used as a pool. The other kids would run into it naked in the summer, but I was not allowed to take off my underwear […] for fear that the Germans nearby might see that I was circumcised.’ He also describes the feelings inspired by the loss of his family: ‘I have completely forgotten that my parents ever existed… It’s weird, I know. I am only attached to Athina, I only feel connected to her. I ended up questioning whether I was actually my parents’ child and not Athina’s illegitimate son. These thoughts have been plaguing me for years after the occupation.’

Iosif was one of the fortunate Jewish children who survived the Nazi occupation in Greece. However, the displacement of the Jewish population and the fact that he had to spend his childhood under constant threat marked his development and adult life. Nowadays, Iosif often talks and writes about his experiences in an ongoing effort to come to terms with his past, both personal and collective. He wrote the elegy Tanais which chronicles the mass displacement of the Cretan Jews and the shipwreck that sealed their fate. The work was first published in 2001.