Forgetting to Forget, 1923–1944 “File B/ 2 /IV: File of the property of Mehmet [son of ] Ahmet Kapandji,
Yugoslav citizen, resident in Thessaloníki.” The second, from 1935 , is la-
beled “File B/ 13 δ/I: File of Mehmet Kapandji ( 1925 – 1935 ).” The label of
the first file serves as evidence that the Greek government accepted Meh-
met Kapancı’s claims to Serbian citizenship and thus conceded his right
to stay in Greece and to hold on to his property.
By acquiring foreign citizenship, some members of the Dönme elite
were able to resist deportation and confiscation of their wealth and prop-
erty. But nothing could be done to save the resting places of thousands of
deceased Dönme. Soon after the devastating 1917 fire, the Dönme began
to lose their cemeteries. Ernst Hébrard’s plan for the reconstruction of
the city included the expansion of Aristotle University across the Jewish
cemetery. The Kapancı cemetery, which lay adjacent to the Jewish cem-
etery, was also located within the area of planned growth.^23 Seven years
later, after all of the Kapancı had been officially expelled, a law was passed
legalizing its confiscation, and the remains were moved to a new site. The
Karakaş cemeteries in the northwestern part of the city, near the Mevlevi
Sufi lodge, which along with its cemetery was soon demolished, were also
expropriated by municipal authorities, probably between 1927 and 1932 ,
and as with the former Kapancı cemetery and Mevlevi lodge, not a trace
remains of them.^24
The depiction of Jews in Greek Thessaloníki during these years resem-
bles that of the Dönme in Turkish Istanbul, especially Rüştü’s version.
Writing in 1927 , Wladimer Gordlevsky noted how “Salonika’s situa-
tion had changed. One witnessed the rise of fanatical nationalism. The
Greeks, to whom the city now belonged, persecuted the Jews and sup-
ported the establishment of antisemitic associations.”^25 In 1929 , the news-
paper Makedonia (Macedonia), which promoted the conspiracy theory
that Jews planned to take over all Greek institutions, had infiltrated the
economy, and were secretly running the state, warned: “Either they will
acquire a Greek consciousness, identifying their interests and expectations
with ours, or they will have to seek a home elsewhere, because Thessa-
loníki is not in a position to nurse in its bosom people who are Greeks
only in name, whereas they are the country’s worst enemies.”^26 This is
similar to Rüştü’s asking at about the same time: “Do you think that the
leaders of the nation, who pay attention to such minute details, will be
able to retain in its breast a mass of foreigners? No individual who is able
to tolerate this any longer has been found or will be found.” Makedonia