Corfu: Venetian, British, Greek, Jewish.

Before France's Revolutionary Wars, the Ionian Sea Islands had been in Re­public of Venice. The 1797 Treaty dissolved the Republic of Ven­ice and Corfu was ann­ex­ed to the French Republic as a French depart­ment. In 1798-9 the French were expelled by a joint Russo-Ottoman force. The occupying forces founded an island republic with some independence from 1800-7, with Greek as the local language. 

The Ionian Islands were briefly re-occupied by the French, but in 1809-10, the UK defeated the French fleet and capt­ured some Greek Islands. After Napoleon, many countries wanted to control this prize island. Thanks to the aid of a Greek General, an 1815 Treaty signed in Paris recog­nis­­ed Ionian islands under exclusive British control.

The United States of 7 Ionian Islands Federation was cr­eated in 1817. Under the rule of a Lord High Com­m­is­sion­er, the Corfu gov­ernment was appointed by the British monarch and then the Supreme Council of Justice was established.

The first (1815-23) British high commissioner was Sir Thomas Mait­land, a rather repressive ruler who quickly stir­red complaints from locals. Yet the British era (1815-64) was one of the most thriving eras in Cor­fu’s history. The 5th Earl Guil­ford estab­lish­ed Corfu’s first Greek Uni­versity in 1824. The estab­lish­ment of new schools went ahead and by 1850 there were 200. Corfu created its first Phil­har­monic Orch­estra and Fine Arts School, then built vast public works: prisons, hospit­als, marsh clear­ance, widened road net­works, public aqueduct systems and centres of com­merce.

In 1888, the Empress of Austria visited Corfu and decided it was the ideal location for her own palace. This opulent neoclassical Achilleion Palace is thus an imperial residence inspired by Greek mythology. The classical Greek statues that surround it are monuments to platonic romanticism.

British rule ended when an 1863 treaty demanded Britain renounce the Ion­ian islands. In March 1864 ag­ents from UK, Greece, France and Russia pledged the transfer of sover­eignty to Greece, under the new­ King George I of the Hellenes. And with the Lord High Commis­s­ioner’s procl­am­ation, the Ionian Islands were unit­ed with Greece (May 1864). The island pros­pered economically.  Clearly Corfu Town was a unique blend of hist­ories as many nations had contr­ol­led it over time. The public buildings of the Venetian rule blended well with narrow winding streets, bars, shops and secluded squares. Cul­tural sites were preserved eg Greece’s King Geor­ge I’s St Michael-George Palace (built 1819-2). Designed by Col George Whitmore, it sits atop a hill outside the capital. The pub­lic can see elegant interiors where the mus­eum dis­pl­ays artworks, stat­ues, historic­al and arch­aeol­og­ical treas­ures. Corfu had become part of the European world. The Venet­ians had built two fort­resses; the Old Fort included the British barr­acks and an imp­osing British Naval Hospital. And see the British Garrison Church, built as a Greek Doric Tem­ple. 

What about the Jewish community? In 1864, after Corfu was handed to Greece, local Jews were eman­cip­ated and received civil rights. They lived in relative freedom and com­fort, and made great efforts to relate well with Chr­is­t­ians. Most of the Corfu Jews happily dealt in trade.

In 1891 a blood libel was spread against local Jews but Corfu police didn’t stop the rioters! In May 1891 Corfu’s Jews sat inside their homes as if gaoled with closed windows, comm­erce ceased, pov­erty increased, and the synagogues were sealed. 22 Jews were massacred in the 1891 pogroms and in response, Austria, Fr­ance and England sent warships to the area to protect their citizens. French, Ottoman and other agents pro­t­ested the Greek govern­ment’s failure to block rioting, with the German cen­tral bank warn­ing Greece that unrest could damage its currency. After the blood libels, half of Corfu’s Jews left the island. Most of those who left had money, immig­rat­ing to Italy or Egypt; those remaining were mostly poor.

Yet afterwards the lives of Corfu Jews were mostly peaceful. They loved life on the picturesque island, and Corfu author Albert Cohen (1895–1981) described it in longingly in his novels. The Jewish Quarter was Cohen’s birthplace so a street is named after him. In the 1930s, despite right-wing nationalism and anti-Semitism in Greece, Jewish life in Corfu went on normally. They had a rabbi, syn­ag­ogues, bu­r­ial society, charity societies, ritual baths and schools. In Ap 1933 Mizrachi was allowed to use a floor in the commun­ity building to set up a night school where the comm­unity leaders demand­ed Mizrachi ensure the students were study­ing both Jewish & Greek his­tory. The com­m­unity also had social org­an­­is­ations, and annual balls.

Remaining British citizens left Corfu in 1939, just before the outbreak of WW2 and the subsequent ruthless German occup­at­ion of the island. In Ap 1941, Fascist Italy conquered Corfu, but the Italians made no dis­tinction between Jew and Gentile. It worsened in Oct 1943, when Italians left and Nazi Wehr­macht took over. SS units under command of Jurgen Str­oop ordered the Jews to present themselves before a town official thrice weekly, and to pay a heavy tax to the Germans. Greek Christians invaded the Jewish neighbour­hood, and the 100 Jews hiding among Christian neighbours were handed over to the Nazis! In June 1944, Jews were locked in the city square, the Nazi sold­iers herding them into boats from Cor­fu to an Athens prison camp, and from there on trains to Birkenau death camp. Of the 1,700 Jews living in Corfu during the Nazi occupation, only 200 were not murdered. Of the survivors, 30 moved to Isr­ael and others intended to follow. Thus an old Jewish community, which had survived for 700+ years, mostly ended.

 

Pre-Holocaust there had been 4 synagogues. Post-war only 1 was left standing... barely. In 1946 the Greek gov­ern­ment ordered the governor of Corfu to return all property to the Je­wish com­munity, including pub­lic build­ings used by the community, private homes and shops. But most of these sites were in ruins, and only later was the synagogue restored by local auth­orit­ies.