The 275 Jews of the island of Zakynthos , however , survived the Holocaust . When the island 's mayor , Carrer , was presented with the German order to hand over a list of Jews , Metropolitan Bishop Chrysostomos of Zakynthos returned to the Germans with a list of two names ; his own and the mayor 's . The island 's population hid every member of the Jewish community . In 1947 , a large number of the Jews of Zakynthos made aliyah to Palestine ( later Israel ) , while others moved to Athens . When the island was almost levelled by the great earthquake of 1953 , the first relief came from Israel , with a message that read " The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us . " The city of Volos , which was in the Italian zone of occupation , had a Jewish population of 882 , and many Thessaloniki Jews fleeing the Nazis sought sanctuary there . By March 1944 , more than 1,000 Jews lived there . In September 1943 , when the Nazis took over , head rabbi Pessah worked with Archbishop Ioakim and the EAM resistance movement to find sanctuary for the Jews in Pelion . Due to their efforts , 74 % of the city 's Jews were saved . Of the more than 1,000 Jews , only 130 were deported to Auschwitz . The Jewish community remained in Volos after the war , but a series of earthquakes in 1955-57 forced many of the remaining Jews to leave , with most immigrating to Israel or the United States . Only 100 Jews remain in Volos today
great earthquake of 1953
1953 Ionian earthquake
History of the Jews in Greece