Greek Jewish prisoners joined fellow Sonderkommando members in an armed uprising at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on October 7, 1944, destroying a crematorium before SS guards suppressed the rebellion.
The insurgents killed guards and set fire to Crematorium IV after learning that Nazi forces were preparing another periodic liquidation of their work crew. Others cut through barbed wire fencing surrounding the concentration camp in an attempt to escape.
Sonderkommando units consisted of prisoners forced by Nazi commanders to remove bodies from gas chambers and transport them to cremation ovens. Because these workers were direct eyewitnesses to industrial mass murder, SS forces periodically murdered each unit and replaced them with incoming prisoners.
Preparations for the revolt took place over several months. Female prisoners working at the nearby Union-Werke munitions factory smuggled small quantities of gunpowder out of the facility and passed them secretly to Sonderkommando members.
Nazi guards suppressed the uprising, killing approximately 450 prisoners during the fighting or executing them immediately afterward. Despite the casualties, the destruction of Crematorium IV temporarily halted part of the death camp apparatus.
Greek resistance in Birkenau
Official documentation from the Greek Ministry of Education web page dedicated to the Holocaust states that 17 Greek Jews took part in the uprising and were killed. Historical accounts and prisoner testimonies offer differing estimates of the total number of Greeks involved in the preparations and the fight, requiring caution regarding exact figures.
Among the Greek participants were Jewish men from Preveza, including Moisis Gani and 18-year-old Iosif Gani. Both men fought alongside fellow inmates during the attack on the guards and the destruction of the crematorium.
The resistance movement in the camp included two notable individual stories from Greek Jews. Alberto Errera, a Greek Jew from Larissa and a Sonderkommando member, secretly took four photographs around Crematorium V in August 1944. These images represent the only known photographic evidence of the extermination process secretly taken by a prisoner inside Birkenau. Errera was killed on August 9 while attempting to escape, two months before the uprising he helped prepare.
Another Greek participant, Marcel Nadjari from Thessaloniki, survived the Sonderkommando unit and the October rebellion. Believing he would not survive the camp, Nadjari wrote his testimony in Greek and buried the manuscript near the crematoria. The text was discovered by chance in 1980, becoming one of the most important surviving firsthand accounts written by a Sonderkommando member.
Key events on October 7 in history
October 7 marks several major historical turning points across different eras. In 1571, the Holy League fleet crushed the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto, dealing a decisive blow to Ottoman naval dominance in the Mediterranean. Author Miguel de Cervantes, who later wrote Don Quixote, fought in the battle and suffered severe injuries.
In 1825, the Greek administration published the first issue of the General Newspaper of Greece in Nafplio. Directed by Theoklitos Farmakidis, the publication served as the official journal of the administration and became the precursor to the modern Official Government Gazette.
In 1831, a court in Nafplio sentenced Georgios Mavromichalis to death for his role in the assassination of Greek Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias.
In 1955, poet Allen Ginsberg gave the first public reading of his poem Howl in San Francisco. The reading became a landmark moment for the Beat Generation and mid-century social critique in the United States.
In 1979, Swissair Flight 316, a DC-8 aircraft carrying 142 passengers and 12 crew members, overran the runway while landing at Ellinikon Airport in Athens and caught fire. The accident resulted in 14 deaths among the 154 people on board.
Modern political and media milestones
In 1986, former journalists from the Daily Telegraph published the first issue of The Independent, establishing a major British national newspaper title.
In 1996, Fox News launched its television broadcasts in the United States, growing over subsequent decades into one of the country's most influential news networks.
In 2000, Greek fighter jets landed at the Balikesir air base in Turkey for the first time in nearly 30 years to participate in the NATO exercise Destined Glory.
In 2001, military forces from the United States and the United Kingdom launched operations against Taliban targets in Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist attacks, beginning a conflict that lasted nearly 20 years.
In 2020, a three-member Appeals Court for Felonies in Athens ruled that the political party Golden Dawn operated as a criminal organization. Thousands of citizens gathered outside the court building to hear the verdict.
In 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza, initiating the Gaza war and a broader regional crisis in the Middle East.
Notable October 7 births and deaths
Several prominent political, cultural, and media figures were born on October 7. Russian President Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952. He served in the KGB before entering politics and taking power in 1999, restructuring the Russian economy while facing international criticism over authoritarian rule, human rights violations, and military interventions in Georgia, Crimea in 2014, and Ukraine in 2022.
Greek politician Nikos Dendias was born in Corfu in 1959. After studying law in Athens and London, he was elected to parliament for New Democracy in 2004 and served as Minister of Public Order, National Defence, and Foreign Affairs between 2019 and 2023, focusing on diplomatic ties in the Eastern Mediterranean.
American singer Toni Braxton was born in Maryland in 1967. Known for her velvet vocal timbre and hits such as Un-Break My Heart, Breathe Again, and He Wasn't Man Enough, she won seven Grammy Awards and sold more than 70 million records worldwide.
Greek SYRIZA politician Rena Dourou was born in Athens in 1974. She served as an MP, Minister of Environment and Energy in 2015, and Governor of Attica from 2014 to 2019, presiding over major public infrastructure projects while facing political scrutiny following deadly disasters in Mati and Mandra.
October 7 also marks the deaths of influential figures. American author Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston in 1809 and famous for works such as The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher, died prematurely in 1849 after pioneering gothic literature and detective fiction.
Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was born in New York City in 1958 to Soviet diplomats and reported for Novaya Gazeta on human rights abuses during the Chechen war. A prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, she was assassinated in Moscow on October 7, 2006.
Name days and observances
Religious traditions honor Sergius, Bacchus, Polychronis, and Polychronia on October 7.
Global and national commemorations on this date include International Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day, National Customer Service Week, European Organ Donation and Transplantation Day, World Architecture Day, World Cotton Day, World Day for Decent Work, World Habitat Day, and Panhellenic School Sports Day.
