Morfis Yiorgos & Morfi Faidra

Spiliotopoulos, Leandros Spiliotopoulou, Ketty Spiliotopoulos, Dimitris Spiliotopoulou, Argiro Angelopoulos, Dimitris Angelopoulou, Maria Morfis, Yiorgos Morfi, Faidra The Nahmia family, originally from Ioannina, was sheltered and helped by Greek friends in Athens in 1943-1944. This was the second time that the Jewish family of Moissis (Moses) and Anna Nahmia and their three children had come to the capital. Previously, in 1941, their escape was due to bombardments. The second arrival, according to their daughter, Eftihia (b.1932, later Nahman), occurred in August 1943, after a friend informed Moissis Nahmias about the deportation of the Jews of Thessaloniki. When the German order of October 7, 1943 specified that all Jews must register at the community offices, Moissis Nahmias decided that his family must go into hiding. His first action was to change their names and find a place to hide. Zakis Mihailidis, from whom they had rented two rooms two years earlier, took the two children, Iakovos and Eftihia, to the house of his brother-in-law, Dimitris and Maria Angelopoulou. The children stayed with them from October 1943 until May 1944. The Angelopoulous couple had a daughter Katia. Eftihia recalled that she and Iakovos were treated as members of the family, and they called Dimitris and Maria – Uncle Mimis and Aunt Maria. Only those two were aware of the Jewish identity of the children. In those days Eftihia rarely met her parents and other brother, Herbert. Maria helped her with homework. She used to play with Katia’s friends, pretending she was like them. She also went with the family to church at Easter. At the same time, the children’s parents and their brother Herbert, stayed with Yiorgos (45) and Faidra Morfi (37) until January 1944. They became acquainted in 1941, when Moissis Nahmias was doing his military service at the Ministry of Defense and Yiorgos Morfis was an employee there. Afterward, they stayed at the house of Leandros (36) and KettySpiliotopoulou until May 1944. Ketty Spiliotopoulou, 32, was the sister of a business associate of Moissis Nahmia. In March 1944, the Jews of Athens were rounded up, and the danger that families in hiding might be discovered increased. Leandros Spiliotopoulos asked his parents, Dimitris (63) and Argiro (55), to hide the entire Nahmia family in their house, and they agreed. Leandros’s brothers, Theodoros, Aias and Aristidis, with the latter’s wife, Aglaia, and Leandros’s sister, Maria were also living under the same roof. After eight months of separation, the five members of the Nahmia family were reunited and hidden at the Spiliotopoulos house from June 1944 until the liberation on October 12, 1944. After the war, The Nahmia family remained in close contact with their rescuers. The Morfis’ daughter, Ourania, was employed in the Nahmia family business until she retired. On March 7, 1999,Yad Vashem recognized Ketty and Leandros Spiliotopoulos, Dimitris and Argiro Spiliotopoulou, Dimitris and Maria Angelopoulou, and Yiorgos and Faidra Morfi as Righteous Among the Nations.