Yehuda Haim A'haron Ha'cohen Prahia

Yehuda Chaim Farchia, son of Aharon Farchia and Esther Albo, was born on March 1886 in Saloniki, during the period of the Ottoman Empire, to one of the established families, descendents of those exiled from Spain. During his lifetime he worked as a trader, journalist, Zionist activist, poet and author. Yehuda Chaim studied in the local Kol Yisrael Chaverim Schools where he was exposed to Jewish values as well as learning French and French culture. He completed his high school studies in 1907. He was fluent in 4 languages: French, Turkish, Greek and Ladino (a Jewish Spanish dialect). Upon completion of his schooling, he left his parents home and mod to Kavalla in Trakiya. He worked in the factory, owned by the Italian Alatini family. Through the years he rose up in the company and became the personal secretary of the President of the firm, Herman Shafir. In addition to his many other activities, he was a Zionist, and published many articles in the local Jewish press. In 1912 he founded the local branch of the Graduates of "Kol Yisrael Chaverim". He also served as a member of the local Jewish committees and was active in Jewish philanthropic organizations and in the synagogue. He was forced to travel and live in other cities, as he advanced in his administrative positions in the tobacco firm in which he worked. He lived for a time in Alexandria and in Xanthi in Trakiya where he oversaw the tobacco business until the end of WWII. The Germans invaded Greece in April 1942 and the country was divided into three sections. The Bulgarians ruled the Trakiya area and the German racist laws, against the Jews, were in effect there. In 1943 approximately 4,000 Jews in Xanthi were rounded up and transpored in trains to Bulgaria and from there to the concentration camp, Treblinka. On that day Yehuda Chaim was in Kavalla due to illness, and thus his life was saved. He escaped to Athens, with the help of his landlord, Anastasia. He hid in his aunt's house until the end of the war. At the end of the war he returned to Kasanthi where he continued to work in the tobacco industry until his retirement in 1965. In addition he continued to be active in the Jewish community life that survived the war. He published and commemorated the Holocaust victims His legacy includes 85 articles and news reports, 21 novels and 44 Ladino songs, in addition to approximately 25 poems about the annihilation of the Sephardic Jewish Communities in the Holocaust. His personal archives were donated to the library at Yad Ben Zvi. The collection of photographs displayed on the web site includes primarily postcards from Saloniki and its environs, a tribute to the living quarters of the Jewish community that was destroyed. The majority of postcards were photographed before 1912 and they serve as historical evidence to the city that was destroyed by a fire in 1917. Read more