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The Holocaust was especially hard on Greek Jews, mostly as a result of their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. By 1945, between 83 and 87 percent of Greek Jews had been murdered, one of the highest proportions in Europe. Prior to the war, some 72,000 to 77,000 Jews lived in 27 communities in Greece. The majority, around 50,000, lived in Salonica (Thessaloniki), a formerly Ottoman city captured and annexed to Greece in 1912. Most Greek Jews were Judeo-Spanish-speaking Sephardim (Jews originating on the Iberian peninsula) with some being Greek-speaking Romaniotes (an ancient Jewish community native to Greece). Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria invaded and occupied Greece in April 1941. During the first year of the occupation, the authorities did not enact any systematic measures that targeted Jews per se. In March 1943, just over 4,000 Jews were deported from the Bulgarian occupation zone to Treblinka extermination camp. From 15 March through August, almost all of Salonica's Jews, along with those of neighboring communities in the German occupation zone, were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. After the Italian armistice in September 1943, Germany took over the Italian occupation zone, whose rulers had until then opposed the deportation of Jews. In March 1944, Athens, Ioannina, and other places in the former Italian occupation zone witnessed the roundup and deportation of their Jewish communities. In mid-1944, Jews living in the Greek islands were targeted. Around 10,000 Jews survived the Holocaust either by going into hiding, fighting with the Greek resistance, or surviving their deportation. Following World War II, surviving Jews faced obsta