Names Not Numbers

Asher Matathias

Volos, Greece (cave on Mount Pelion)

In Hiding

1943

Asher Matathias

Volos, Greece (cave on Mount Pelion)

1943

Asher J. Matathias was born on December 3, 1943, in a cave on Mount Pelion near Volos, Greece, during a harsh winter, while his family evaded Nazi persecution. His parents, Jacob and Nina, were Greek Jews from distinct Jewish traditions—Jacob descended from Romaniote Jews and Nina from Sephardic Jews who had settled in Greece after the 1492 expulsion from Spain.

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Asher's parents married in 1942 amidst the escalating Holocaust. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews in Greece, the family fled to the mountains, aided by Righteous Gentiles who risked their lives to protect them. Asher's survival as a baby was precarious due to the threat his cries posed to their safety. A Nazi patrol once discovered them, but a young German soldier spared their lives, leaving Asher with a nuanced view of Germans.

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After the war, the family endured Greece's civil war and poverty before emigrating to the United States in 1956, aided by disaster relief organizations and HIAS. They settled in New York, where Asher embraced Jewish community life.

In 1970, he revisited Greece, reconnecting with the Stamos family, who had risked everything to protect his family during the war. The Stamoses had even secretly arranged to adopt and baptize Asher if his parents perished. He also met his future wife, Anna, with whom he built a family. Today, Asher cherishes his heritage, his connections with Greece, and the legacy of resilience and kindness that shaped his life.

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