Knotty Dreadlocs

Rest in Peace Eddie Van Halen ♡

Turkish consul in Rhodes.

When the Germans occupied Rhodes from the Italians, he secured the release of around 50 Jewish citizens of Rhodes with Turkish nationality from German custody, before the remaining 1,673 were rounded up and deported by the Germans to the extermination camps via Greece, from whence only 151 survived.

The Germans bombed the consulate in retaliation, killing Selahattin’s wife  Mihrinissa among others, and Selahattin himself was imprisoned unlawfully in Piraeus until the war’s end, but even after his imprisonment the Turkish Jews released on his account survived under constant harassment from the Germans and were eventually released to Turkey.

Declared Righteous in 1989.

My ancestors were not among those he was able to save, but I honour his memory and his sacrifice for the Jews of Rhodes on their behalf.