It was the end of 1943 and Zakynthos was under Nazi occupation. The island’s German commander demanded that Mayor Loukas Karrer hand over a list of the island’s Jews. The next night the mayor and Bishop Chrysostomos gave the commander a list consisting of just two names: their own.

That same night, both men, along with other locals, helped save the island’s 275 Jews from the concentration camps by hiding them in their homes.

For this reason, Israelis call Zakynthos the “island of the brave” and many descendants of the escapees as well as other tourists visit the Jewish cemetery inBohali and the site where the Synagogue once stood – the building was destroyed by an earthquake in 1953 and replaced by a monument to the two heroes.