During the celebration of the Greek National Day on October 28th in Washington, organized by Greek-Americans who founded the OXI DAY FOUNDATION, the Director of the Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives Mrs Photini Tomai was nominated with the “Metropolitan of Zante Chrysostomos Award”. Mrs Tomai is the first recipient of this Award, which was created in the memory of the historic Metropolitan of Zante to honour his courage to refuse to deliver the names of the island’s Jews (approximately 2,000 souls) to the Nazi occupation authorities, thus resulting to the rescue of the entire Community, a unique case in the appalling history of the Holocaust in Europe. Mrs Tomai was selected due to her longstanding work as an author and a public officer who represented the Greek State in numerous Greek and international fora related to the safeguarding of the Holocaust Memory and the fighting against Anti-Semitism. The Award was delivered by Archbishop Demetrios and the former US Ambassador to Athens Thomas J. Miller. They both presented the nominee to the audience with extensive references to her work.
Mrs Tomai has repeatedly been nominated in the past for her activity. Among these distinctions, she has been:- nominated with the highest award “for her tireless efforts and commitment to researching and documenting the History of Shoah” by the then President of Israel Shimon Peres, for the reference made in the book of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that she edited (“Documents on the History of the Greek Jews”) on the case of the rescue by Greek guerillas of his father Jitzak Persky who was a volunteer parachutist of the RAF during WWII.
- conferred an award in 2000, by the then President of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) David Harris. On the same occasion an award was delivered to the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The then Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou attended the ceremony,
- honored by the US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat in the framework of the International Conference in Washington, regarding her initiatives and action up to that moment (1998).
- honored by the B’nai-Brith Executive Director in Washington Dan Mariaschin in 2011.
During the celebrations in Washington DC, the Award “David Against Goliath”, by which the bravery of small Greece to dare fight against the Axis was indicated, was given to Tunisian Jamel Battaieb who represented the entire population of the Sidi Bouzid city from where the Arab Spring began. Mr. Battaieb shared the Award with the activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma, who was represented by someone else at the ceremony since she is still not allowed to leave her country. Nevertheless, she addressed a taped message, which included very specific references to the Greeks’ OXI (NO) and to today’s OXI (NOs) that the peoples have to say in order to safeguard their own freedom. A taped message was also addressed by the then US Vice-President Joe Biden, who talked very warmly about the Greeks’ fight during WWII.
The events were also attended by Members of US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House, being among them, and US Senators, Greek-American Paul Sarbanes being one of them. Wreaths were laid at the World War II Fighters Memorial and the Arlington National Cemetery at a special ceremony during which awards were nominated to two surviving veterans of World War II, former Senator Bob Dole and the Greek-American, longtime SAE President Andrew Athens.November 16, 2011