At the beginning of May, the Consulate General of Greece in Geneva organized an important event at the city's Palais Eynard, honoring the Spierer Swiss family of Jewish origin, whose patriarch Hermann, an Izmir-born tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist, saved the lives of hundreds of Greeks, both during duration as well as after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
The event, in which speeches were delivered by the Consul General Mr. Alexandros Gennimatas and the historian Mr. Costas Stamatopoulos, delved into the journey of the Spierer family, members of which rescued a large number of Greeks who left Smyrna and assisted them when they arrived in Greece, providing housing and work for them.
Hermann Spierer died in 1927 in Trieste, where he had moved his business after the Asia Minor Disaster. His son Simon continued the family's philanthropic tradition, but during WWII he was forced to leave Trieste for Geneva, while his mother and sister perished in Nazi concentration camps.
