RMS Mataroa explained

RMS Mataroa (formerly named the Diogenes) was a 12,341-ton ocean liner built by Harland & Wolff in 1922. She was chartered to the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line with her sister ship in 1926 and renamed Mataroa. She was scrapped in 1957.^[1]

In 1945, Mataroa made two famous journeys:

• In August 1945, the Mataroa was chartered to transport from Marseille to Haifa 173 Jewish children of the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp, who had family in Palestine. She later transported survivors of Bergen-Belsen.
• In late December 1945, the Mataroa brought from Greece to Taranto in southern Italy a number of Greek artists and intellectuals aiming to reach Paris in order to escape the White Terror. The vast majority were scholars of France. This trip was organized by the then Director of the, philhellene Octave Merlier, and his deputy Roger Milliex, husband of Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex. Some of the passengers became internationally recognised artists, scientists or intellectuals, including: architect George Candilis, artists Constantine Andreou and, philosophers Kostas Axelos, Cornelius Castoriadis and, linguist Emmanuel Kriaras, filmmaker Ado Kyrou, and physician Miltiadès Papamiltiadès.

Sources

• Book: Bordes, François . 2011 . fr . Exil et création. Des penseurs grecs dans la vie intellectuelle française . Exile and creation: Greek thinkers in French intellectual life . S. Jollivet . C. Prémat . M. Rosengren . Destins d’exilés : trois philosophes grecs à Paris : Kostas Axelos, Cornelius Castoriadis, Kostas Papaïoannou . Paris . Le manuscrit . 63–73.
• Web site: Koutouzis . Michel . fr . Les voyages du Mataroa . Agoravox . 1 June 2010 .

Further reading

• Nelly Andrikopoulou, 2007: Le Voyage du « Mataroa », Athens: Hestia
• Mimika Cranaki: « Mataroa » à deux voix: Journal d'exil. Bénaki
• L'Odyssée du Mataroa, soixante-cinq ans après... . Institut français d'Athènes, 20 December 2010
• "R.M.S. Mataroa 1922 -1957", New Zealand Maritime Record

Notes and References

1. Web site: R.M.S. MATAROA 1922 -1957 . NZ National Maritime Museum . 21 February 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180127095541/http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/mataroa.htm . 27 January 2018.