Rosina Pardo lived in Thessaloniki (Greece) with her family. Her father Chaim Pardo ran an electrical installation business, which was damaged by bombs after the Italian offensive in 1940.
German troops invaded the city in 1941. The Pardos’ business was taken from them, and with it their livelihood. They had to move into a ghetto in 1942 and wear the yellow star.
The parents planned an escape and secretly sent their daughters out of the ghetto in April 1943. Their acquaintance Phaedra Karakotsos took them to her home, followed the next day by their parents. Rosina was called Roula Karakotsos to disguise her identity. She and her family were not allowed to leave the apartment for 18 months. Rosina Pardo found the situation very difficult, and wrote about it in her diary. She spent a lot of time reading and playing with her sister Denise and the Karakotsos’s son.
After liberation in October 1944, the Pardos could not return to their former home: strangers were living there and their household goods had been looted. They soon found a new apartment and Rosina returned to school. She went on to study law in Athens and Paris.