Ioakim Alexopoulos was a Greek Orthodox bishop in the Greek port city of Volos.
In the spring of 1943, deportations began in the Bulgarian and German-occupied part of Greece. Volos was located in the Italian-occupied zone, where Jews were safe for the time being. However, after Italy’s surrender in the fall of 1943, German troops took over and began to prepare for deportations there too. The German city commandant Kurt Rickert demanded lists from the chief rabbi Mosche Pessach of the names of Jews living in Volos. Pessach refused and told the Jewish population to flee to the Pilion mountains. Alexopoulos and National Liberation Front (EAM) partisans arranged the rescue campaign. The bishop called on priests in mountain villages to help Jews. He kept the escaped Jewish community’s property safe until after their liberation.
Most Jews from Volos managed to escape. Some 130 remained in Volos. They were arrested on March 25, 1944, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Ioakim Alexopoulos was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1997.