 However, other Greeks collaborated with the Germans in the deportation of the Jews, especially against the more numerous Sephardi population, which retained distinctive language and customs.In Thessaloniki, Greek police marched almost 50,000 Sephardi Jews to the Holocaust trains, rented from the Greek railway company, that would take them to Auschwitz, where more than 95% were murdered.When Jewish community leaders appealed to collaborationist Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis, he claimed that the Jews of Thessaloniki had been guilty of subversive activities and that this was the reason they were deported.