The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust takes place every year on January 27, after the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet army. This is a important day especially for a city like Thessaloniki. The Jewish community has represented the majority of the population for centuries.
Over the centuries, it became one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. The city of Thessaloniki was nicknamed the “Jerusalem of the Balkans”. A community whose thread was violently severed during the German occupation and the Holocaust. Between 1942 and 1944, over 50,000 Sephardic Jews from Thessaloniki were sent to Nazi extermination camps. About 98% of the city’s Jewish population died during the war. Only in Poland did the Jews experience a higher rate of destruction.
The following gallery shows some of the places that bear witness to the long history of the city’s Jewish community and its tragic destruction at the hands of the Nazis.
The old railway station of Thessaloniki, from which more than 50,000 of the city’s Jews were deported to concentration camps in central Europe.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Golden stones in front of Vassilis Olgas Street gymnasium, to the memory of Jewish students deported by the Nazis.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Golden stones in front of Vassilis Olgas Street gymnasium, to the memory of Jewish students deported by the Nazis.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Jewish grave stone in Ano Poli, close to Kastra.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Detail of the monument dedicated to the more than 50,000 Jews of the city deported to the Nazi concentration camps (Μνημείο Ολοκαυτώματος), located in Platia Elefteria (Πλατεία Ελευθερίας).
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Monument dedicated to the more than 50,000 Jews of the city deported to the Nazi concentration camps (Μνημείο Ολοκαυτώματος), located in Platia Elefteria (Πλατεία Ελευθερίας).
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Graffiti depicting Jews interned in Nazi concentration camps, placed near the old city station.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Monument dedicated to all those who once lived in Thessaloniki, located at the entrance of the port.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Detail of the port of Thessaloniki.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Monument in memory of the city’s former Jewish cemetery, located on the current university campus.
(Marco Scarangella)
Monostarioton Synagogue (Συναγωγή Μοναστηριωτών), built between 1925 and 1927.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
Entrance to the Modiano market (Αγορά Μοδιάνο), in the centre of Thessaloniki. Its construction started in 1922 and finished in 1930 by Jew architect Eli Modiano.
(Alex Sánchez Aragón)
By Alex Sánchez Aragón and Marco Scarangella.
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