The Greek city of Thessaloniki held a memorial march on Sunday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the first deportations of Greek Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Around a thousand people of all ages marched from Eleftherias (‘Freedom’) Square to the old railway station of Thessaloniki, where the deportations began on March 15, 1943.
Some marchers held a banner reading ‘Thessaloniki Auschwitz 80 years: Never again’ and white balloons captioned with the same slogan were released into the air. Many people left red carnations on the train tracks.
Sunday’s event, organised by the European March of the Living together with local city and state government officials, was attended by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, senior Greek and Israeli officials and Holocaust survivors and their families.
In her address, Sakellaropoulou said: “With this memorial march we honour the victims of Nazism, Fascism, antisemitism and share in the grief of their descendants, listen to the revealing words of the few survivors and unite our voice with the thousands of citizens that walk the same route… putting into action the universal human message ‘Never Again’.”
Sakellaropoulou also said Thessaloniki had, over the last two years, accepted its share of responsibility for the tragedy that took place when the Germans occupied their city.
Before World War II, about 80,000 Jews lived in Greece in 31 communities, two-thirds of whom lived in Thessaloniki. Only 10,000 survived the Holocaust. Today about 5,000 Jews live in Greece.
Work has begun on a Holocaust museum in Thessaloniki to honour the memory of those who died in the Nazi camps.
Source: Jewish News Syndicate and AP News.
