Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Greek Jews Mark 72 Years Since Thessaloniki Round-Ups

The Greek city of Thessaloniki remembered its nearly 50,000 Jews sent to Nazi death camps during World War II.

A memorial marking the 72nd anniversary of the roundup and deportation of Thessaloniki Jews was held Saturday.

Participants placed flowers on train tracks where the Jews were taken away in cattle cars headed for Auschwitz-Birkenau, The Associated Press reported.

In March 1943, the Nazis began sending Jews in railway convoys to Auschwitz-Birkenau. By August, 49,000 of the city’s prewar population of 55,000 Jews had been deported. Fewer than 2,000 survived.

Thessaloniki had been a vital center of Sephardic Jewry for 450 years following the expulsion from Spain. Known as the “Flower of the Balkans,” it was the center of Ladino culture in the region.

Fewer than 2,000 Jews are living in a city of about 800,000 residents today.

The first such memorial was held two years ago, on the 70th anniversary of the deportation.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.