If you stand at the old train station in Thessaloniki today, time seems to have stood still. The rusted tracks glimmer in the pale light of the Greek spring. It looks unremarkable, but the site is an open wound in European history.
In March 1943, the sirens marked the beginning of one of the most efficient and cruelest waves of deportation under the Nazis. Nearly 50,000 people — descendants of Sephardic Jews who had fled to the Ottoman Empire from the Spanish Inquisition since the late 15th century — were crammed into cattle trucks and deported from their Greek homeland to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where they were murdered.
For centuries, Thessaloniki was a cultural melting pot. Walking through the city, you could hear a linguistic mix: Greek, Turkish, French and Ladino — a form of medieval Spanish enriched with Hebrew, Turkish and Greek words, spoken by the city’s Sephardic Jews.
‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’
The trading and port city on the Aegean Sea was known as the “Jerusalem of the Balkans.” Even at the beginning of the 20th century — when the total population was estimated at 120,000 to 130,000 — approximately 60,000 to 62,000 of Thessaloniki’s residents were Jewish, making up roughly 50% of the population.
At the start of the Nazi German occupation in 1941, the Jewish community in Thessaloniki was approximately 52,000 to 56,000 people, out of a total population of about 260,000 to 300,000. From March to August 1943, according to estimates, approximately 48,000 Jews were deported by the Nazis from Thessaloniki by train, primarily to Auschwitz.
Within a few months, the large Jewish community had almost completely disappeared. Jewish life in the city was wiped out. Only about 2,000 Jewish residents survived the Holocaust, mostly by going into hiding. Very few returned alive from the concentration camps.
‘Forgetting is a second death’
Behind these historical facts lie countless personal tragedies. Renee Revah lost most of her ancestors in the Holocaust. Among them were her great-grandmother Sol Venezia and her children Olga, Lina and Isaac, as well as other relatives. The victims are commemorated annually with a memorial march that leads to the site of the deportations.
“My grandfather’s relatives gathered here in this square, believing they were being sent to forced labor in factories across Eastern Europe,” Revah said. “They boarded the trains, were crammed together there, and from that point on, all trace of them was lost.” Her grandfather survived the Holocaust because he went into hiding in Athens. He later learned that most of his family had been deported and then murdered.
The commemoration of the deportation of the Jews from Thessaloniki remains a significant date in Greek remembrance culture. “This commemoration is a matter of great importance, for forgetting is a second death for these victims,” said Savvina Mermigka, a student. “As a young person, I’ve noticed that there’s been a very strong rise in antisemitism lately, and I believe that this can only be countered by educating people about historical events.”
Antisemitism is a problem throughout Greece. The General Secretariat for Religious Affairs has recorded nearly 60 incidents over the past eight years, including antisemitic graffiti, damage to monuments, cemeteries and places of worship, as well as physical attacks on people.
Following the events of October 7, 2023, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KISE) and the Jewish Community of Athens also noted a dramatic rise in antisemitic, particularly online and on social media.
Scant knowledge of history of Jewish life
There are many reasons for this trend. One of them is that Greek school lessons do not dwell on the history of Jewish life in Greece, the Jewish communities and their culture, nor the Holocaust. This is a major problem, said student Filippos Mermigkas, who attended the memorial march with Savvina, his sister.
“For example, as a young person, after graduating from Greek school, I only superficially knew about the Holocaust in Greece,” he said. “Remembering these people who died a martyr’s death is especially important for young people, who are not very informed about the Jewish community and its place in the world — particularly today, in a politically tense situation where half-truths prevail. I see this a lot among young people. They often have misconceptions about the Jewish community.”
After the end of World War II, there was a long silence in both Greece and Germany regarding the crimes of the Nazi occupation. A reappraisal of history and genuine engagement with issues of remembrance, or even reconciliation, took place only belatedly and tentatively. Though Germany long focused on the crimes against the Ashkenazi Jews of Central Europe, the fate of the Sephardic Jews, particularly in southeastern Europe, remained a blind spot in the culture of remembrance.
That changed in recent years. The fate of Thessaloniki’s Jewish population has also come to the forefront of the debate on remembrance. Greece plans to build a Holocaust museum in Thessaloniki, which is currently under construction, reflecting a new approach. The museum was first proposed in 2013 by the then-mayor of Thessaloniki, Giannis Boutaris, who was a strong advocate for addressing the city’s Jewish history.
Shared European cultural memory
Following lengthy bureaucratic hurdles and approval processes, construction began in early 2024. The project is currently well underway and the opening is set for 2028. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier last visited the site in October 2024 during a state visit. In his speech, he expressed his shame over German crimes in Greece and stressed that the museum is a commitment to democracy.
The Greek Holocaust Museum will have a total budget of approximately €40 million ($46 million). Germany has contributed €10 million so far. The new museum is intended to become an important symbol of a shared European culture of remembrance. It is also about acknowledging the crimes committed against the approximately 50,000 deported Jews of Thessaloniki, whose fate is an inseparable part of German and Greek history.
“We are united in our efforts to create a place to remember the Jewish communities of Greece, but we are also united in our responsibility to ensure that it becomes a place of dialogue,” said Monika Frank, Germany’s consul general in Thessaloniki.
The silence at the old train station in Thessaloniki after the memorial march serves as a warning. It reminds us that “Never Again” must not be merely an echo of the past, but a conscious decision — in favor of remembrance and against hatred.
This article originally appeared in German.