Monument in memory of Jews of Salonika

During this time, 70 years ago the Jews of Salonika were being deported. More than 3,000 people attended the Saturday march organized in the city to commemorate this tragic event, bringing this subject for the public debate for the fist time in history.

The organizers were amazed by such a wide participation, where the commemoration of the Holocaust had always been overshadowed. In addition to a small statue in memory of the victims, the 53,000 Jews of Salonika - about half of the city’s total population, who were almost entirely  exterminated in Auschwitz-Birkenau, are remembered only by a few memorials in the two synagogues in the city. Mayor Yiannis Boutaris explains that this phenomenon has a political motive. For centuries, Salonika had been part of the Ottoman Empire and the Greek population was a minority group in the city; in 900 the need to establish national unity focused on political discourse and cultural identity of Greek Salonika, using it as an element of the anti-turkish sentiment and neglecting the Jews.

So, how can one explain this high turnout on Saturday? Certainly, the improvement of relations of Greece and Israel after the tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara - former Israeli ally and the historic enemy of Greece - has led to pay more attention to the commemoration of the Holocaust and the stories of Greek Jews, which resulted in the participation of the World Jewish Congress in the march of Salonika. However, one cannot ignore the importance of the internal situation in Athens.

The international financial crisis is transforming the Greek society: there are protests against the orders of Berlin and thus, the city exudes a strong anti-German spirit. This reflects the fact that, right now, Greece and its highest representatives want to commemorate the destruction of the Jewish community of Salonika by Nazi troops.

The picture is further complicated by the penetration of neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which influences the popular mood and allows the spread of a strong revisionist movement, against which Boutaris made a harsh comment; "With this march” - the mayor said during the commemoration on Saturday – “we send a clear message: this is not the place for those who do not respect human beings and democracy. This is a march against the Nazi ideology, which is undoubtebly  carried by Golden Dawn.”

The Prime Minister Antonis Samaras made a historic act: for the first time, the current prime minister visited a synagogue to commemorate the deportation of Greek Jews. Although, he is not directly related to Golden Dawn, Samaras has pledged to introduce a new law to prevent the entry into parliament of those  parties that openly deny the Holocaust; "Greece has been infected by voices trying to resurrect racism” - reported concerned prime minister – “the neo-Nazis appeared again in Europe."