The Sad Jewish History of Thessaloniki, Greece
Jewish history in Thessaloniki, Greece reaches back two thousand years and a major Jewish community existed here until the middle of the Second World War. Sephardic Jews immigrated to the city following their expulsion from Spain and at one time during history, over 44 temples could be found during the height of Judaism in Saloniki.
The Jews of Thessaloniki played an integral part in its economic and culture. And it was
the biggest community destroyed in the Holocaust, losing 97% of its population. Nazis first began sending Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps on March 15, 1943 where 50,000 perished.
It is estimated that only 1,000 Jews survived of which my daughter-in-law's father was one. Leon managed to survive multiple concentration camps and a site about Leon and his wife, Lola, also a Holocaust survivor can be found at mazliach (com).
With Subtitles | A story of Thessaloniki | The Jews and the Holocaust
Salonika - A City with Amnesia (Short version with english subtitles)
On December 6th 1942, German occupation forces and Greek collaborators confiscated the Jewish cemetery of Saloniki, which was the largest in Europe with approximately 500,000 graves. Immediately, the tombstones were used to build a swimming pool for German soldiers. The majority of the stones, however, were handed over to the general population. Today, one still finds pieces of gravestones in city walls, stairs and particularly on the campus of the Aristotle university, which is built on the cemetery. These gravestones are silent witnesses of a forgotten past in a city that suffers from some kind of amnesia.
The film tells the history and about the destruction of Jewish and Muslim life in Saloniki - a cosmopolitan city, where Muslims, Jews and Christians coexisted. Consistently most people of the Christian community were Greeks, who lived under Ottoman rule until 1913. Since the Ottomans welcomed Jewish refugees from Spain in 1492, the Sephardim became the majority of the Jewish population of the city and also advanced its commercial importance. Unfortunately, the Jewish presence was nearly wiped out completely after the German SS deported more than 50,000 Jews to Auschwitz in 1943. Moreover, since the migration of the Turkish population in 1923, only a few reminders remain of the dozen minarets and Turkish baths. The former Jerusalem of the Balkans has blocked out the memory of the heterogeneous population of Jewish port workers, house-owners and merchants, Muslim pashas and dervishes.
In the film, Thessaloniki itself becomes the protagonist - the city with its people, old stones, houses and streets. Is it easier to suffer from amnesia than to remember the past?
In pictures: The Jews of Thessaloniki today
Up until the early 1900's, Thessaloniki was nicknamed Evraioupolis, or the City of Hebrews, in Greek. This week, as we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Salonica's Jews during the Holocaust, John Kazaklis pays a visit to members of the city's Jewish community. Their message to the world? We are still here.
More: istoria.life
Discovering The Jews of Greece
Classrooms Without Borders 2015 Greece Seminar
PM Netanyahu at Event with Jewish Community of Thessaloniki
ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו ורעייתו הגב' שרה נתניהו ביקרו בבית הכנסת בסלוניקי יחד עם נשיא הקהילה היהודית דוד שאלתיאל, הרב של סלוניקי ישראל אהרון, ראש עיריית סלוניקי יאניס בוטאריס וראשי הקהילה היהודית.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mrs Sara Netanyahu attend an event with the Jewish community of Thessaloniki
וידאו: רועי אברהם, לעמ
סאונד: ניר שרף, לעמ
JEWISH COMMUNITY OF THESSALONIKI CHOIR, Gulieta
Thessaloniki Jewish Community Choir
18th Choir Festival, Sykies, Thessaloniki
December 2012
Gulieta is a medieval latin song, which combines several Latin languages!
WWI SALONICA FRONT VIDEO THESSALONIKI KILKIS GREECE
Thessaloniki Tourism Organization and Kilkis Prefectural Unit present the history of the SALONICA FRONT WWI. Battlefields, military cemeteries, memorial monuments, war museums are part of the historical memory of the WWI in Central Macedonia Greece.
Jews of Saloniki
What remains Jewish Saloniki
Thessaloniki History Pt IV: Ottoman Occupation & Arrival of Sephardic Jews
History of Thessaloniki in 7 Part Series
Part IV: Ottoman Occupation & Arrival of Sephardic Jews
Jewish Greece: Storied Past, Vibrant Future
Meet the Jews of Athens and Thessaloniki, and learn how JDC powers Greece's Jewish community to tackle the challenges of their country's financial crisis and more.
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For more than 100 years, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has been saving Jewish lives, building Jewish life, and transforming Jewish values into action that benefits all people in need. As the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian aid group, JDC today works in more than 70 countries and in Israel to alleviate hunger and hardship, rescue Jews in danger, create lasting connections to Jewish life, and provide disaster relief and development support for victims of natural and man-made disasters.
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The Jews of Thessaloniki f
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FROM THESSALONIKI(TV100)
The Jewish Necropolis of Thessaloniki
Nazis in Thessaloniki
A very old lady describes how the Nazi German army executed 200 men in a village near Thessaloniki, during the occupation of Greece by the German army.
Codex ensemble - jewish community of thessaloniki, choir - kostis papazoglou
Μουσική περιήγηση με μερικά από τα πιο γνωστά σεφαραδίτικα τραγούδια της Σαλονίκης.
Music tour in Thessaloniki, with some of the most famous Sephardic songs.
Codex ensemble - jewish community of thessaloniki, choir - kostis papazoglou
επιμέλεια Γιώργος Μελίκης - σκηνοθεσία Μανώλης Ζανδές
[στην εκπομπή της ΕΤ3 ακούγονται παραδοσιακά σεφαραδίτικα τραγούδια, σε χορ.επεξ. των Σ.Νεγρίν & Κωστή Παπάζογλου & ενορχ. Κ.Παπάζογλου]
2019 Greek Jewish festival
I attend the annual Greek Jewish festival at the historic Kahal Kedosha Yanina synagogue in NYCs Lower East Side
IMTM 2014 - Jewish Heritage in Thessaloniki
Presentation of the Jewish Presence in Thessaloniki, a.k.a. The Jerusalem of the Balkans
DONA, DONA. THESSALONIKI JEWISH COMMUNITY CHOIR
Thessaloniki Jewish Community Choir
18th Greek Choir Festival, Sykies, Thessaloniki
December 2012
Dona, Dona, Medieval song
Olami 3 Greece - Holocaust Ceremony in Thessaloniki Jewish Cemetery
Olami 3 remembers the Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki and Greece that perished during the Holocaust at the new Jewish Cemetery in Thessaloniki