The Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki - part 3
Δημοσιεύθηκε από Abravanel στο Σάββατο, Μάιος 5 2007
-> Part 1 - The Destruction can be found here.
-> Part 2 - After the War can be found here.
Part 3 - Photos after the Holocaust
Here I included some photos concerning the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki and its fate today. The ones deriving from books I kindly ask not to have them reproduced elsewhere since I’m not certain about the copyright. For all pictures you may click on them to get better resolutions. I also included a small bibliography for those interested reading more, plus a couple of interesting links.
This is a screenshot I took with GoogleMaps. I used the maps I already had to draw a line of where the cemetery stood and what lies above it today. The drawing is approximative of course but I plan on improving it in the future. The names you see are in greek and 80% of them are the names of the university schools which lay there. Among them is the AHEPA hospital, the Medical School, the Dental School and others.
It’s borders today according to the site of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki are:
The vast proportions of this necropolis can still be traced. The western limit extended along the flank of the PAOK soccer stadium and the eastern limit followed approximately Pavlos Melas Street. The northern limit lay within the entire campus of the present day University of Thessaloniki, including an orphanage and a number of adjacent buildings and military barracks. The southern limit ended in the neighborhood known as Saranda Ekklisies (Forty Churches) and a collection of private dwellings. Along its entire length it was divided by a fairly wide path that had been created by Ottoman soldiers in the 19th century
A map of the cemetery before the war, with the buildings that the University planned on building if the land was to be confiscated. One can see that the exact size of the cemetery was total 357.796 square meters.
Broken tombstones and bones to the mercy of dogs after the War. Unfortunately only a few gravestones survived and one can see them in the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki and in the new jewish cemetery.
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Various gravestones deriving from the Jewish Cemetery, in the courtyard of St.Demetrious Church; the main church of Thessaloniki dedicated to its patron saint. Some of these were used for reconstruction works of the temple.
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A map of the prewar Thessaloniki Jewish Community. With yellow one can see the cemetery while the map below is portraying the Thessaloniki of 1960’s. Using this map one can pinpoint exactly the borders of the Jewish Cemetery, in relation to Thessaloniki today.
A thick red line indicates the christian cemetery of Evangelistrias, immediatelly adjacent to the jewish one. This cemetery was founded in the ’20s and its removal was never asked by the University or the City itself. It still survives today surrounded amidst the town and with the University a few meters away.
Bibliography :
- M.Mazower - Salonica,City of Ghosts/Θεσσαλονίκη,Πολη των φαντασματων - (exists both in greek and english)
An excelent book which covers briefly how the cemetery was destroyed and has some valuable information on its fate after WW2.
- Γιομτωβ Γιακοελ, (επιμελεια Φ.Αμπατζοπουλου) - Απομνημονευματα 1941/1943 - εκδ.Παρατηρητης 1993
A prominent member of the Jewish Community who took part in the negotiations with the greeks and the germans and comments the events. The book is extremely interesting because it was written in 1943 and contains the thoughts and climate of the period untouched by later knowledge of the events, since Y.Yacoel died in Auschwitz in 1944. As he said: “The hurried manner and the excessive zeal shown by the Greek authorities make it obvious that it wasn’t only out of motives aimed at the city’s beautification that they were moved to dismantle the Jewish monuments so quickly.”
- In Memoriam - J.Nehama,M.Molho - 1974
A monumental work dedicated to the extermination of the Community of Salonica; its third volume is dedicated to the fate of the cemetary. In addition to giving us its history thoughout the centuries, it also gives us a detailed account of how and who destroyed the cemetary. M.Molho was also a prominent member of the Community and had participated first hand in the talks. The pictures in black and white derive from there.
- Π. Ενεπεκίδη - Οι διωγμοί των Εβραίων εν Ελλάδι 1941/1944 - Εκδ.Παπαζήση 1969
A book which tries, very approximately, to describe the Holocaust of the greek jews. It isn’t by all complete and completely ignores the matter of the jewish necropolis while it over emphasizes greek achievements. Still, even by such an enthusiast, the conduct of the greek authorities of Thessaloniki leaves a bitter aftertaste.
- Haggadah - JCT 1970
The traditional book for Passover contains also some interesting information about the Community before the war. That is the source for the last picture.
Links :
The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. It houses a small collection of gravestones that survived, plus it has some valuable information material. Click on The Jews of Thessaloniki -> Necropolis to get a brief story of the cemetery plus some more photos. [English-Greek]
Gravestones everywhere. A post in the AgitProp blog which tells us of the author’s experiences with tombstones in modern Salonica. The first one was in the Aristotle University campus, near the Biology Department and the second one was near the suburb of Panorama. There you can also see a photo that the author took of a gravestone incorporated in a modern building today. Take the time to visit the rest of his blog since it often houses articles of ladino interest. [Greek]
Invisible Revisited. A series of posts by DeviousDiva that host the academic paper by Laquer and Hesse “Bodies Visible and Invisible”. A major source of information which deals extensively with the historical context of the destruction and the german policy towards the cemeteries throughout Europe. A must-read for anyone wishing to learn more about the subject.
Κυριακή, Μάιος 6 2007 στο 1:00
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Παρασκευή, Νοέμβριος 23 2007 στο 7:20
Please advise if the current construction of the metro interferes with the cemetery.
Would you agree that perhaps they are diggin up Jewish remains as we speak???
Δευτέρα, Νοέμβριος 26 2007 στο 3:00
how can we stop them from continuing to destroy the cemetery….should we file a lawsuit against the university, salonica, or greece…do we have any rights….please advise!!!
Σάββατο, Δεκέμβριος 8 2007 στο 4:48
The old jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki currently exists under the Aristotelion University campus, (plus adjacent parts). When excavations are made, it is not uncommon for workers to unearth tombstones or even bones, especially in the past as eye witnesses in the 70s report. The same thing happened during the recent subway/metro construction.
The current excavations for the new Thessaloniki subway unearthed, just 30cm under the ground, signs of the cemetery. This find was downplayed heavily by local media which specifically avoided specifying that the cemetery found was the jewish one. Photos and a post in greek can be found here -> http://argos.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/necropolis/
http://argos.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/necropolis_2/
There is nothing to do to stop “them” from “destroying the cemetery” because the cemetery is already destroyed. Plus one would need to acknowledge the very existence of the cemetery, something the Municipality, the University and public opinion refuse to do.
The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki has specifically stated that it isn’t interested now or anytime in the future to lay any claim of property or monetary compensation, (and has done correctly in my opinion). So it is impossible to legally ask for a more respectful treatment.
This is only a case where denying to look oneself in the mirror, resulted in a uncomfortable situation where -literally- ghosts from the past returned to haunt the living.
Κυριακή, Δεκέμβριος 9 2007 στο 6:56
Everything that you write about the Jewish Cemetery is very interesting.
The legal details of exactly how the cemetery was ceded to the municipality of Salonica need to be examined, and in the case that the Greek State has in any way done the Jewish Community any wrong, reparations should be paid.
However, as a Thessalonicean, I have this request from you:
1) Do not think that Thessaloniceans do not know that the University was built on the grounds of the Jewish Cemetery, we all do.
2) Do not assume that only the Jewish community of Thessaloniki experienced hardships during the war. Its tragical ending during the Holocaust is uncontested, but do not imply that the Greek Christians were not being living under the most abject conditions as well. Many Greek Christians died or were killed by the German occupiers.
3) Do not accuse the Thessaloniki Greek Christians of acute nationalism when in the years between 1912 (=liberation of Thessaloniki by the Greek Army) and WWII, Thessaloniki was operating with full respect of its Jewish community. In a country where Saturday was still a workday, Thessaloniki held Saturday as a holiday, out of respect for the Jewish Sabbath.
4) Do not accuse the Thessaloniki Greek Christians as being anti-semites, because there has never been any serious anti-semite attack in Thessaloniki, EXCEPT for the events at Campbell, where the perpetrators were not Thessaloniki Greeks, but Asia Minor Greeks, for a variety of reasons that cannot be explained here.
5) Speaking of Asia Minor Greeks, it would be very interesting and useful for you to note in your blog that Christian Greeks have suffered enormously during the 20th century, especially with 1.5 million dead Greeks throughout Asia Minor and another 1.5 million of refugees. The Greeks’ desire to leave the traumatic past behind and move on to a hopeful future was stronger than the desire to preserve recent history. Please do not allow your readers to believe that Greek Christians were living a careless existence while the Jews were being deported to the camps.
6) Finally, it was terrible to imply that in an impoverished Greece, there was a hurried rush to build a university in Thessaloniki, in order to usurp the Jewish Cemetery. Education is the most certain tool that propels a nation out of poverty, and the Greek government was absolutely right in investing in a university.
Κυριακή, Δεκέμβριος 9 2007 στο 6:57
Forgot to say, thank you for your attention!
Stergios.
Σάββατο, Ιανουάριος 5 2008 στο 8:38
1) Do not think that Thessaloniceans do not know that the University was built on the grounds of the Jewish Cemetery, we all do.
2) Do not assume that only the Jewish community of Thessaloniki experienced hardships during the war. Its tragical ending during the Holocaust is uncontested, but do not imply that the Greek Christians were not being living under the most abject conditions as well. Many Greek Christians died or were killed by the German occupiers.
3) Do not accuse the Thessaloniki Greek Christians of acute nationalism when in the years between 1912 (=liberation of Thessaloniki by the Greek Army) and WWII, Thessaloniki was operating with full respect of its Jewish community. In a country where Saturday was still a workday, Thessaloniki held Saturday as a holiday, out of respect for the Jewish Sabbath.
4) Do not accuse the Thessaloniki Greek Christians as being anti-semites, because there has never been any serious anti-semite attack in Thessaloniki, EXCEPT for the events at Campbell, where the perpetrators were not Thessaloniki Greeks, but Asia Minor Greeks, for a variety of reasons that cannot be explained here.
5) Speaking of Asia Minor Greeks, it would be very interesting and useful for you to note in your blog that Christian Greeks have suffered enormously during the 20th century, especially with 1.5 million dead Greeks throughout Asia Minor and another 1.5 million of refugees. The Greeks’ desire to leave the traumatic past behind and move on to a hopeful future was stronger than the desire to preserve recent history. Please do not allow your readers to believe that Greek Christians were living a careless existence while the Jews were being deported to the camps.
6) Finally, it was terrible to imply that in an impoverished Greece, there was a hurried rush to build a university in Thessaloniki, in order to usurp the Jewish Cemetery. Education is the most certain tool that propels a nation out of poverty, and the Greek government was absolutely right in investing in a university.First I’d like to apologize for my delay and wish you spent the holiday’s with your beloved ones. I appreciate your interest but I cannot agree with your opinions.
1. There is absolutely no knowldge of what lies under the University. There is talk among a restricted elite but the vast majority of the population does not know anything. Even among who are aware, nobody really questions the fact that the germans did it and all debate ends in 1945 with no one questioning how the cemetery wasn’t returned after WW2 to the Jewish Community.
2. I do not imply that Greec had it easy during WW2. An estimated 55.000 greeks died from german/italian/bulgarian executions and another 100.000-200.000 from the hardships in addition to the 60-65.000 greek jews asassinated by the germans. Still this is not a contest of victims because all of them were greeks and should be counted together. But even in this case what you cannot understand that from the early post war years there were memorials built in the towns which suffered most like the Doxato massacre by the bulgarians or Chortiati massacre by germans.
Greek jews had to wait 54 years to have a memorial of their own and even more to aknowledge the annihilation of 55000 greek citizens with the institution of the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Hell, in Thessaloniki first they decided to build a memorial to honor the participation of women during WW2 in the albanian front before deciding that single, most important massacre of greek citizens deserved to be remembered!
3. It is true that Asia Minor greeks were primarily responsible for the arson of the jewish neighborhood of Kambel but the appropriation of jewish properties in Thessaloniki and the destruction of the cemetery was a fact met with the silent approval of all of Thessaloniki’s society and the active partecipation of a small but significant amount of it’s members. But since you mentioned it I need to point out that the Sabbath being a holiday wasn’t a concession but simply stated a fact since the harbor was manned by jewish labor plus it was abolished in 1921 as soon as christians became the majority of the population.
4. The fact that there is a cemetery under the University with tombstones and bones of people who still have relatives maybe is not a unprecedented act of vandalism? The fact that jewish presence in Thessaloniki is downplayed by media, university and most important by the civic authorities? Or the fact that for 50 years the Municipality refused to build any kind of memorial, (on the Jewish Community’s expenses)?
5. Why it would be interesting to note the exchange of populations after the greco-turkish war of 1920 lost by Greece which resulted in the voluntary exchange of 1.200.000 greeks living in Asia Minor with 750.000 turks living mainly in Macedonia and Crete? While we’re there why not talk about the Balcan wars of the 1990’s? Why not? Simply because it doe not have anything to do with our subject which is the destruction of the jesih cemetery of Thessaloniki by greek authorities in 1942 and the subsequent effort to forget it’s existence.
If you wish to imply that greek jews should let go of the story then I need to remind you that the Jewish Community already has decided to move on by acknowledging the looting and asking no reparations in 1945 and intending to ask none in the future - ever. But this does not mean that we should forget our dead and accept that these are bound to have no rest in a tomb and wander forever, the same way their fathers,brothers and sons knew no tomb in the lagers of Poland and Germany.
6. With all due respect I think you’re bullshitting me severely. I apologize for the term but hard as I can I cannot think that you actually meditated before thinking that building on burial grounds still scattered with bones constitutes an accepatable policy. Even if I accept your twisted reasoning then why not destroy also the christian Evangelistria’s cemetery which was adjacent to the jewsih one? Or even simpler there was no other land in Thessaloniki and the greek goverment had to built on top of bones? For heavens sake!
I’d be interested to know of your opinions on why the University right now had no plaque or small memorial on what lies beneath it. Maybe because being already crowded as is, it would be stupid to limit furthermore it’s open spaces?
Δευτέρα, Ιανουάριος 21 2008 στο 1:40
“I’d be interested to know of your opinions on why the University right now had no plaque or small memorial on what lies beneath it. Maybe because being already crowded as is, it would be stupid to limit furthermore it’s open spaces?”
It is WRONG that there be no commemorative plaque or memorial on the site. There is no doubt about it.
But now…
“With all due respect I think you’re bullshitting me severely. I apologize for the term but hard as I can I cannot think that you actually meditated before thinking that building on burial grounds still scattered with bones constitutes an accepatable policy”.
It was totally inappropriate of you to write that I am “bullshitting” you. I did write my opinion. You have every right not to accept it, but you have to respect it.
Building over disused cemeteries is very common throughout the world, and that includes many countries that are predominantly Christian, Muslim or Jewish. When the land use change is NOT contested by anyone, and is done in good will and not in order to eradicate historical memory, then it should be absolutely fine.
What I stated was that I would rather have a University built on top of an ancient cemetery, than a mall or a housing complex. A Temple of Knowledge and solemnity.
As I said, it is a grave ommission that there is no memorial (or even a center of interpretation) on the University grounds explained what that area used to be.
But it is ridiculous to accuse Greek Christians of wanton antisemtism. Greek Christians survived the war with many losses and in great squalor. Greece has suffered disproportionately more than other countries as it was occupied by three Axis nations, one of which (the Bulgarians) was harboring a nationalistic claim to Greek territory, leading to tremendous bloodshed, and the other (the Germans) viewing Greece as a bread-basket for the alimentation of the German troops in Africa, leading to unsurpassed economic and ecological disasters.
As you know, WW II was followed by the Civil War which further enhanced the dilapidation of Greece’s infrastructure and the people’s malaise.
Greece in 1950, just emerging from what was 10 years of brutal war, was not a country of cultural and historical sensitivities. The architecture and layout of Greek cities has been severely violated ever since, as an aftermath of the psychology of “hunger” for instant gratification for a better life, before the next war struck, possibly. The assault on historical memory did not only affect the Jewish presence of Thessaloniki.
I am not justifying, I am explaining.
I wish things were different, but we can’t go back in time and change them. Yes, we should acknowledge and restore as much of our past as we can, but we cannot dwell in the past and cry over spilled milk.
It appears to me that you are locked in a dead-end of grief. Your maximalism is not at all conducive to anything positive.
You should start a campaign aiming at the creation of a memorial on the ancient cemetery and then allow yourself to move on. Otherwise, you will arouse cynical feelings in your readers, who might say “oh well, in a city as old as Thessaloniki, EVERYTHING is built on top of someone’s grave”.