The mayor of the northern Greek port city of Kavala said that the dedication of a disputed Holocaust memorial will take place “very soon.” The mayor appeared to walk back comments attributed to her last week by the country’s the Central Board of Jewish Communities after municipal authorities canceled a May 17 ceremony unveiling the memorial, saying that the Star of David must be removed or the monument will not be permitted to go on display.
On Sunday, Mayor Dimitra Tsanaka confirmed that city councilmen from her party objected to the size and placement of the Star of David on the monument, but denied that she agreed with them or wanted the star removed, the Associated Press reported. Tsanaka was speaking Sunday to demonstrators wearing yellow Stars of David, who gathered to protest the delay in the unveiling of the memorial, according to the AP.
“The verbal request of the Mayor of Kavala to the Central Board of the Jewish Communities in Greece, just before the unveiling, to completely remove the Star of David from the Monument, constitutes a blunt insult to the Memory of the 1,484 Greek Jews citizens of Kavala, and to the six million Jews from Europe who were murdered by the Nazis,” wrote in a statement David Saltiel, President of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. “We are certain that the majority of the citizens of Kavala disagree with the request put forth by the Municipality and with the decision made by Municipal Council,” the statement reads.
The memorial commemorates the 1,484 Jews from Kavala who were murdered by the Nazis.
