Before the Second World War around 50,000 Jews lived in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. 96 percent of them were murdered during the Holocaust. Now there are almost none left.
“The cityscape was completely obliterated and transformed as a result of the fire of 1917 and the destruction of World War II. In both instances, the Greek state utilized those catastrophes to Hellenize the city and to remove the imprint of Jews and Muslims in the process,” Devin E. Naar, professor of Sephardic studies at the University of Washington recently told Public Radio International.
However, PRI reported this week, Ioannis Boutaris, has been working hard to change that since his election as Thessaloniki’s mayor in 2010.
“When I became mayor I said one specific thing: You can’t build your future if you don’t know your past,” the tattooed 75 year old former businessman explained.
In 2013, Boutaris led a march, organized in conjunction with the local community, the World Jewish Congress and the Israeli Embassy, to mark the seventieth anniversary of the deportation of the city’s Jews, almost all of whom perished during the war. It has since become an annual event.
In 2014 he built a Holocaust memorial at the city’s university and wore a yellow Star of David to protest the election of a member of the far right, anti-Semitic Golden Dawn party to the city council.
“The Jews of Thessaloniki are more patriots than us,” Boutaris told PRI. “What’s important is that the truth about the presence of the Jewish community in the city must be restored. And there I won’t step back.”
In late 2013 Greek lawmakers voted to defund Golden Dawn. It currently holds 17 out of 300 seats in parliament. According to a 2014 Anti-Defamation League poll, Greece is the most anti-Semitic country outside of the Middle East and North Africa, with a 69% anti-Semitism rate.
