Jewish Monuments of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki was the Jewish capital of the Balkans before World War II

History of Thessaloniki Jews

Thanks to the favorable location of the city, commerce has blossomed since its beginning. It attracted merchants of different nationalities. Jews were also among the newcomers. By the first century of our era, there was a fairly large Jewish community in Thessaloniki. In the local synagogue, the Apostle Paul preached Christ in the fifties of the first century AD.

From the second half of the 14th century Jews from Central, Western and Southern Europe began to flock to Thessaloniki. The first visitors were from Hungary (the first settlers arrived at the city in 1376), and then from Germany, France, Italy. However, the community began to occupy the leading position in the city with the resettlement of the Jews Ashkenazi and Shephardi from northern-western Europe in the 15th century. The Jewish community of Thessaloniki was the most numerous by the time the city was liberated from the Turks. 

Thessalonica Holocaust during World War II

On the eve of the war, there were 75,000 Jews in Greece and about 50,000 of them lived in Thessaloniki. German troops entered Thessaloniki On April 9, 1941. The Nazis closed the only Jewish newspaper in the city "Messagero" and confiscated a number of buildings belonging to the community, including a hospital built by Baron M. de Hirsch. On April 15, all members of the community council were arrested and the occupation authorities appointed a new head, who in fact became the executor of their instructions. 

In the period from 1942 to 1943, the Jewish people of Thessaloniki survived the ennobling mobility, mass confiscations of property and the demolition of the Jewish cemetery. Jews were ordered to wear a distinctive sign - yellow Magen-David (six-pointed star) and to mark their houses. Strict rules were established. Violators were shot. More than 43 thousand people were evacuated from the city on March 15 to August 1, 1943. Most of the deportees were taken to Auschwitz, where almost all of them were killed. 

In October 1944 Thessaloniki was liberated by allied forces. Later, some Jews emigrated from Salonika to Israel, as well as to the United States and other countries. By the early 1970s, the number of the Jewish population of Thessaloniki decreased to 1.5 thousand people and two synagogues functioned. Only a small but active enough community survived to the present day.

The Heritage of the Jews

Two synagogues operate in Thessaloniki nowadays. There are also several prayer houses and a Jewish school. The era of the numerical superiority of Jews in Thessaloniki left a serious imprint on the architectural appearance of the city. Rich mansions in the eastern part of Thessaloniki once belonged to the wealthy Jewish families Modiano, Allatini, Fernandez, and others were preserved until our time.