Greece: How the Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki disappeared

DW (English)

There was a time when Greece's second city, Thessaloniki, was known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans. Its Jewish cemetery was once one of the largest in the world. Now, only traces of it remain, dotted around the city.

Transcript

00:00Most of the tourists who take Elias Matalon's guided tours are Jewish.

00:07Whenever he takes visitors to the synagogue in Thessaloniki,

00:10Matalon always sings a Sephardic song.

00:13It is the music of his ancestors,

00:15Sephardic Jews who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century

00:19and fled to Greece,

00:21turning the city of Thessaloniki into a vibrant center of Jewish culture.

00:26Thessaloniki was once known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.

00:29At one point, about half the city's population was Jewish,

00:33yet few visible traces of the city's Jewish past remain.

00:36But Elias Matalon knows the stories that are hidden behind,

00:40and in some cases in, the walls of his native city.

00:43Today, he is guiding two tourists from Israel around the city.

00:47His tour brings Thessaloniki's Jewish past and culture to life for the visitors.

00:52The Jews are a people,

00:55and it is important that a people has a memory, a past,

00:59that it lives on.

01:03In the Jewish Museum, they learn about what happened to the city's Jewish cemetery.

01:08With almost 500,000 graves,

01:10it was once one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world.

01:14In 1943, the city authorities applied to the occupying Nazi forces

01:19for permission to destroy the cemetery.

01:21In order to expand the city and use the gravestones as construction material.

01:26Within a few short days, centuries of Jewish history

01:30and a key part of the life of the city's Jewish community

01:33had been completely erased.

01:36Today, a university stands on the site of the former cemetery.

01:40In 1998, a monument was erected here.

01:44Few are aware of its existence.

01:46Elias Matalon would like more people to be aware of the memorial

01:50and reflect on what it means,

01:52so that they understand the city's history better.

02:11In general, Thessaloniki's Jewish past has been largely forgotten.

02:15But if you look closely, traces are visible all over the city.

02:19Here and there are remnants of gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions.

02:30Among other things, the city's authorities used pieces of gravestones

02:34to repair damage caused by a major fire in 1917.

02:38In this way, the stones that had previously marked

02:41the final resting places of thousands of Jews

02:44were integrated into the fabric of the city.

02:49We are now standing on pieces that used to be graves.

02:54Today, there are these remains.

02:57It is really sad, because this is not their place.

03:01Their place was where they were.

03:04I don't think it's right to take pieces from any grave

03:08and make pavements, walls, etc.

03:13I think it's shameful.

03:17Elias Matalon hopes that many people, Jews and non-Jews alike,

03:21will hear the story of what happened to the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki.

03:25Only those who were aware that the city was once home

03:28to a vibrant Jewish community,

03:30which for centuries helped shape and build Thessaloniki,

03:33can truly understand this city.

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