A monument in homage to the Jews of Thessaloniki, most of whom were exterminated by the Nazis, was desecrated two weeks after a similar incident in this metropolis in northern Greece, we learned this Thursday, January 12 from the Council of Jewish communities in the country (KIS).
"
Anti-Semitic vandals roam freely and attack any attempt to preserve the memory of the Holocaust in Thessaloniki
," KIS said in a statement.
Swastikas and fascist symbols were painted on a wall plaque commemorating the deportation of Jews from Thessaloniki to the German extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Profanations follow and look alike
At the end of December, a swastika and a fascist symbol had also been painted on a monument dedicated to the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki, one of the oldest in Europe, destroyed in 1942 during the occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany.
No arrests have been made so far and the KIS again called on “
the authorities to take all appropriate measures to arrest the perpetrators of these acts and bring them to justice
”.
"
Communications of condemnation are not enough
", deplores the KIS qualifying as "
unacceptable
" the fact that "
those responsible for the desecration remain free
".
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Endemic Greek anti-Semitism
The Greek Jewish community currently numbers only 6,000 people.
An estimated 60,000 Greek Jews perished in the Holocaust, about 83% of the pre-World War II community.
Jewish monuments and cemeteries are often vandalized in Greece where anti-Semitism is rampant and the history of a once thriving Jewish community is often forgotten.
Three ministers in the current Conservative government have been criticized for their anti-Semitic past.
At least two of them had been forced in recent years to deny or apologize for their anti-Semitism.