Greek and German Presidents visit site of future Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki

Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou paid a visit to the future Holocaust Museum of Greece in Thessaloniki on Tuesday, ANA reports.

The German president gave the Museum an album with photographs from Ioannina (Yannena) that show the transport of Greek Romaniot Jews living there to the Nazi concentration camps. The album's first photograph, he said, shows a young woman crying, foretelling her fate. President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) and of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, David Saltiel, said on receiving the album that it will be the first historical document to be placed in the new Museum. 

The spot where the future Museum will be built is where 50,000 Greek Jews "were loaded onto trains for animals," while of the 50,000 deported Jews, "12,800 had fought in the Albanian front for their homeland," Saltiel said in an address. "We are in Thessaloniki, which used to be called Madre de Israel, or Mother of Israel, which before the war held an outstanding position in the Sephardic Jewry of Europe, with numerous institutions, rabbinic schools, and synagogues," he added.

The Museum to be built will stand as a beacon of light against racism and antisemitism and be a research and documentation center for all generations, Saltiel underlined, to include the histories of the Jews from all of Greece. He also thanked Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for his undivided support to the donors of the Museum: the Greek state, the German state and President Steinmeier, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and President Andreas Dracopoulos, the Genesis Prize Foundation, and Thessaloniki-born Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. He also thanked the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Region of Central Macedonia, and TrainOSE for their contributions in the Museum's construction and the creation of a memorial park. 

Architect and head of the Makridis Associates office Petros Makridis, who also addressed the event, spoke of the Museum and said that the main concessionaire will be appointed in the first quarter of 2025, while the main construction work is slated to begin before April 2025. The Museum is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027. The project went ahead mainly because of two people, Saltiel and former Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris, he added.

German President Steinmeier is visiting Greece from October 29 to October 31, at the invitation of Greek President Sakellaropoulou. During his visit, the German president will visit Thessaloniki, Athens, and Crete.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Wvdp