Optimism and confidence regarding the timing of the construction and full operation of the Hellenic Holocaust Museum is currently widespread among all representatives of the relevant authorities in Thessaloniki. If the new deadlines are really observed, then in 2026 in the western part of the city, at the intersection of Kolettis and Privokzalnaya streets, where 80 years ago the Jews of Thessaloniki boarded trains and were sent to concentration camps, the Holocaust Museum with axes of memory and knowledge will open its doors to the public and is projected to receive over 500,000 visitors annually.

Located – after the latest modifications – on a plot of 3,166 sq.m., it will consist of six floors and two underground levels with a total area of ​​9,000 sq.m. Permanent and temporary exhibitions will be located on four levels, and its spaces include archives, educational and research, multi-purpose, recreational and administrative premises.

The progress of the construction program was reported by Dimitris Samaras, Project Management and Implementation Officer (Project Manager), at the Israel Community of Thessaloniki’s Money Show 2023 event. the end of February, and its final study in June, so that the issuance of a final building permit paves the way for an auction of its construction. The appointment of a contractor and the start of construction of the facility is scheduled for November 2023 with a completion horizon of late 2025.

The museographic study was entrusted to the architectural firm Gallagher & Associates and the eminent museologist Yitzhak Mays, former director of the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel. A preliminary architectural study is being prepared by a partnership between Israeli architectural firms Efrat Kowalsky, Germany’s Heide von Beckerath and Greece’s Makridis Associates.

The selection of a contractor and the start of construction of the facility have been postponed to November 2023.

“Beacon of Memory”

The Holocaust Museum will open its doors to the public in early 2026 to “become not only an example of exceptional architecture that will serve as a beacon of memory against irrationality and intolerance, but also an engine of development for the larger West Entrance area,” as stated. Mr. Samaras came out.

Its construction was proposed in 2016 by the Israeli community of Thessaloniki with the support of Mayor Yiannis Boutaris, who, as community president David Saltiel stressed at the event, “is respected by the entire Jewish world and pioneered the idea for a museum that will honor the six million Jewish victims of Nazism, and in at the same time, it will function as a cultural and educational organization that will teach the horrifying consequences of authoritarianism.”

The project is funded by the Federal Republic of Germany with 10 million euros, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation with the same amount, the Greek state with 8 million euros, and Albert Burla, CEO of Pfizer, recently joined the list of donors to allocate 1 million euros from the Genesis Prize. 2022″. Important for the financing of the project, according to Mr. Samaras, is the legal exemption from VAT of donations intended for the construction of the museum (Law 4972/22).