On July 11, 1942, the Nazi authorities of Thessaloniki called all male Jews between the ages of 18 and 45 to Eleftherias Square under the pretext of their census. The assembled 9,000 people were subjected to public humiliation, which entered the collective memory as “Black Saturday”. Alas, these outrages were only the beginning of what was to follow. On March 15, 1943, the first train left the capital for the concentration camps. The systematic displacement of Greek Jews reached a peak in the subsequent period of time, with the result that both the flourishing community of Thessaloniki, founded in the 15th century, and other communities throughout the country that had existed since ancient times, were literally wiped off the face of the earth. map. Our greatest duty today is not only to preserve the memory, but also collectively and individually to ensure that this universal tragedy does not repeat itself to the Heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust, whom the country, deprived of them, does not forget after 80 years what happened. The participation of people was massive, people held black balloons in their hands, and representatives of the state and political authorities of the country were at the head of the procession. The procession began from Eleftherias Square and ended at the Old Station.

After the ceremony, the President of the Republic emphasized among other things: “We are here, in connection with the tragedy of Tempe, which the entire Greek society is experiencing with a sense of deep destruction, in order to preserve the memory of one of the most shameful and painful events of the 20th century. We walked in silence to the old railway station, from where on March 15, 1943, the first train left for the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. It was just one of many trains that gradually and under terrible conditions, in animal wagons, transported some 46,000 of our Jewish fellow citizens to the Nazi horror camps. Of these, less than 2,000 returned to the beloved “Balkan Jerusalem” where their Sephardic ancestors found a hospitable refuge in the 15th century. Commemorative events like today’s are needed to show, however belatedly, the real events of the arrest, displacement and finally extermination of our Jewish brothers. Violent events that cemented the life of the city and brutally changed its rich multicultural identity. And it is especially important that, especially in recent years, Thessaloniki realized their share of responsibility and openly condemned the mistakes of the past, seeking to heal the historical wound.”