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Alternate names: Thessaloníki [Grk], Selânik [Turk], Selanik [Ladino], Solun [Bulg], Thessalonique [Fr], Thessaloníkē, Salonique, Saloníki, Salonika, Salonica. Sa. Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη. 40°38' N, 22°56' E, Greece's second-largest city, 188 miles NNW of Athens. 1900 Jewish population: 60,000.

Jewish community history. "...in December 1942, the ancient cemetery, containing nearly 500,000 graves and dating back certainly to the 15th century, was expropriated and thus became a quarry for the entire town." Source [October 2000]

[UPDATE] Boutaris breaks silence on Thessaloniki’s hidden shame [November 2014]

CEMETERY:

The Nazis destroyed the old cemetery in 1943. Aristotelian University stands on the former cemetery site. The local cemetery at STAVROUPOLIS has a memorial to the 50,000 Greek Jews murdered at Auschwitz. See a picture of the monument and its exact location. See a picture of the cemetery before it was destroyed.

JOWBR burial listings [August 2010]

Greek police said that 668 fragments of marble headstones and other pieces from Jewish graves destroyed during the World War II  Nazi occupation have been recovered from a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. The headstones date from the mid-1800's to World War II. The inscriptions includes occupations as well as the name of the deceased. About 60,000 Greek Jews, most of the pre-WWII Jewish population, were killed in the Holocaust. Article. [December 20, 2012]

BOOKS: Source: National and University Library, Jerusalem

[UPDATE] Broken stones from the former Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki. Learn about Thessaloniki's Jewish past [December 2020]

Parent Category: WESTERN & SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE