#7 Greece. Salonika - The Destruction of the Largest Jewish community on the Balkans

Before the Second World War, the largest Jewish community in Greece and in the Balkans lived in Thessaloniki. In 1900 they made up half of the city's population. During the Nazi occupation, the German persecution of the Jewish community was astonishingly swift and brutal. In this episode we speak with historian Maria Vassilikou about the case of Thessaloniki, the authoritarian regime under Ioannis Metaxas that dealt with anti-Semitism differently than others, and how the public discourse about the Holocaust was shaped after the war. 

Shownotes


Maria Vassilikou, “Politics of the Jewish Community of Salonika in the Interwar Years” London 1999.


Maria Vassilikou, “Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden" Volume XIV. München 2017. 


Elena Chouzouri, “Onkel Avraam bleibt für immer hier” Athen 2023.