Commemorating the 76th anniversary of the tragic events, speakers and attendees expressed the need to implement "Never Again".
In a modest ceremony, on the morning of Sunday 5.5.2019, at the Synagogue of Monasterios, the memorial service was held for the 6.000.000 Jews of Europe, including the 50.000 Jews of Thessaloniki, victims of one of the blackest pages in world history, that of Holocaust.
Commemorating the 76th anniversary of the tragic events, as is also celebrated annually in the Israeli state (Yom A Shoah), speakers and attendees alike expressed the need to implement "Never Again," a phrase that is more relevant than ever. as, as they pointed out, both in Greece and in Europe there is an alarming rise of the extreme right and fascism.
During the ceremony, Rabbi Aaron Israel chanted the memorial prayer (Ashkavah) and the memorial prayer of the Jewish religion (Kaddish), in the presence of dozens of citizens, politicians and state figures. The Choir of the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki also sang hymns, while the actor Yiannis Fertis and the survivor of the Holocaust, Victoria Benuziliou, read excerpts from the collection "Poems for the Holocaust" (Eneken Publications) translated by Andy Saul-Antontsiou. The reading of the poems was accompanied by the musicians of the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, Apostolos Chandrakis (cello) and Malina Iliopoulou (bassoon).
"It is the duty of all of us, who are not Jewish in religion, to deal with the Holocaust, because it concerns us directly," said keynote speaker of the ceremony, journalist, writer, poet and editor of "ENEKEN" magazine, George Giannopoulos. And he explained: "It concerns us as a historical experience because these are innocent victims and it concerns us as citizens of Thessaloniki vis-à-vis the historical past of the city. With the pretext of the economic crisis, we have the revival of the extreme right, racism, anti-Semitism and the dark past of Europe. And studying and caring about the Holocaust is a bulwark for today's society, our democracy, and the future of our children and the children of the world."
On the other hand, president of the Israeli Community of Thessaloniki, David Saltiel he referred to his recent trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp: “Two days ago I returned from Auschwitz. Together with Patriarch Bartholomew and the Speaker of the Parliament, Nikos Voutsis, I made the march of the living from Auschwitz to Bickernau, where we emphasized the need to prevent such events from happening again."
"76 years after the horror of the Holocaust, the monster is here again", emphasized during her speech secretary of the Community Council of the Israeli Community of Thessaloniki, Hana Pinto, citing data from recent surveys that show that 57% of the citizens of the Greek state do not believe that the desecration of Holocaust monuments is a problem.
The ceremony ended with the Eli Eli psalm and the observance of a minute's silence. The Holocaust survivors, Heins Kounio and Zana Santikario, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Sokratis Famellos, the ND Member of Parliament, Stavros Kalafatis, the candidate mayors of Thessaloniki, Katerina Notopoulou and Nikos Tachiaos, the SYRIZA executives, among others, were present. Nikos Ragos and Nikos Paraskevopoulos, as well as the well-known actress, Katerina Lechou.
SOURCE: VORIA website, 5.5.2019