A memorial column will commemorate the arson in the Jewish settlement of Campbell, in 1931, which is the most violent episode of anti-Semitic attack in Greece.
On 3.2.2020, the unveiling of the memorial column took place in Kalamaria, at the junction of Ethniki Antistaseos and Aristidou streets, in the Votsi neighborhood. At the same time, a wall-mounted information sign was placed on the facade of the closed gym on Aristidou Street, in the same location as the Synagogue of that time.
At the event that followed mayor of Kalamaria Yiannis Dardamanelis he emphasized the need to highlight history and remember that we can coexist harmoniously.
For his part, the president of the Historical Archive of Refugee Hellenism Ananias Tsirambidis stressed that the aim of placing the memorial column is "to pay tribute to the Jews who lived together with the refugees", while the former president Sotiris Georgiadis spoke about the dark paths of the EEE organization that had flagged nationalism and anti-Semitism.
The President of KISE and the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki David Saltiel noted that "at the time of the creation of the nationalist organizations there were no Nazis and yet the organized groups with constant support from newspapers and institutions expressed an anti-Semitic discourse that created the conditions for the pogrom. These events seem far away, but they are not. We see the devastating consequences of racism and intolerance," he said, adding that the path to the Holocaust was not abrupt, nor accidental, but built up gradually, with the rise of anti-Semitism.
The main speaker of the event was Leon Nar, Dr. of Modern Greek Philology of A.P.Th. and writer, who pointed out that "even if the public debate opened with a delay about events that few know and remember, little by little the history and memory of the city is being restored".
This was followed by a concert of Sephardic songs by the choir of I.K. Thessaloniki.
The event was framed by a photo exhibition of historical content.
HISTORICAL FACTS: The great fire of 1917 left 50.000 Jews dead. Ten years later the Campbell settlement was created to house the poorest of the Jewish fire patients. At the end of the 20s, nationalist organizations had appeared. At the same time, the clashes between natives and refugees, Jews and Christians, intensified, which were also fueled by anti-Semitic publications from the Venezuelan press (mainly from "Macedonia" by Nikos Fardis).
This anti-Jewish climate created the conditions for attacks against synagogues and Jewish settlements, the most important being the one in Campbell. The attack was carried out by the nationalist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic organization National Organization of Greece (or, as it was unofficially called, Greeks Exterminated the Jews) in which, it is worth noting, reservists but refugees participated.
On the night of June 29, 1931, members of the EEE organization attacked the Campbell settlement and set it on fire. The pogrom in Campbell left two dead, the Christian baker Leonidas Papas and the Jew Leon Vidal, dozens injured and hundreds homeless. The fire victims for the second time were temporarily housed in another area, while the area of Campbell passed into the ownership of the public and they later settled there, in the later settlement of Votsi, where refugees were housed.
SOURCE: MACEDONIA website, 2.2.2020