OPENING OF THE EXHIBITIONS OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS - WE FOR THE HOLOCAUST - Central Jewish Council of Greece, coordinating body of the Jewish Communities of Greece

The opening of the double outdoor photographic exhibition in memory of the victims of the Holocaust was carried out by the Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, and the President of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Makis Matsas, on Friday 3.2.2023. The exhibition will last throughout February.

The two exhibitions on Vasilissis Olga Street "The Holocaust of the Greek Jews 1941 - 1944" and "Trauma as Memory and Life" are organized by the Municipality of Athens in collaboration with the Jewish Museum of Greece and the artist Artemis Alkalai, as well as with the curation and coordination of the Culture Office of the Municipality of Athens.

On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, which is celebrated every year on January 27, the Municipality of Athens for one more year sends a resounding message through the two exhibitions "never again", so that humanity will not experience such atrocities again.

The opening of the exhibition was attended, among others, by the Ambassador of Israel, Mr. Noam Katz, the President of the Greece-Israel Friendship Parliamentary Group, Dimitris Kairides and the Vice President, Olga Kefalogianni, on behalf of the Central Israeli Council of Greece, the General Treasurer of KISE Mr. Daniel Benardout, the President of the Jewish Community of Athens, Albertos Taramboulos, the Director of the Community Tally Mayr and the Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Janet Battinou.

K. Bakoyannis: A very important moment for the municipality of Athens

Mr. Bakoyiannis emphasized that "this is a very important moment for all of us in the Municipality of Athens. We all know that our biggest enemy is ignorance, which is also the biggest obstacle in our common path to building tolerant and inclusive societies. That is why it is important to preserve the historical memory of the millions of victims of the greatest atrocity that has scarred human history."

The Mayor of Athens also stated that "with this report we have the opportunity to look back: Greece lost more than 80% of its pre-war Jewish population. The works of Artemis Alkalai put us in the microcosm of the house-shelter of the Greek Jews during the occupation. We move from "before" to "after", from the "inside" of comfort and safety to the "outside" of persecution and destruction. This very contrast "gives birth" to strong emotions and awakens introspective thoughts.

"Trauma and memory, in or out of quotation marks, become "lenses" and at the same time "tools". Family moments and images document the violent and horrific transition from peace to war. The spectrum of time is confused and the timelessness of creation emerges" he underlined.

"Art resists, life wins. With that being said I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has worked to get us to this point. A big thank you to Mr. Daniel Benardout who represents the Central Jewish Council of Greece, to Mr. Alberto Taramboulos, President of the Jewish Community of Athens, as well as to the Jewish Museum of Greece and to the President Mr. Matsa for the cooperation and of course to the artist, etc. Alkalai", concluded Mr. Bakoyannis in his statement.

M. Matsas: "NEVER AGAIN must be accompanied by similar initiatives"

The President of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Makis Matsas, for his part, said: "Mr. Mayor, I would like to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for today's initiative and the organization of this event. It is not enough to just say the words "never again" and never relive the Nazi atrocities of the last century. They should be accompanied by initiatives similar to the current one. Well done to everyone who collaborated for this event, well done to the artist Alkalai."

Mr. Matsas also referred to the training seminars for school teachers about the Holocaust that are organized every year by the Jewish Museum of Greece, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, but also to the visits of students to the Auschwitz Museum, where the most horrific events took place crimes of the Holocaust: "You cannot imagine the satisfaction we feel when we read the reports of the students after their return from their educational trip to Auschwitz, which sometimes make us admire the maturity of these children and sometimes bring us to tears in the eyes from their stories. In today's era when nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism are starting to take on new dimensions in Europe and remind us of the dark days of the past. These students and similar events like the one organized today by the Municipality of Athens and its Mayor, are ambassadors against any kind of intolerance".

Israeli Ambassador Noam Katz also attended the event

At the event, the Ambassador of Israel to Greece, Noam Katz, addressed a greeting, who said: "It is a great honor for me to be here today. We have a concept, the concept of memory. It's called "hope." It is an active concept of remembering. It means that when we really want to remember something we have to work hard every day to remember the lessons presented in our lives. I would like to thank the Jewish community, the Mayor of Athens and everyone who is here to participate in this commemoration. This memory is something created by an artist, who brought it to life in our public space. And this is something very important because it captures the fears of the past, but also processes them, so that all of us can feel them, remember them and receive the necessary lessons of "Never again!".

In her speech, finally, the visual artist Artemis Alkalai, after warmly thanking the co-organizers, referred to her works, which, she said, began 25 years ago: "I started in the 90s to deal with the subject of the Holocaust , trying to represent it, through the world of children's play, the puppet. It was the only way I could manage the family and collective trauma. Since 2010, I have introduced a new theme in my work which is homes: The home in which we all grew up, received love, mother tongue, care and affection in peacetime. And it is that which is lost, shaken, vanished, destroyed and strained in time of war."

"Thus with this house I traveled all over the world, I met Holocaust survivors, Greeks from the Nazi camps, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and in the same photographic shot I deposited the house as a symbol, as an archetype of all those who lost but also of those who got their second life, either in Greece or abroad". And she added that "besides the Holocaust, this work embraces other issues such as issues of identity, gender, but also historical, collective and personal memory," said Ms. Alkalai.

What can be seen in the two photo exhibitions

"The Holocaust of the Greek Jews 1941-1944"

The exhibition captures moments from the life of the Greek-Jewish communities, before and during the Second World War. In the photographic material of the exhibition, which comes entirely from the Archive of the Jewish Museum of Greece, visitors see happy family moments, photographs of weddings, professionals, students, photographs of neighborhoods and places of prayer, which unfold the lives of people who were displaced or they are lost forever.

"Trauma as Memory and Life"

In Artemis Alkalai's photography exhibition, the artist poses issues of freedom and memory, loss and trauma, from a visual perspective. The red tangle of memory unravels and connects past, present and future. Thought travels to the before and the after, the beautiful and the difficult, the inseparable. Mrs. Alkalai approaches the subject and memory of the Holocaust using the materials of home crafts and small crafts. Fabric, canvas, paper, thread, wood and glue play a leading role and define the materiality as well as the content of her work. With roots in history and faith in the Greek cultural tradition, he borrows techniques that he transforms into a modern, personal artistic idiom.

SOURCE: Iefimerida.gr, 3.2.2023

ABOUT:

OUTDOOR PHOTO EXHIBITION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS ON THE HOLOCAUST

- Site of the MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS

ABOUT:

MESSAGES

POST OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2023

MESSAGE OF THE PRIME MINISTER FOR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2023

POST OF THE ISRAEL AMBASSADOR ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2023

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#WE REMEMBER 2023 HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN

EVENTS FOR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2023 AT I.K. GREECE