78 years have passed since March 24, 1944, when some 1.000 Kastoria Jews were rounded up and imprisoned for Nazi death camps in Poland, erasing the traces of a thriving community that had lived in harmony with Christians for a millennium.
The Memory of the Jews of Kastoria cannot and must not be forgotten.
With their thoughts on the tragic events of that gloomy day, the bodies of Kastoria and representatives of the Jewish Communities from all over Greece paid a Tax of Honor and Memory, in the context of a simple ceremony held by the Municipality of Kastoria on 27.3.2022.
The event included a symbolic march from Omonia Square to the Monument of the Lost Jewish Community, an area where the Jews of Kastoria maintained their businesses, while, afterwards, a memorial service was held at the Monument by the Shama of the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki, Solomon Algava , while the "kadis" was recited by the President of the Community Assembly of I.K. Thessaloniki, Solomon Parente and Isaac Cohen.
A brief greeting was addressed by the Mayor of Kastoria, Yiannis Korentsidis, the President of the Central Jewish Council of Greece David Saltiel, the President of the Community Assembly of I.K. Thessaloniki Solomon Parente, the Mayor of Ioannina and President of I.K. Moises Elisaf of Ioannina, the Vice President of I.K. Athens Daniel Emmanuel, the representative of I.K. Volou Markos Maisis and the representative of the Jewish Heritage Studies Center of Kastoria, Cliff Rousseau.
The ceremony ended with the laying of wreaths and the soprano, Mariangela Hadjistamatiou, who moved with her voice by performing a song about the Holocaust of the Jews and a lullaby, which she dedicated to the Eliau family and their grandchildren.
SOURCE: website MUNICIPALITY OF KASTORIA, 28.3.2022