Thessaloniki – “Park in a place of martyrdom” read the stickers that strangers stuck last night around the perimeter of Eleftherias Square, where exactly 80 years ago today, 9,000 Thessalonians Jews were tortured and humiliated by the Nazis, under the hot summer sun.
Today the area of Eleftherias Square does not even resemble a square, much more a memorial square for what happened on July 11, 1942, a day that went down in history as “Black Saturday”. No institutional body has announced the organization of any commemorative event for today, something to remind that there, in Eleftherias Square, the first act of the drama was played out, which would continue in the Nazi extermination camps. So the passers-by were left to look in wonder at the stickers that were pasted in Eleftherias Square, without most of them knowing why the parking lot… is designated as a place of torture. We found similar stickers in various places, from Aristotelous and the port to Kamara, Navarinou square and the town hall.
On July 11, 1942, the Nazis rounded up 9,000 male Jews of Thessaloniki there, registered them and subjected them to public humiliation, hooded under the hot sun, whipped, beaten and attacked by bulldogs. The description of Yomtov Yakoel, the lawyer of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, who records the events as they happen to me, is shocking:
“German FG gendarmes pour their bulldogs on some Jews…
Other Jews who, tired of waiting for many hours, sat down on the ground, the men of the Gestapo beat until they bled.
Other Jews were forced to perform strenuous physical exercises continuously and on time without ceasing under threat of beating. Finally, other groups of Germans force Jews to perform humiliating movements (flips) in the presence of Christian curious and spectators. In order to complete the spectacle, photographs of the gathering were taken by Germans and photojournalists, which were immediately presented to the Greek press with characteristic descriptions, at the expense of the Jews, the next day.
It is worth noting the fact that in this adventure of group registration and forced concentration for work of 8000-9000 Jewish Greek citizens, no reaction was shown either by the Christian society, nor by the state and local authorities”.
This square, which is a place of martyrdom for thousands of Thessalonians, has remained a parking lot since the 1950s until today. The previous municipal government planned to create a memorial park there and the project had been launched, but due to problems with the contractor, the work did not proceed. Instead of proceeding with the 2nd bidder, the current municipal authority decided in 2019 to terminate the contract and at the end of 2021 to examine whether the construction and sustainable operation of an underground car park would be feasible and as a temporary solution the operation of the square was chosen as a temporary (?) controlled parking area.
