Work has officially begun to transform Thessaloniki's historic Eleftherias (Freedom) Square into a Holocaust Memorial Park, marking a major step in the city's efforts to commemorate the destruction of its Jewish community during the Second World War.
The symbolic launch of the project took place on March 15, exactly 83 years after the first train carrying Jewish residents of Thessaloniki departed for the Auschwitz extermination camp. Around 50,000 Jews from the city were murdered in the Holocaust, wiping out one of the most significant Sephardic Jewish communities in Europe.
During the ceremony, Thessaloniki mayor Stelios Angeloudis, the president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, David Saltiel, and Holocaust survivor Lola Hassid Angel laid the symbolic first shovel of earth, marking the beginning of construction. Attendees also unveiled a commemorative plaque marking March 15 as the official start date of the project.
Standing in the square where Jewish residents were once forcibly gathered by Nazi authorities before deportation, those present shouted: "Never Again".
Mayor Angeloudis described the moment as "a day of vindication", stressing the symbolic importance of reclaiming one of Thessaloniki's most historically charged public spaces. "History will record this as a victory for Thessaloniki," he said, noting that the project restores Eleftherias Square as a civic space while preserving its historical memory.
"We gain the right to look again into the eyes of Greek Jews who were violently gathered here by the Nazis and subjected to humiliations in this place of martyrdom," the mayor added. He said the new memorial park "will be here to tell the historical truth, to remind but also to teach".
Angeloudis also paid tribute to former mayor Yiannis Boutaris, who had originally promoted the memorial during his tenure. "We are implementing his idea today," Angeloudis said, recalling a final conversation with Boutaris in which he told him: "Friend Yiannis, we managed to stop history from being crumpled and the square from being degraded."
Speaking at the ceremony, David Saltiel highlighted the importance of transforming memory into a living public space. "Wounds are not reopened, but memory is given form, transforming trauma into strength and sorrow into perspective," he said. He added that both the memorial park and the planned Holocaust Museum will stand "in the centre of the city for everyone - a place of reflection and silent dialogue with what human beings did and what they allowed to happen".
The redevelopment project, funded entirely by Greece's Green Fund, has a budget of 6.3 million euros. Construction is expected to last around 14 months, with the new memorial park scheduled to open to the public in spring 2027.
By Katia Gerakaritou - adapted from Greek by Vassia Barba
