French Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy sent a message of respect for the memory of the Jewish Holocaust victims of the Greek city of Thessaloniki on Sunday, in the framework of the annual commemorations events.

Sarkozy’s maternal grandfather Benedict Mallah was a Sephardic Jew from Thessaloniki, who immigrated to France in the early 20th century.

In his message Sarkozy, a candidate for the 2007 presidential election, said that “we owe it to all those destroyed lives to remember them as I owe it to my grand father’s family.”

Some 50,000 Jews from Thessaloniki, which was once the main centre of Jewish life in the Balkans, were deported and exterminated by the Nazis from 1943.

Sarkozy also mentioned his efforts to balance between religion and secular society by saying that France is a free country for religions but within the context of tolerance.

“As minister responsible for religion in France I’m entrusted with the task to ensure the religious hopes of each individual and fight religious mobilization that does not respect the freedom of others,” he said.

Dual commemorations

Two events, both organized by the local Jewish community, took place on Sunday in the northern port city in honor of the Holocaust victims.

The first was held at the “Elefteria Square” (freedom square) where in 1942 the city’s Jewish males were gathered, by order of the Nazi forces in the heat of the summer, and were subjected to exhausting physical exercises for more than 16 hours.

Later the able bodies where conscripted into forced labor brigades thus beginning the extermination of the strong Thessaloniki Jewish community that ended in Auschwitz.

The second took place at the American College of Thessaloniki and was dedicated to the memory of the one and half million children exterminated during the Holocaust, including 15,000 Greek Jewish children of which 10,000 came from Thessaloniki.

The monument to the Jewish victims has found its permanent home in the Elefteria square, where it all began, thanks to the efforts of the mayor of Thessaloniki Vassili Papageorgopoulo.

International support

Besides Sarkozy, several other dignitaries sent messages, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan and special European envoy for Holocaust issues, Ambassador Edward O’Donnell.

In his address to the gathering Papageorgopoulo stressed that “we must remember, honour and be alert so as to make sure that something like this will never happen again.”

“The annihilation of thousands of our Jewish compatriots from the Nazis is a wound in the history of Thessaloniki that will never heal,” he added.

In a telephone interview with EJP, the President of the Jewish community, David Saltiel, said that this year’s celebration is dedicated to all the children lost in the Holocaust.

“The lost of the children was the biggest harm to the city and our community. We no longer have boys to play basketball for Maccabi Thessaloniki against the other Greek teams and we don’t have Jewish boy scouts to interact with their Christian compatriots,” he said.

“Should the children had survive the Jewish community would be the biggest Sephardic community in Europe,” Saltiel added.

In a message sent to the Jewish community leaders, Greek Prime minister Kostas Karamanlis said : “For Greece, remembering the Holocaust has a special meaning since in the concentration camps thousands of our compatriots left their last breath. Almost all the Greek Jewish communities where wiped out, communities that where the nucleus of civilization and creativity of our cities and especially Thessaloniki.”

Less than 6,000 Jews currently live in Greece which is predominantly
Christian Orthodox. On Monday Greek President Carolos Papoulias is to attend a commenorative service in the capital Athens.

Sunday’s commemorations in Greece were part of the first International Holocaust Day set by the United Nations General Assembly last year.