Greek Jewry Commemorates 40th Anniversary of the Holocaust

With senior members of the Greek government in attendance, including Margaret Papandreou, the wife of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreaou, the Jewish community here commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Holocaust of Greek Jewry at a memorial service before an overflow crowd of 1,000 people at the old Jewish cemetery.

Greek Jewry lost 86 percent of its members during the years of Nazi barbarism. The murder of innocent men, women and children started in 1943 in Salonika, the “mother of Sephardic Judaism,” where 96 percent of all Jews were slaughtered. The great majority were exterminated in concentration camps in Poland, particularly Auschwitz.

The commemorative services were organized by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the representative body of Greek Jewry and the World Jewish Congress offiliate here. The services–highlights of which were carried on Greek television — began with a recital of Kaddish at the site of the Holocaust memorial in the central cemetery. Six memorial candles were lit and an introductory memorial address was delivered by Raphael Sabethai, the secretary-general of the Central Board.

LOCAL AND FOREIGN DIGNITARIES PARTICIPATE

In a moving ceremony, wreaths were laid at the memorial marker by representatives of the destroyed Jewish communities of Greece as well as by local and foreign dignitaries.

Among those who placed wreaths were Athens Mayor Dimitri Beis; Joseph lovinger, president of the Central Board; Kalman Sultanik, representing the WJCongress and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Yehuda Bar Ner, Israel’s diplomatic representative in Athens; and special emissaries of Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany and opposition leader Willy Brandt.

Sultanik told the solemn assembly that “we dedicate ourselves to Auschwitz — never again” and that the commemoration expresses “to the whole world over, both individually and communally, the oneness and the unity of the Jewish people, with the centrality of Israel.”

Addressing Mrs. Papandreou, he recalled her recent visit to New York at the home of WJCongress president Edgar Bronfman as a manifestation of renewed efforts toward Greek-Jewish mutual understanding. In the context of these efforts, Sultanik said that world Jewry applauded the legislation recently adopted by the Greek Parliament outlawing anti-Semitic discrimination and was pleased to learn of the recent visit of the Director-General of the Greek Foreign Ministry to Israel.

“We hope that the friendship between Israel and Greece is a burgeoning one, and that it will continue to grow until the culmination of an official diplomatic relationship — long overdue,” Sultanik said.