| Unique photo
exhibition focuses on Holocaust of Greek Jews STRASBOURG: A unique
photo exhibition entitled "Holocaust of the Greek Jews - The Persecuted
and Saviors" premiered in
February 13, 2001.
The prolific exhibition - organized by the press ministry in cooperation
with the Jewish Museum of Greece - will be presented in Strasbourg's "Palace
of Europe" from Feb. 12-26 by the press office of Greece's Permanent Representation
to the CoE, before traveling to other cities in Europe and North America.
The exhibition, comprised of 170 WWII-era photographs, is divided into
18 themes, with accompanying texts and captions in French and English,
projected slides and modern artwork. Among others, the exhibition's goal
is to better inform European public opinion on the Holocaust in Greece
during the Nazi occupation, and within the context of the ancient and
historical presence of Jews in the Hellenic world. Greece, which hosted
the largest Sephardic Jewish community in the world prior to the war,
mainly in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, was virtually unblemished
by anti-Semitism, a fact that made Greek Jews' experience somewhat different
from the rest of the Jewish communities in occupied Europe. According
to the memoirs of E. Sevillias in his book "Athens-Auschwitz", "...all
of us had heard about the poor behavior they (Germans) had shown towards
the Jews everywhere, but our knowledge about this was little and confused.
Additionally, the Jews of Greece had no idea of what anti-Semitism was,
because they had never known it in this blessed land." The 18 themes of
the exhibition include: - A brief presentation of Greek Jews' historical
course from late antiquity to 1940 - The German occupation (1941-44) -
The banishment of Thessaloniki's Jews - The banishment of Jews from NE
Greece - Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Damaskinos' official protest
- The issuance of fake police ID cards - Angelos Evert - Zakynthos, the
island of the brave - Avenues of escape and salvation - Greek Jews in
the national resistance - The banishment of Jews from the rest of Greece
- Concentration camps - Liberation - The survivors - Yesterday and today
- The silent witnesses - Artifacts from the Greek Jewish communities -
Greeks among the "Righteous of Nations" - The Jewish Museum of Greece
- The Holocaust - Educational programs and museum events on the Holocaust
Jewish communities in Greece today. |
