Memorial marking anniversary of deportation of Jews from Thessaloniki
Memorial marking anniversary of deportation of Jews from ThessalonikiReuters

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris will visit Israel on Thursday, honoring Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Boutaris will visit the Ghetto Fighters' House and the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz, in a visit which "demonstrates the desire of the municipality of Thessaloniki to strengthen ties with Israel and the world Jewish community."

Over the years, the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, served as an example of a multicultural city in which Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side by side.

During the early 20th century, the Jewish settlement in the city was considered one of the oldest in Europe and the Jewish community was the largest of the ethnic groups in the city.

The fire that took place in the city in 1917 destroyed most of the Jewish community, and three decades later, most of the Jews perished in the Holocaust.

At the initiative of its Jewish community, Thessaloniki is also building a new Holocaust Museum, tracing the history of Jewish life in the city.

The museum will be built near the old railway station, from which the Jews were sent to the extermination camps, near the neighborhood where the Jewish ghetto was established in 1942.