Holocaust Memorial in Thessaloniki, Greece
Holocaust Memorial in Thessaloniki, GreeceiStock

Greece on Sunday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the first deportations of Greek Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Thessaloniki, AFP reported.

Holding white balloons captioned “Never Again”, around a thousand people of all ages marched to the old railway station of Thessaloniki, where the deportations began on March 15, 1943. Many people left flowers on the train tracks.

Some 46,000 Thessaloniki Jews were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau between March and August 1943, said the president of the Jewish community in Thessaloniki David Saltiel.

Just 1,950 returned, he said.

"The community lost 97 percent of its members, around 50,000 people," Saltiel said, noting that Jews made up a fifth of Thessaloniki's population at the time.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Thessaloniki Mayor Konstantinos Zervas were among the officials at the ceremony.

The American ambassador to Greece George Tsunis and Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis also attended.

Thessaloniki had a thriving 50,000-strong Jewish community before World War II but only around 1,000 Jews remain today. About 96 percent of the city’s 50,000 Jews were murdered in Nazi camps.

Among over 77,000 Jews living in Greece before World War II, more than 86 percent perished during the Holocaust.

Today, the community numbers around 5,000, according to the Jewish Museum in Athens.

Zervas said work has begun on a Holocaust museum to honor the memory of those who died in the Nazi camps.

In 2017, the Jewish community Thessaloniki got the go-ahead to build the museum, funded in part by Germany. The project to remember Greek Jews murdered by the Nazi regime was first announced three years earlier by then-Thessaloniki mayor Yannis Boutaris.

Greece has gradually begun honoring its Jewish community after formalizing relations with Israel in 1990.