'Jerusalem of the Balkans': Exploring Thessaloniki's lost Jewish history - opinion

A personal travelogue recounts a visit to Thessaloniki, Greece, exploring the city's once-thriving Sephardi Jewish community. The author reflects on the community's rise as merchants and longshoremen, the devastation of the 1917 fire, and the near-total destruction of 53,000 Jews in the Holocaust. The piece highlights the deception that enabled the deportation and the ongoing recovery of desecrated tombstones. It also notes the role of Jewish stevedores who later helped develop Israeli ports and were among the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz.

A personal travelogue recounts a visit to Thessaloniki, Greece, exploring the city's once-thriving Sephardi Jewish community. The author reflects on the Jewish stevedores who worked the docks, some of whom later helped develop the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv, and who were among the Sonderkommando prisoners who revolted at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The piece traces the community's rise after the 1492 expulsion from Spain, when Jews made up half the population and Ladino became a principal language. The 1917 fire left 52,000 Sephardi Jews homeless, leading many to emigrate. The Holocaust saw over 53,000 of 56,000 community members murdered. The author describes the deception by Rabbi Zvi Koretz, who preached relocation to Poland, and the destruction of the ancient Jewish cemetery, whose tombstones were used for a swimming pool and pavements. Guide Elia Matalon explains how the community was misled, noting his mother-in-law's family suspected the ruse but most did not. The piece also notes the ongoing recovery of gravestones and a visit to the Monastirioton Synagogue.