The Presidium of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), the Special Envoy of the Greek Foreign Ministry for Combating Antisemitism and for the Protection of Holocaust Remembrance, Ambassador Ms Chrysoula Aliferi, and her predecessor, Ambassador Mr Dimitris Giannakakis, participate in this year's Holocaust Remembrance Campaign #WE REMEMBER, in the framework of a meeting held at KIS Offices on January 25, 2023.

The commitment to the preservation of the Memory, the promotion of Education through cultural and informative activities, educational programs, the national action plan against anti-Semitism, were some of the topics discussed during the meeting.

Vandal antisemites roam freely and stain undisturbed any attempt to preserve Holocaust memory in Thessaloniki.

For the second time, the mural commemorating the deportation of the Jews of Thessaloniki to the German extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was created by the "Vardaris Neighborhood Group" and adorns the surrounding wall of the new railway station of Thessaloniki, with views from the pre-war and occupation periods of Thessaloniki, was vandalized.

This time the nostalgics of Nazism declared their intentions and anti-Jewish hatred with swastikas and fascist symbols.

This is the second anti-Semitic incident in a few days, after the desecration of the Monument dedicated to the old Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The Monument dedicated to the Jewish cemetery situated in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki was once more target of hideous vandalism. A swastika was sprayed on the grave that symbolizes the sacredness of the Jewish cemetery -one of the oldest in Europe- which was destroyed in 1942 by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as the annihilation of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, the largest in Greece, during the Holocaust. The marble dedication of the Monument was also desecrated with a fascist symbol.

With the stain of the horrific Nazi swastika and a fascist-inspired graffiti we bid farewell to 2022, a year during which no incidents of vandalism of Jewish sites were registered in Greece. We condemn the unholy act of the vandals, followers of intolerance and antisemitism that express their hatred and fanaticism through the profanation of the memory of the Salonican Jews. No tolerance to antisemitism!

We call on the Law enforcement authorities to be mobilized in order to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to Justice.

Athens, December 29, 2022

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece