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Social services for Nazi victims have been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Funds have been provided by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany for the Emergency Assistance Program for Nazi Victims at the direction of the United States District Court supervising the lawsuit In RE: Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks).

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THE HELLENIC PARLIAMENT ILLUMINATED FOR THE WE REMEMBER CAMPAIGN ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 2022

On the 27th of January 2022, the Hellenic Parliament participated in the international campaign #WeRemember of the WJC, by displaying on the facade of the Parliament’s building a message for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In this symbolic way, the Hellenic Parliament stated its clear stance against anti-Semitism, as well as its commitment to preserve the Memory of the Holocaust victims, as a universal message against intolerance and antisemitism. In 2004 the Hellenic Parliament legislated, with a unanimous vote, the «National Remembrance Day for the Greek Jews Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust».

The illumination of the building was made possible thanks to the decision taken by the President of the Parliament, Mr. Konstantinos Tasoulas, and the coordinated actions of his office and the technical department of the Parliament.

The graphic design that was projected on the Parliament -apart from the We Remember logo- was illustrated with characteristic symbols of the Holocaust, such as the barbed wire, a hand tattooed with the inmate’s camp number, and the Star of David with which 6.000.000 Jews –amongst whom 67.000 Greek Jews- were singled out, marked, deported, tortured by the Nazis and their collaborators, and ultimately were brutally murdered in the German concentration and extermination camps.

MESSAGE BY THE GREEK PM MITSOTAKIS FOR THE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 2022

The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted on his facebook account the following message for the Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022:

“We do not forget our compatriots and all the Jews who perished in Auschwitz and the camps of horror.
Let the International Holocaust Remembrance Day be a beacon on the way of our everyday action against racism and antisemitism”.

THE ATHENS CITY HALL ILLUMINATED FOR THE WE REMEMBER 2022 CAMPAIGN

The illumination of the imposing façade of the City Hall of Athens with the logo of the WJC #WE REMEMBER campaign, began in the evening of January 26, 2022. The illumination will continue tomorrow, on the 27^th of January 2022, as a tribute to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the National Remembrance Day for the Greek Jews Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust.

The Municipality of Athens participates for the first time in #WE REMEMBER with this symbolic action of raising social awareness, for the implementation of which the Mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyiannis and the staff of his office were immediately mobilized, in spite of adversities caused by the extreme weather conditions that afflicted Athens. The city of Athens remembers the darkness of the Holocaust of the 6.000.000 Jews and “lights up” the future with the values of democracy and humanism. This is the dynamic message transmitted by the City Hall of Athens.

The Hellenic Parliament will also participate in this year’s #WE REMEMBER campaign with the illumination of its building, which will take place in the evening of the 27^th of January 2022.

KIS MESSAGE FOR HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 2022

Wednesday, 26 January 2022 09:50

WE REFLECT on today’s anniversary: January 27, 1945, the liberation of Auschwitz. The world astonished in front of the human skeletons, in front of the magnitude of horror. The miserable survivors of the Holocaust had already evacuated the death camp and were walking, amidst the snowy rural Poland, the ‘death marches’, yet looking ahead towards freedom.

WE REMEMBER the 6.000.000 Jews, amongst whom the 67.000 Greek Jews, victims of the Nazi atrocities, who were deported, tortured and brutally murdered in the German concentration and extermination camps around Europe. Our relatives, our friends, our neighbors.

WE REMEMBER the Righteous among the Nations, all those who put their own lives in danger and contributed to the rescue of their fellow citizens who were persecuted only because they were born Jewish. Those who enlightened with their humanism the darkness of and Nazism.

WE RESPECT those who managed to come out alive from the hell of Auschwitz and the other extermination camps, who are still standing by us, as living witnesses of the horrors they suffered and leaders of the fight against Holocaust denial.

WE GET OPTIMISTIC when teachers and students visit places of martyrdom, when they see, listen, read, learn. This is the “light” of remembrance so that humanity never forgets all inhuman atrocities of the Holocaust, so that we transmit the universal message against intolerance and antisemitism.

Athens, January 26, 2022

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

KIS COMMUNICATION WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN FOR THE RETURN OF THE JEWISH ARCHIVES FROM MOSCOW

Monday, 03 January 2022 14:30

Following the announcement with which KIS welcomed the news of the return from Moscow to Greece of the pre-War archives of the Greek Jewish Communities, KIS President David Saltiel and Secretary General Victor Eliezer, in their letter -dated December 15, 2021- to Russian President Putin, express the satisfaction of the Greek Jewry upon Russia’s decision which is important to the Greek Jewish Community.

On behalf of the Russian side, the Cultural Attaché of the Russian Embassy to Greece, Th. Kalaidov, contacted KIS President on January 2^nd, 2022, and conveyed President Putin’s assent to KIS’s views as presented in the letter which we publish here under in English translation:

Honourable President Putin,

On behalf of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, which is the umbrella organization and the coordination body of the Jews of Greece, we wish to express our all hearted thankfulness for your decision to return to Greece the pre-War Archives of the Greek Jewish Communities that were looted by the Nazis during the German occupation of our country and were transported to Moscow by the Red Army after the takeover of Berlin in May 1945.