The Municipality of Arta, a city in North-western Greece, on the occasion of the 74 years since the arrest and deportation (March 24^th, 1944) of 480 members of the local Jewish Community  by the Nazis, organized for second consecutive year a series of events dedicated to their memory.  Only 30 Jews survived the Holocaust.

In his speech the Mayor of Arta Mr Christos Tsirogiannis mentioned that “the Community’s historical memory is kept unchanged and the descendants of its members, many of whom are here among us, still keep ties with the homeland of their ancestors. It is a journey through time from which we learn our city’s history. This gives us strength for the future”. The Mayor of Arta also thanked the representatives of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and the Greek Jewish Communities for participating in the events, as well as the “Skoufas” Cultural Association for hosting the main event and all those who attended the events. 

The events begun on Saturday morning with a tour at the former Jewish quarter of Arta and in the evening the main event took place at the Cultural Center of “Skoufas” Association with the presentation of the history of the former Jewish Community of Arta by the lawyer – graphologist and researcher Theocharis Vadivoulis. During the main event addresses were delivered held by the Minister of Administrative Reform Mrs Olga Gerovasili, the Vice-President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece Mr Viktor Eliezer, the President of “Skoufas” Mr Nikolaos Bantaloukas, the Secretary General of the Athens Jewish Community Mr Joseph Mizan and the author Mr Dimitris Vlachopanos author of the book “ISAAK MIZAN – ARM NUMBER 182641”.

Pupils of the Music School of Arta participated to the event and sang the song of Mouthausen, composed by Mikis Theodorakis in the memory of the Holocaust victims.

The commemoration continued with a memorial service and a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust Monument of Arta which concluded with the blowing of the Sofar.  

Then hundreds of people participated in a march of living from the Jewish neighborhood to the cinema Orfeas, where the Jews of Arta were imprisoned till they were deported to Auschwitz.