78 years have passed since March 24, 1944, when about 1,000 Jews of Kastoria were arrested and imprisoned in order to be led to the Nazi death camps in Poland, erasing the traces of a thriving community that lived in harmony with Christians for a millennium.

The Memory of the Jews of Kastoria cannot and should not pass into oblivion.

With their thoughts on the tragic events of that grim day, the institutions of Kastoria and representatives of the Jewish Communities from all over Greece paid tribute to those individuals, in the context of a subtle ceremony held by the Municipality of Kastoria on 27.3.2022.

The event included a symbolic march from Omonia Square to the Monument of the lost Jewish Community, an area where the Jews of Kastoria maintained their businesses, while, afterwards, in the area of the Monument, a memorial service was held by the Shamash of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Solomon Algava, while the "kadish" was recited by the President of the Community Assembly of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Solomon Parente and Isaac Cohen.

A short greeting was addressed by the Mayor of Kastoria, Yiannis Korentsidis, the President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece David Saltiel, the President of the Community Assembly of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Solomon Parente, the Mayor of Ioannina and President of the Jewish Community of Ioannina, Moses Elisaf, the Vice-President of the Jewish Community of Athens, Daniel Emmanuel, the representative of the Jewish Community of Volos, Markos Maisis and the representative of the Centre for the Study of The Jewish Heritage of Kastoria, Cliff Russo.

The ceremony ended with the laying of wreaths and the soprano, Mariangela Chatzistamatiou, who performed a song about the Holocaust of the Jews and a lullaby, which she dedicated to the Eliahu family and their grandchildren, moved with her voice.