Embassy of Israel in Athens hails decision to return Holocaust archive
The Embassy of Israel in Athens released an announcement on Thursday celebrating the return of the Greek Jewish Community Archives to Greece from Moscow.
“President Putin’s decision will help educate future generations, in Greece and beyond, on the rich Jewish life in Greece, the immense contribution of the Thessaloniki Jewish Community and the disaster of the holocaust,” the announcement stated, quoting the Ambassador of Israel Yossi Amrani.
“The return of the archives and the commitment and determination of Prime Minister [Kyriakos] Mitsotakis and his government to build a Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki represent the victory of the spirit and humanity over the barbarity and atrocities of that terrible period in our life and history,” concluded the statement.
The largest part of the archives in Moscow relate to the once-thriving Jewish community in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city. The archives were looted by the Nazis during the occupation and were transferred to Moscow in May in 1945 when Berlin fell to Soviet forces.
The news was announced during a press briefing by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Wednesday.
