Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
European Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
33,1 (2000) 118-131
Keywords:
Antisemitism
;
Jewish cemeteries
;
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Jews
Abstract:
Discusses the two factors that threatened the historic Jewish cemetery of Salonika in the interwar period: urban modernization (as elsewhere in Europe) and antisemitism, largely a result of the return of 1.5 million Greek refugees from Turkey. The desecration of 70 Jewish tombstones in 1930 aroused the Jewish community to protest. While Muslim cemeteries had already been appropriated for urban purposes, Salonika's Jews were also facing antisemitism linked to Greek nationalism. A local Jewish leader found powerful Jewish allies in England and France to exert counter-pressure. Due to complications and the economic situation, the status of the Jewish cemetery did not change until 1936, with the inauguration of the Metaxas fascist regime. Still, a compromise was being worked out until it was rendered moot by the entry of German troops into the city in November 1942. On 6 December 1942 the cemetery was destroyed; after the war, no attempts were made to compensate the Jewish community.
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