Desecration of the Monument of the Aristotle University

Thessaloniki - 11/7/2018

PRESS RELEASE
        
The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki expresses its disappointment and indignation and condemns in the most categorical manner the desecration of the Monument that took place on July 10, 2018 within the grounds of the Aristotle University of the unknown, 12 days after the most recent desecration of the Holocaust Monument of Thessaloniki.

The desecration is an insult to the Monument, which was erected to commemorate and restore to the collective memory the Jewish students of the Aristotle University who perished in the Nazi death camps. To link the current landscape of the site to its history and remind to everyone the existence of the old Jewish Cemetery destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators in 1942. At the same time this extremely sad event is an act of great disrespect for the Aristotle University Thessaloniki, an institution of Education, a place for molding the character and consciousness of the younger generation.

The actions of the perpetrators confirm that the necessary and successful efforts made by our Community, in cooperation with the authorities and institutions in our city and homeland to combat racism, anti-Semitism, intolerance and fanaticism while restoring and promoting the history of Thessaloniki and its aspects on the centuries-old Jewish presence, are annoying and disturbing.