In 1940, Volos was occupied by Italian troops. After the surrender of Italy, in 1943, the Germans occupied Volos. On 25. March 1944, the day of the Greek independence, the Germans planned to deport the approximately 1000 Jewish residents of Volos. Due to the foresight, planning, and action of Rabbi Moshe Pessah, Archbishop Ioakim, and local partisans, 75% of the Jews were saved. The 130 others were deported to their deaths at Auschwitz.

In the 1908s Volos-born Victor Politis. then leaving in New York City, proposed to build and sponsor a Holocaust memorial in Volos. Plans were developed in cooperation with the Municipality of Volos.

The dedication of the monument on September 27, 1988, was well attended. Notable speakers included Marcel Solomon, general secretary of the Volos Jewish Community, Dimitrios Pitrioris, Volos Mayor, Ron Kouriel, Israel Ambassador to Greece, Moshe Constantinis, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece, Panos Skotiniotis, Prefect of Magnisias Province, and the monument’s sponsor, Volos-born and current New York City resident, Victor Politis. Special messages of solidarity and support were received and read from the Archbishop of Greece, and the Greek Minister of Culture, Evangelos Venizelos. 

Another memorial to the 130 Volos Jews who died in concentration camps is located at the Jewish cemetery at the intersection of Taxiarhon and Paraskevopoulos streets.