Obj. ID: 44486
Modern Jewish Art  Holocaust Memorial "Menora in Flames 2" in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1997, 2007

Who is Commemorated?

50,000 Greek Jews of Thessaloniki killed in the Holocaust

Description

The sculptural monument is set on a low wide base made of rectangular blocks of grey marble with white veins.  From a distance, the sculpture seems entirely abstract, but closer observation shows the form of a menorah built of human bodies and flame. The bronze sculpture rises as a roughly square plan vertical “trunk” that then extends much wider in seven branches, as in a menorah, but these branches are sculpted as wavering pointed flames reaching to the sky. In an intermediate area above the “trunk and entwined in the growing flames are the abstracted forms of at least six human figures, their bodies distorted and stretched, and their thin limbs entangled and caught in the flames.

Two plaques affixed to the base of the monument refer to the original installation and its removal and new dedication. The first, written in Greek and English, solely remembers the victims. The second, in Greek, Hebrew, and English, commemorates a moment in contemporary (2006) Greek and Israeli politics.

Inscriptions

On the first plaque in Greek:

ΤΟ ΜΝΗΜΕΙΟ ΑΥΤΟ ΑΦΙΕΡΩΝΕΤΑΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΛΑΟ
ΣΤΗΝ ΙΕΡΗ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΩΝ 50,000 ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ
ΠΟΥ ΤΗΝ ΑΝΟΙΞΗ ΤΟΥ 1943 ΞΕΡΙΖΩΘΗΚΑΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΗ ΤΟΥΣ
ΚΑΙ ΕΞΟΝΤΩΘΗΚΑΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΥΣ ΝΑΖΙ ΚΑΤΑΚΤΗΤΕΣ
ΣΤΟΥΣ ΘΑΛΑΜΟΥΣ ΑΕΡΙΩΝ
ΤΩΝ ΣΤΡΑΤΟΠΕΔΩΝ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
ΝΟΕΜΒΡΙΟΣ 1997

Translation: This monument is dedicated by the Greek people in sacred memory of the 50,000 Greek Jews of Thessaloniki who in the spring of 1943 were deported from their city and were exterminated by the Nazi conquerors in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps. November 1997

On the first plaque in English: 

DEDICATED BY THE GREEK PEOPLE TO THE MEMORY OF
THE 50,000 JEWISH GREEKS OF THESSALONIKI,
DEPORTED FROM THEIR MOTHER CITY
BY THE NAZI OCCUPATION FORCES
IN THE SPRING OF 1943, AND
EXTERMINATED IN THE GAS CHAMBERS OF
THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU DEATH CAMPS
NOVEMBER 1997 

On the second plaque the identical inscriptions in Greek, Hebrew and English.

In Greek:

ΕΙΣ ΜΝΗΜΗΝ ΤΩΝ ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ, ΘΥΜΑΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΟΛΟΚΑΥΤΩΜΑΤΟΣ
ΚΑΡΟΛΟΣ ΠΑΠΟΥΛΙΑΣ, ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑΣ
MOSHE KATSAV, ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΣΡΑΗΛ
ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΕΥΚΑΙΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΤΗΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΕΨΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΣΡΑΗΛ
ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ.
16 ΦΕΒΡΟΥΑΡΙΟΥ 2006

In Hebrew:

לזכרם של 50.000 יהודי שאלוניקי קורבנות השואה.
קארולוס פפוליאס, נשיא הריפובליקה ההלנית
משה קצב, נשיא מדינת ישראל.
לרגל הביקור הממלכתי הראשון של נשיא מדינת ישראל ביוון.
י''ח שבט תשס''ו - 16 פברואר 2006

In English:

IN MEMORY OF THE 50,000 JEWS FROM THESSALONIKI, VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST
KAROLOS PAPOULIAS, PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
MOSHE KATSAV, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIRST STATE VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
TO THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
16th FEBRUARY 2006
18 SHVAT 5766

Commissioned by

Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece (KIS)

Municipality of Thessaloniki