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Obj. ID: 44662
Modern Jewish Art
  Holocaust Memorial plaque in Drama, Greece, 1997

© Samuel D. Gruber, Photographer: Gruber, Samuel D., 2022

Who is Commemorated?

1200 Jews of Drama murdered in the Holocaust

Description

A rectangular marble plaque with an inscription is affixed to the exterior wall of the former tobacco warehouse. 

Inscriptions

The inscription in Greek reads:

ΣΤΟ ΧΩΡΟ ΑΥΤΟ ΣΤΙΣ 3 ΜΑΡΤΙΟΥ 1943
ΣΥΝΕΛΗΦΘΗΣΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΦΥΛΑΚΙΣΤΗΚΑΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΙΣ
ΓΕΡΜΑΝΟΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΙΚΕΣ ΑΡΧΕΣ ΚΑΤΟΧΗΣ
1200 ΕΒΡΑΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΔΡΑΜΑΣ ΟΙ ΟΠΟΙΟΙ
ΕΚΤΟΠΙΣΘΗΚΑΝ ΣΤΑ ΝΑΖΙΣΤΙΚΑ ΣΤΡΑΤΟΠΕΔΑ
ΤΟΥ ΟΛΕΘΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ
ΤΡΕΜΠΛΙΝΚΑ ΑΟΥΣΒΙΤΣ-ΜΠΙΡΚΕΝΑΟΥ
ΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΘΑΝΑΤΩΘΗΣΑΝ
ΑΙΩΝΙΑ Η ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥΣ
ΔΗΜΟΣ ΔΡΑΜΑΣ
ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΟ ΙΣΡΑΗΛΙΤΙΚΟ ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ
ΔΡΑΜΑ 1 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ 1997

Translation: On this site on the 3rd of March 1943/ were arrested and imprisoned by the / German-Bulgarian occupying authorities / 1200 Jews of Drama who were/ transferred to the Nazi camps / of calamity and death / Treblinka Auschwitz-Birkenau/ where they were killed / May their memory be eternal / Drama Municipality / Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece / Drama 1 June 1997

Commissioned by

Municipality of Drama

Jewish Community of Kavala

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS)

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

9 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Holocaust Memorial plaque in Drama | Unknown
Object Detail
On exterior wall of former tobacco warehouse
Monument Setting
Public park
{"9":"Any memorial erected or installed in a present-day public park, including Jewish cemeteries or other sites now operated as public space."}
Date
1997
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Origin
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Unknown |
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Greece | Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Region | Drama (Δράμα)
| Saint Barbara Park (Αγίας Βαρβάρας ) Drama, 661 00
Site
Unknown
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Unknown|
Period
Unknown
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Unknown
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stone, White marble
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Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
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0
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History/Provenance

In 1997 public remembrance of the Holocaust history of Drama began with the installation of a memorial plaque. It was installed on the wall of the tobacco warehouse where the Jews of Drama had been imprisoned in 1943 on the edge of Agia Varvara (Saint Barbara) Park.

On the night of March 3-4, 1943, the Jews of Drama were forcibly gathered in the warehouse, from where they were transported by train to Bulgaria, and on March 20-21 to the Bulgarian harbor of Lom on the Danube. From there they were taken to by riverboat under horrific conditions to Vienna. Finally, the exhausted and starved prisoners were taken to Treblinka in Poland, where they were immediately murdered. By 1948 only 39 survivors of the Holocaust had returned to Drama. The community could not be reconstituted and was dissolved.

In 1999, a more substantial free-standing monument for all the Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust – but especially for those deported by the Bulgarians from Macedonia and Thrace - was erected in the adjacent park.

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Gruber, Samuel D., “Greece: In Drama, Remembering the Murder of Jews of Macedonia and Thrace,” Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments, July 21, 2022., https://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/2022/07/greece-in-drama-remembering-murder-of_21.html (accessed August 26, 2022)

Kone, Loise and Roula Kone, Jewish-Greek Communities: little Beloved Homes (Volos: The Ladies of the Jewish Community of Volos, 2006)

“The Jewish Community of Drama,” Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece, https://kis.gr/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=374&Itemid=114 (accessed September 11, 2022)
Type
Documenter
Samuel D. Gruber | 2022
Author of description
Samuel D. Gruber | 2022
Architectural Drawings
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Computer Reconstruction
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Language Editor
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed: