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Obj. ID: 52329
Memorials
  Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Corfu, Greece, 2001

© Samuel Gruber, Photographer: Gruber, Samuel D., 2023

Memorial Name

Μνημείο Εβραϊκού Ολοκαυτώματος Κερκύρα

Translation: Jewish Holocaust Memorial of Corfu

Who is Commemorated?

Jewish Holocaust Victims from Corfu

Description

The monument is a free-standing bronze sculpture of a family, set on a large rough stone (marble?) base in the middle of a small public square in the north of the old town of Kerkyra, near the port, where the center of the Jewish community of the island used to be before the war. Today, the monument is surrounded by cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating that encroaches on the space of the memorial.

The sculpted group consists of four nude figures: a woman cradling an infant, a man with outspread hands, and a young boy at his side. The young boy is leaning his head and arm against the man's hip, hiding his face from the viewer.

On the monument's base are two stone plaques, bearing inscriptions in Greek and English.

Inscriptions

Greek Plaque

ΠOTE ΠIA KANENA ΛΑΟ

ΣTH MNHMH TΩN 2000 KEPKYPAIΩN EBPAIΩNΣ
AΛEΛΦΩΝ MAΣ ΠOY EΞONTΩΘHKAN ΣTA
NAZIΣTIKA ΣTPATOΠEΔA TOY AOYΣBITΣ KAI
MΠIPKENAOY TO 1944 

O ΔHMOΣ KEPKYPAIΩN
KAI H IΣPAHΛITIKH KOINOTHTA
TO MNH EIO TOYTO ANHΓEIPAN

NOEMBPIOΣ 2001

English Plaque

Never Again for any Nation

Dedicated to the memory of the
2000 Jews of Corfu who perished
in the nazi concentration camps of
Auschwitz and Birkenau in June 1944

By the Municipality
and the Jewish Community of Corfu

November 2001

Commissioned by

The Municipality of Corfu and the Jewish Community of Corfu

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

35 image(s)    Items per page

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Name/Title
Jewish Holocaust Memorial of Corfu | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Date
2001
Active dates
Reconstruction dates
Origin
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Unknown |
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Greece | Ionian Islands | Corfu Island | Corfu (Κέρκυρα)
| Str. Xenofontos, Kerkira 491 00
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Unknown
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Languages of inscription
Shape / Form
Material / Technique
Bronze
Stone [Marble?]
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
Base: 3.20 meters by 1.30 meters (approx.)
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature

On the base of the bronze statue

Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance

Shortly before World War II about 2,000 Jews were living on Corfu. During the Italian occupation (1941–43) there was little change in the status of the island’s Jews. This changed when the Germans occupied the island on September 27, 1943.

On June 9, 1944, all the Jewish families gathered on Army Square and then taken to the Old Fortress. They were forced to surrender all their valuables and keys to their houses, which were immediately plundered. Approximately 200 Jews, mostly women, managed to avoid the German roundup and escaped to villages in the island’s interior.

On 11 June, 300 Jewish women were transported on a towed barge to Igoumenitsa and then on trucks to Athens. On 14 June, all Jewish men, with the remaining women, were sent on barges to Patras, and then to Piraeus, and then to the Haidari concentration camp where after a few days they were crammed onto cattle cars, without water and little food. After a horrific 9-day journey, 1,800 members of the community reached the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Immediately 1,600 were sent to the gas chambers and the crematoria. Only 200 were selected for work, and very few of them survived until the end of the war.

A small community of survivors was reconstituted after the war, centered around the surviving but ruined 17th-century Scuola Greca synagogue. The synagogue has since been restored and this plaque was installed in 2002.

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

“War, German occupation and the Holocaust,”  in digital exhibition At the Crossroads: The Jewish Community of Corfu. Jewish Museum of Greece, 2000., https://www.jewishmuseum.gr/en/historical-background-war-german-occupation-and-the-holocaust/ (accessed October 24, 2023)
Type
Documenter
Samuel Gruber | 2023
Author of description
Samuel Gruber | 2023
Architectural Drawings
|
Computer Reconstruction
|
Section Head
|
Language Editor
Adam Frisch | 2023
Donor
|
Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed: