With music and songs that tell the story horror where the thousands lived Greek Jews who lost their lives in the Nazis concentration campswill be honored on Sunday in Thessaloniki National Day of Remembrance of Greek Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust.

Songs – “diaries” of the Jews

The event will begin with “The songs of the Holocaust of the Greek Jews“, which is part of the Research Program of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.

As “capsules that contain a lot of information about the history of the persecution, the events, people’s feelings, fears, hopes and all their internal woes and thoughts” characterized the particular songs by the sophist Mariangela Hadjistamatiou, who has dedicated a part of her life for songs that the Jews sang in Auschwitz.

“One of these songs, from what we understand from the lyrics, was written in train to Poland and the rest are the songs written in Auschwitz. At the end of the program we present the “Adio kerida“, (Sephardic) which is now the most popular and favorite song related to the Holocaust, as well as a song written by survivor Moshe Aelion for his sister who was murdered in Auschwitz,” noted Ms. Hadjistamatiou.

“I would say it was a means of expression, like we keep a diary and write what we think, what we fear and hope for, but the fact that they sang – even among themselves – and wrote songs in the most miserable and inhuman conditions, I think it was also a means of resistance” added Mrs. Hadjistamatiou. He also pointed out that the majority of the songs are in GREEK, a fact that he characterized as very important. “From the testimonies we learn that while they are in Greece, the Sephardim speak Spanish-Jewish to each other, but in Auschwitz, in inhuman conditions of incarceration, the expression is now in Greek, because the Greek language is the link with the homeland they miss,” he added.

“My Greek flag, my God, how I love it, my country to foreigners, my God, I do not give it, I prefer to be killed” are some of the verses to which the loudspeaker was mentioned, when – according to a source, the German commanded: “Sing Greek, sing”.

“I think that the listener, by following the lyrics that are in Greek, will be able to get a little closer to the feelings and psychology of these people” he concluded.

The schedule of Memorial Day events

The events will begin on the morning of January 28 at the Holocaust Memorial of the Jews of Thessaloniki, in Eleftheria Square, with a memorial service by the choir of the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki, followed by greetings, the keynote speech by the Undersecretary of the Interior, responsible for Macedonia – Thrace Stathis Konstantinidis and will be completed with the laying of wreaths at the monument.

The second part of the Memorial Day will take place at 6:30 in the afternoon, in the Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The event is organized by the Region of Central Macedonia, the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki and the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, while the main speaker will be the Most Reverend Archbishop of America, His Eminence and Exarch of the Oceans, Atlantic and Pacific, Mr. Elpidophoros.

“Before the speech, Mr. Elpidophoros will be honored with the title of Honorary Member of our Community, as well as Yannis Boutaris, who has played an important role in all that is being done today for the Museum, for the recognition of the Jews and for the fact that it created a stream of Israelis, who came and continue to come to Thessaloniki” said the president of the Israeli Community of Thessaloniki and the Central Israeli Council, David Saltiel, in a press conference.