The book narrates the last days of the once prominent Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the overwhelming majority of which was transported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in 1943.
Focusing on the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki, this book maps the reactions of the authorities, the Church and the civil society as events unfolded. In so doing, it seeks to answer the questions, did the Christian society of their hometown stand up to their defense and did they try to undermine or object to the Nazi orders? Utilizing new sources and interpretation schemes, this book will be a great contribution to the local efforts underway, seeking to reconcile Thessaloniki with its Jewish past and honour the victims of the Holocaust.
The first study to examine why 95 percent of the Jews of Thessaloniki perished—one of the highest percentages in Europe—this book will appeal to students and scholars of the Holocaust, European History and Jewish Studies.
Recipient of the 2021 Vashem Yad International Book Prize for Holocaust Research
"In view of the important contribution that this study makes to the understanding of the Holocaust in Thessaloniki in particular and, more broadly, in Greece, […] the International Committee for the Yad Vashem Book Prize decided to award the 2021 prize to Dr. Leon Saltiel."
The Decision of the International Committee to award the 2021 Yad Vashem Book Prize to Dr. Leon Saltiel for his book,
The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecutions, 1942–1943
(London and New York: Routledge, 2020).