Destruction of the Jewish cemetery of Salonika

The Jewish cemetery of Salonique, the largest in Europe, is razed within a few weeks by order of the occupation authorities, with the agreement of the municipal authorities who coveted the land. The graves are opened, the slabs torn away, the bones scattered. The stones then serve as building material throughout the city: they will be found in walls, church courtyards, staircases, and pavements. The cemetery held burials accumulated over centuries; its destruction precedes by a few months the deportation of those who buried their dead there, and strips the community of Salonique of its inscribed Memory before stripping it of itself.