In a remarkable turn of events, nearly 700 Jewish tombstones and fragments have been discovered in Thessaloniki, more than 70 years after the Nazis destroyed the centuries-old Jewish cemetery of what was the biggest Jewish community in Greece and used the stones as building material all over the city.
The Associated Press reports that police announced the find on Thursday.
The 668 fragments were found buried in a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, following a 70-year search for the remains of graves smashed when the city’s main Jewish cemetery was destroyed.
It quoted David Saltiel, president of the Jewish community in Greece, as saying that most of the recovered gravestones found dated from the mid-1800s up until World War II.