The Jewish museum in Thessaloniki has opened a new wing, with four new spaces for exhibitions and a museum shop. Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos took part in the October 27 inauguration, officially opening the building.
According to the ANA news agency, Pavlopoulos stressed the need to remember that the Holocaust “was the most atrocious crime against humanity at a time when admirers of Nazism and fascism are emerging again in Europe.”
The news site ekathimerini.com ran an interview with the museum’s curator Evangelos Hekimoglu, who describes the new wing and exhibitions and discusses the development of the museum and understanding of Jewish heritage in the city.
The new wing has added four new spaces, one on each level. The first is the museum shop and the second focuses on Jewish architectural activity in the interwar years. The other two new halls pertain to the 1912-45 period, which is the most important, as it covers the gradual attrition and final destruction of the Jewish community, but also efforts at its revival. The narrative comes to an end with a collection of folk art and the section on the destroyed cemetery and the synagogues. Furthermore, there is an area in the basement that has been designed to host lectures and educational and other activities.
Read the full interview (in English)
The Thessaloniki Jewish Museum was founded in 2001. Its collections include:
collections of tombstones from the destroyed Jewish Cemetery, constructional parts of synagogues which have been demolished by the German Occupation Authorities, religious objects, old and rare books in Hebrew language, family memorabilia, ketubot (marriage contracts), public and private documents related to World War II, private correspondence, traditional outfits, fabrics, tablecloths, books and bank account booklets (until 1940). The museum has in its possession the only existing collection of surviving prewar family and school photographs, which has been formed by still continuing donations; last but not least, the Museum keeps an important digital collection of business documents pertaining to the Jewish companies of Thessaloniki.
It also has developed a smartphone app on the Jewish heritage of the city.