Larissa, Greece: Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece: Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust

by Samuel D. Gruber

This summer I documented about 50 Holocaust memorial monuments, plaques, and other installations, in Greece. I also visited synagogues, cemeteries, museums, and other Jewish sites, and many other places of interest, too.  The Holocaust memorials come in all sizes and shapes, and I will continue to introduce many of the more interesting ones here on my blog. I’ve recently written about Holocaust memorial monuments in Thessaloniki, Chania and Volos. Eventually, I hope I'll find a place to pull all these observations and photos together. 

A few of the monuments were made soon after the war by communities that were just reestablishing themselves, albeit with only a fraction of their former number. Some of these memorials were created by members abroad who contributed funds and helped collect the names of the dead. In Greece and elsewhere those who were spared the horrors of the Holocaust often took the lead in creating memorial monuments and (Yizchor) books for different communities. In recent years the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities under the leadership of David Saltiel has been erecting memorials in places where Jewish communities could not be reestablished and memory of the Jewish presence and the fate of the Jews, was little known or fading fast. We'll see some of these soon.

But first, some "older" ones. One of the first big public memorials, and the most effective of those that I've seen, is the very large bronze Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust in Larissa, Greece. It was dedicated in 1987, and designed and created by sculptor Georgios Chouliaras. The design appeals to Greeks in size, location, material, and most importantly, iconography. It is not loaded with Jewish symbols or Hebrew letters emphasizing Jewish "otherness". Instead it uses the figure of a mourning woman, a figure that harks back to millennia of Greek trauma and commemoration. 

Before World War II, Larissa had a Jewish population of 1,020. Many community members fought the Italians and German invaders and after the German occupation, many joined national resistance groups. Thirteen (13) Larissa Jews were killed in fighting, 4 on the Albanian front and 9 fighting the Germans. On March 24, the Germans arrested Jews still in Larissa and deported them to the death camps, mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 235 were murdered; only 5 returned. 

The memorial monument to the "Martyrs" occupies a public square created on land previously owned by the Jewish community but bombed and thus left open after the war when new streets were laid out in the area. The site, very close to the town's one remaining synagogue, was the location of Larissa’s famous Talmud Torah, which produced rabbis and teachers who served communities throughout the Balkans.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

The monument commemorates of the 235 Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Larissa, as well as all other Jewish victims. The Municipality named the place “Square of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust”. It succeeds on many levels where other monuments fail. It is big - and fills the space – and is visible from afar, so urbanistically it works. It is an attractive work of sculpture, combining traditional motifs (the mourning woman) with a certain level of abstraction that leaves the viewers guessing. It avoids simplistic symbols but states its purpose and meaning in clear (Greek) language in a very large and prominent inscription that is impossible to miss, and impossible to misinterpret. In one sentence it packs in information about victims and perpetrators, the reason for the memorial, and the collaboration of the Jewish Community and the Municipality in erecting it, 

The Greek inscription translates as:

1944-1945. The Jewish community erected this monument on the square dedicated by the city of Larissa, to the memory of the 235 innocent Jews of Larissa and their 6,000,000 brethren, who were victims of an atrocious genocide in the Nazi camps.

 The Community arranged for the sculpture and paid for it, and the city managed everything else. It also serves as a playground for little children. I hope when they grow up, they’ll remember this monument and by then learn and think about what it represents.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Larissa, Greece.  Monument of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. Georgios Chouliaras, sculptor, 1987. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.