El Avenir (The Future) Nº 7 – Newsletter of The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki

El Avenir es el newsletter periódico de la Comunidad Judía de Thessalonica.

Editor: The President of JCT, Mr. David Saltiel.
Responsable: The Director of JCT, Mr. Samuel Iosafat.
Comité Editorial: Lydia Abastado, Diamando Arouh, Leon Arouh, Betty Bueno, Barouch Giechaskiel, Paul Hagouel, Leon Nar, Leon Saltiel.
Diseño: Hy Brazil 

Editorial

Dear friends,
The present issue of El Avenir is meant to be more than a regular newsletter. In its pages, we republish a number of  important articles that have to do with the dark days of Salonika’s Nazi occupation and the deportation of its Jews to the death camps.

Such is the article containing Neama’s letters, which revives the moments just preceding the deportations of March-April 1943. The article is accompanied by many photos from the same period coming from a variety of sources, some of them published for the first time.
We have also included a useful guide on how to coduct research on Jewish ancestors coming from pre-WW2 Salonika, answering a request by many of our readers.
Last but not least, with a number of brief news items, we provide the highlights of the Community’s activities in the last few months.
Trying to highlight and document the Community’s diverse and rich past is one of our continuous struggles.
For that, we also depend on you, our friends around the world, to share any item of interest you may possess in a personal archive and contribute to the perpetuation of the memory and safeguarding of our history.

The El Avenir editorial committee

Contents

• Greece to change law to allow for prosecution of German war criminals
• Ceremony at the American College of Thessaloniki – Anatolia
• Inauguration of the “Joseph Nehama” Hall
• Donation of tombstones to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• First Jewish Member of City Council since 1943
• The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
• Looking for Jewish relatives in pre-War Salonika? Some easy first steps
  – “The big fire of 1917 that burnt most of the city, completely destroyed the Community’s archive” 
• Letters from Salonika, 1943
  – LETTER 1 – From Mrs Neama to her sons in Athens. Salonika, 5-7 March, 1943.
  – LETTER 2 – From Mrs Neama to her sons in Athens. Salonika, Thursday, 8 March, 1943.
  – LETTER 3 – From Mrs Neama to one of her sons in Athens. Salonika, Thursday, probably the 18th of March, 1943.
  – LETTER 4 – From Mrs Neama to one of her sons in Athens. Salonika, Friday, 19 March, 1943.
  – LETTER 5 – From Mrs Neama to her sons in Athens. Salonika, Thursday, 1 April, 1943.
  – LETTER 6 (the last) – From Mrs Neama to her sons in Athens. Salonika, Saturday, 10 April, 1943.
• Greek Holocaust survivors to have citizenship restored
• Salonika Holocaust survivor tells of his ordeal
• The Violin from Auschwitz is Silent

Solicitar envio de El Avenir a:
Jewish Community of Thessaloniki,
email: info@jct.gr
web: www.jct.gr