German soldiers force a group of Jews to perform calisthenics on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in Salonika.

Record Type: Photograph

Photograph #:64143

Caption: German soldiers force a group of Jews to perform calisthenics on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in Salonika.

Date: 1942 July 11

Locale:Salonika, [Macedonia] Greece

Variant Locale: Thessaloniki, Saloniki, Salonica, Solun

Event History: In the first large scale public action against the Jews of Salonika, General Kurt von Krenzski, the commander of German forces in northern Greece, ordered all adult Jewish men to assemble on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square on the morning of 11 July 1942 to register for work details. Instead of receiving work assignments, however, the nearly 10,000 men were kept standing in the sun for the entire day while German and Italian soldiers humiliated them in front of the non-Jewish population by forcing them to perform calisthenics and other distasteful tasks. Those who collapsed from the heat and exhaustion were beaten by the troops or doused with cold water and again made to stand.

Photo Designation:INVASION & OCCUPATION — Greece — JEWS — Salonika — Public Humiliation/Round-ups

Keyword: COLLABORATORS,  FORCED EXERCISE , FORCED LABOR/BRIGADES , JEWS (GREEK) , JEWS (SEPHARDIM) , PUBLIC HUMILIATION , SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN) , SPECTATORS/AUDIENCES/BYSTANDERS

Published Source: Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944. – Hamburger Institut fuer Sozialforschung (ed.) – Hamburger Edition, HIS Verlagsges – p. 186

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Yad Vashem Photo Archives

Central Zionist Archives

Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum)

Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of David Sion