Anyone interested in the Holocaust and how the macro-picture was shaped by micro-level interests should read this book.
Giorgos Antoniou, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
This book depicts in a calm and objective manner all the tragedy, but also the importance of the Jewish community in forming the citys identity.
Yiannis Boutaris, Mayor of Thessaloniki 20112019
This book explains the ongoing discomfort that the city has with its Jewish past.
K. E. Fleming, New York University
The book on (the fate of the Jews of) Thessaloniki that we have been waiting for 70 years.
Jol Kotek, Universit Libre de Bruxelles and Sciences Po Paris
The book uncovers untold aspects of Thessalonikis Jewish history, convincingly dispelling the widespread myth that Christians helped as many Jews as they could.
Nikos Marantzidis, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
Saltiel deserves my gratitude and congratulations for providing a page-turner, as well as a mainstay in my, and hopefully many peoples, library.
Petros Mavroidis, Columbia Law School
Saltiels path-breaking book draws on a rich array of previously untapped archives to paint a detailed picture of how genocide unfolded in occupied Thessaloniki, and illuminating as never before the local and municipal dimensions of this grim story.
Mark Mazower, Columbia University
Saltiel blends detailed narratives anchored in his exhaustive research with broad analytical insights in a work that should stand for the foreseeable future as the definitive study of its subject.
John McNeill, Georgetown University
Saltiels penetrating, sensitive and innovative study of the reactions of the non-Jewish population in Thessaloniki to the fate of the local Jews, is of utmost importance for a better, even if painful, understanding why they became one of the most victimized Jewish community. This book is essential reading.
Dan Michman, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem
Saltiels meticulous and nuanced reconstruction of Christian elites in Thessaloniki demonstrates that a mixture of nationalism, opportunism, and moral cowardice can quickly lead to the social death, deportation, and mass murder of a significant minority.
A. Dirk Moses, University of Sydney
Saltiels highly original and deeply researched book offers a look into one of the worst moments of Modern Greek history. An indispensable work.
Alexander Nehamas, Princeton University; Member, Academy of Athens
Saltiel offers a thick description of the institutional reactions to the Holocaust in Thessaloniki, pointing to the guilty silence of the city in non-confronting the darkest moment of its history.
Miltos Pechlivanos, Freie Universitt Berlin
Saltiels book is a significant contribution which persuasively explains the efforts to conceal that Thessaloniki had been a cosmopolitan city whose Jewish communities had contributed for centuries to its rayonnement.
Davide Rodogno, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
Saltiels meticulously researched study of the annihilation of the Jews of Thessaloniki is a critically important addition to both the history and the historiography of the Holocaust.
Menachem Rosensaft, General Counsel and Associate Executive Vice President, World Jewish Congress
This ground-breaking book on Thessaloniki reflects excellent scholarship and new findings. The book lays bare how a society abandoned fellow citizens and took advantage of their plight. A must read.
David Silberklang, Senior Historian, Yad Vashem
This book is an exemplary study of the behavior of local elites during the Holocaust. The concepts Saltiel has generated in his study of Thessaloniki could be usefully applied in other cities and in much of occupied Europe.
Timothy Snyder, Yale University
A necessary and crucial perspective, in a time when the involvement of bystanders is subject to distortion within both historiography and politics.
Dominique Trimbur, Fondation pour la Mmoire de la Shoah, Paris
A meticulously researched, penetrating study of the destruction and despoliation of the Sephardic metropolis, Saltiels book offers an unvarnished picture of the confluence of interests that led to that cataclysmic event.
Laurence Weinbaum, The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs
The Holocaust in Thessaloniki
This book narrates the last days of the once prominent Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the overwhelming majority of which was transported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in 1943.
Focusing on the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki, this book maps the reactions of the authorities, the Church and the civil society as events unfolded. In so doing, it seeks to answer the questions, did the Christian society of their hometown stand up to their defense and did they try to undermine or object to the Nazi orders? Utilizing new sources and interpretation schemes, this book will be a great contribution to the local efforts underway, seeking to reconcile Thessaloniki with its Jewish past and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
The first study to examine why 95 percent of the Jews of Thessaloniki perishedone of the highest percentages in Europethis book will appeal to students and scholars of the Holocaust, European History and Jewish Studies.
Leon Saltiel holds a PhD in Contemporary Greek History from the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki and has received post-doctoral fellowships at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Routledge Jewish Studies Series
Series Editor: Oliver Leaman
University of Kentucky
Jewish Studies, which are interpreted to cover the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, culture, politics, philosophy, theology, religion, as they relate to Jewish affairs. The remit includes texts which have as their primary focus issues, ideas, personalities and events of relevance to Jews, Jewish life and the concepts which have characterised Jewish culture both in the past and today. The series is interested in receiving appropriate scripts or proposals.
Jews of Turkey
Migration, Culture and Memory
Sleyman anl
The Making of Modern Jewish Identity
Ideological Change and Religious Conversion
Motti Inbari
Charity in Rabbinic Judaism
Atonement, Rewards, and Righteousness
Alyssa M. Gray
Deconstructing the Talmud
The Absolute Book
Federico Dal Bo
The Divine in Modern Hebrew Literature
Neta Stahl
The Holocaust in Thessaloniki
Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 19421943
Leon Saltiel
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/middleeaststudies/series/JEWISH
