The Greek Culture Minister visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland to honor the memory of the 53,000 Greek Jewish people who perished during the Holocaust.
- Greece’s Jewish community suffered enormous losses: over 53,000 victims at Auschwitz.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau served as the largest Nazi concentration and extermination complex, with over 1.3 million deaths recorded.
- Minister Lina Mendoni honored these lives at memorials located in Auschwitz I and Birkenau, reaffirming a commitment to memory and humanity.
- Only 1,900 Greek Jews returned home after Auschwitz, with nearly entire families, including children, wiped out.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni stood solemnly before the memorial to the Greek Jewish victims at Birkenau. Her visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum was not merely ceremonial—this was a gesture of remembrance, a vow to perpetuate the memory of the 53,000 Greek Jews that were destroyed by the Nazi regime’s atrocities.
She placed a wreath at two memorial sites: the Black Wall at Auschwitz I, where countless lives were terminated by bullets, and the monument to Greek Jews at Birkenau, following the scars of history. The weight of what had happened here bore down on every molecule of air—static, unbending, unforgettable.
Unveiling Stories of Loss
At the museum, Mendoni learned terrifying details that followed the path of devastation for Greek Jews. It was not just numbers—it was names, faces, families. The information was staggering. More than 55,000 Greek Jews were deported to Auschwitz, torn from their homes and their homeland. About 12,000 were chosen for forced labor. But for most, more than 40,000 souls, the end came quickly—in gas chambers constructed for mass murder.
Children were among them, innocent and vulnerable. Of 13,000 sent to this graveyard of humanity, a minority—just 136—were registered in the camp books. Ultimately, only five children from that contingent would see the outside world once more. Five. The others were consumed, their lives shattered in the gears of genocide. Greece, the nation that had been home to this vibrant community for generations, received back 1,900 survivors from this abyss.
What Remains: Memory as a Lesson
The Auschwitz complex was a system organized for death. It wasn’t chaos—it was calculated, frighteningly exact, deliberate. Spread across 44 camps, the most significant three—Auschwitz I, Birkenau (Auschwitz II), and Monowitz (Auschwitz III)—became epicenters of suffering. At Birkenau, gas chambers were built to kill 2,000 at a time. More than 1.3 million people perished here. Nine out of ten were Jewish. The scale defies comprehension.
For Mendoni, it was a visceral experience. In the guest book, she wrote words filled with pain and determination: “In this historic place of martyrdom, it is shocking to realize how knowledge, experience, and expertise can lead to inhumane behavior and criminal actions. A visit here, where the signs of death remain indelibly, must be a huge lesson for all of us, so that humanity does not repeat the same tragic mistakes. In difficult times, one must not forget one’s faith in the values of Democracy. Of true Democracy. We bow our heads and pay tribute to the thousands of dead, who paid for the violence of their fellow human beings with their lives. This sacrifice must never be forgotten.”