Commemorating the Holocaust Victims of Veria, Greece

Keeping the memory of Jewish students, victims of the Holocaust, alive.

Senior Fellow Ioannis Stylianidis became part of a team commemorating Holocaust victims from the Greek town of Veria as his Action Project after completing the 2018 Humanity in Action Warsaw Fellowship. Ioannis became interested in the work of Berlin artist Gunter Demnig. Demnig remembers the victims of National Socialism by installing commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of their last known address, so called stumbling stones (“Stolpersteine”). In explaining his concept, the artist cites the Talmud saying that “a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten.” Stumbling stones can be found all over Europe.

The remembrance project in Veria dedicated six stumbling stones to Jewish students from the town. These 10x10cm brass plates have inscriptions with the victims’ names and few biographical data. Daniel Aser, Pinto Isaac, Pinto Moses, Azaria Mischel, Azaria Lora, and Benroubi Rachel – on Monday June 3rd, 2019, six “Stolpersteine” were inserted into the pavement in front of their former school in memory of these students. 

Part of the ceremony was a lecture by Giorgos Lolios titled “From Veria to Auschwitz,” and a concert from the group Mobile and the internationally known soprano Sonia Theodoridou. The artist Gunter Demnig was present for all of these events. 

Partners and Supporters

The project was co-hosted and supported by the following institutions and entities:

• the schools of Veria the victims attended,
• the Hemathia Local Department of Antiquities,
• the Friends’ Association of the Polycentric Museum of Aigai,
• the Citizens Initiative for the Stolpersteine in Veria & Thessaloniki and
• the Heinrich Böll Foundation Greece.

Without their support this project would not have been possible.