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In the past the Jewish presence in Thessaloniki was ignored. Let us take into account that Thessaloniki had a very small population before the war. And as it grew it absorbed a lot of people from villages, and small towns of the inland, who had no idea that there were Jews in Thessaloniki. These people simply didn’t have a clue.
However, people in politics or those that were mayors knew. When I heard them speaking about Thessaloniki as the ‘bride of the Thermaic Gulf,’ or ‘the city of Alexander the Great,’ Byzantine city etc., I understood that they didn’t speak at all for the Jews of Thessaloniki. Silence for a long time. It was done intentionally, and there was ignorance from those who didn’t know.
A girl asks you in a federal office, ‘What is your name?’ - ‘Saltiel.’ - ‘What name is that, what are you? French, from Chile?’ - ‘No, Jewish,’ I say. ‘Did you come from Israel?’ I say, ‘Did you come from Koritsa?’ [Editor’s note: a city in southern Albania with a significant Greek-speaking population]. This has not changed. Since the Jews are an extinct element, or under extinction, it is natural.
In my daily contacts I don’t feel like talking about the Jews of Thessaloniki, and sometimes I even stop such conversations. I have no reason to discuss such issues with people I don’t know, and give them a lecture. Since they don’t know that once the city was Jewish, let it be.
However, people in politics or those that were mayors knew. When I heard them speaking about Thessaloniki as the ‘bride of the Thermaic Gulf,’ or ‘the city of Alexander the Great,’ Byzantine city etc., I understood that they didn’t speak at all for the Jews of Thessaloniki. Silence for a long time. It was done intentionally, and there was ignorance from those who didn’t know.
A girl asks you in a federal office, ‘What is your name?’ - ‘Saltiel.’ - ‘What name is that, what are you? French, from Chile?’ - ‘No, Jewish,’ I say. ‘Did you come from Israel?’ I say, ‘Did you come from Koritsa?’ [Editor’s note: a city in southern Albania with a significant Greek-speaking population]. This has not changed. Since the Jews are an extinct element, or under extinction, it is natural.
In my daily contacts I don’t feel like talking about the Jews of Thessaloniki, and sometimes I even stop such conversations. I have no reason to discuss such issues with people I don’t know, and give them a lecture. Since they don’t know that once the city was Jewish, let it be.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel