consulate events
Ambassador Ries in Thessaloniki in Honor of the Holocaust Memorial Day
January 27, 2005
American Consulate General
As delivered
Remarks by Ambassador Charles P. Ries on the Occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day
January 27, 2005
Mr. Mayor, Mr. Nomarch, Ambassadors, distinguished members of the Jewish Community, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am honored to take part in this commemoration, a national day of remembrance for all those whose lives were so savagely taken from them. It is all the more poignant to stand here 60 years later with the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, which bore the brunt of this sacrifice, and kept their memory alive.
This centuries old community, the largest in Greece, was decimated by the Holocaust. Ninety-six percent of the Jewish population, were deported to death camps never to return. Among them were two Jewish employees of the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki, one of whom Joseph Tiano, was executed. We continue to honor his memory at the Consulate and that of all the fallen members of the Jewish community who perished with a memorial plaque in our conference room, the “Tiano Room.”
Those who survived clung to hope. A testament written by a Greek Jewish child, Nestor Matsas, who had gone into hiding in Athens, recounts how he waited for his father to return from Dachau. “From October of 1944 to December of 1948 we waited… And we were sure that he would be back… We waited because we needed it. Because we breathed this hope, just like so many people who waited for their loved ones, who didn’t want to accept that they had remained back, lifeless numbers in a strange addition and an incomprehensible subtraction.” Nestor’s father never returned but nor was he another lifeless number; his son kept his memory alive. Other survivors who were children then are with us now today, keeping memory and hope alive.
Today, Thessaloniki, along with the Greek Nation, honors its Jewish past and present. The Greek people remember the sacrifice of their countrymen. The Jewish community that had flourished here survives and the memory of those who were lost lives on in our hearts.