German soldiers force a group of Jews to perform calisthenics on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in Salonika.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 33101

Overview

Caption: German soldiers force a group of Jews to perform calisthenics on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in Salonika.
Date: 1942 July 11
Locale: Salonika, [Macedonia] Greece
Variant Locale: Thessaloniki
Saloniki
Salonica
Solun
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of David Sion
Event History: In the first large scale public action against the Jews of Salonika, General Kurt von Krenzski, the commander of German forces in northern Greece, ordered all adult Jewish men to assemble on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square on the morning of 11 July 1942 to register for work details. Instead of receiving work assignments, however, the nearly 10,000 men were kept standing in the sun for the entire day while German and Italian soldiers humiliated them in front of the non-Jewish population by forcing them to perform calisthenics and other distasteful tasks. Those who collapsed from the heat and exhaustion were beaten by the troops or doused with cold water and again made to stand.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005422.

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: David Sion
Jewish Museum of Greece

Copyright: Exclusively with source

Source Record ID: 47C/27

Keyword: FORCED EXERCISE FORCED LABOR/BRIGADES JEWS (GREEK) JEWS (SEPHARDIM) PUBLIC HUMILIATION SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
Photo Designation: INVASION & OCCUPATION -- Greece -- JEWS -- Salonika -- Public Humiliation/Round-ups