A German corporal (Obergefreiter) leads three Jewish men in forced calisthenics on Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in Salonika.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 05188

Date: 1942 July 11
Variant Locale: Thessaloniki
Saloniki
Salonica
Solun
Photo Designation: INVASION & OCCUPATION -- Greece -- JEWS -- Salonika -- Public Humiliation/Round-ups
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.
Keyword: FORCED EXERCISE
FORCED LABOR/BRIGADES
JEWS (GREEK)
JEWS (SEPHARDIM)
PUBLIC HUMILIATION
SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: David Sion
bpk-Bildagentur

Copyright: Agency Agreement

Source Record ID: W II 288a
Jewish Museum of Greece

Copyright: Exclusively with source

Source Record ID: 47C/29
Published Source: Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944. - Hamburger Institut fuer Sozialforschung (ed.) - Hamburger Edition, HIS Verlagsges - p. 186
: Record last modified: 2007-12-12 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1087226

Search Our Collections