A series of commemorative events for the Jews of Arta who perished during the Holocaust were organised in the city by the Arta Municipality and the ‘Skoufas’ Music and Literary Association, with the participation of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) and the local Jewish community.
The events titled “Arta Remembers” started with a ceremony held at the cultural center of the “Skoufas” Association.
The ceremony featured opening remarks and a reading from the “Chronicle of the Jewish Community of Arta” by students from the 3rd Lyceum of Arta, authored by Raphael Giulis, the former president of the Jewish Community of Arta.
Additionally, “Bread,” a text penned by Katerina Schismenou, a philologist and writer from Arta, narrating the true story of Mr. Michalis Nikolaos’ family, President of the Arta Lawyers Association, was recited by Panagiotis Andreadis. Musical accompaniment was provided by Antonis Ververis, Konstantinos and Anastasios Lemonis, and Andreas Hasiotis.
The event known as “Bread” recounts a tragic incident in Arta on March 24, 1944. At the age of 20, Kostas Nikolaou witnessed the arrest of the city’s Jewish population and their imprisonment in the “Orpheas” cinema. Amidst the chaos, some of his Jewish friends pleaded for “bread” in desperation. The following day, Kostas, armed with loaves of bread, watched helplessly as his friends were loaded onto deportation trucks bound for Auschwitz. Regrettably, Kostas never had the opportunity to offer them the bread he had brought.
Eighty years later, in commemoration of this event, Kostas Nikolaou’s son, Michalis, sought to honour the promise. Symbolically, he presented Victor Isaac Eliezer, General Secretary of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), with a clay replica of the bread. This replica, crafted by sculptor Theodoros Papagiannis, is intended for display at the Holocaust Museum of Greece in Thessaloniki.
The following morning, historian and researcher of the Jewish Community of Arta, Mr. Theoharis Vadivoulis, led a tour of significant Jewish sites in the area. In the afternoon, a memorial service was conducted at the Holocaust Memorial in the Square of Jewish Martyrs by Hazan Haim Ischakis and Beni Mizan. The ceremony concluded with the laying of wreaths.
In a solemn atmosphere, a Memorial March proceeded through the Jewish quarter to the gathering point where the Jews of Arta were assembled before their deportation.
