Jews in Greece mark WWII Nazi deportation

THESSALONIKI, Greece -- Jewish residents of this Greek city on Saturday marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of its Jews to Nazi extermination camps during World War II.

Several hundred people gathered at Thessaloniki's Freedom Square, where the first group of Jews was rounded up by the occupying German forces on March 15, 1943.

The crowd held a moment of silence, then marched to the old railway station, where the first trains departed for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. A ceremony was held at the station and flowers laid on the tracks.

Speakers included the city's mayor, Yannis Boutaris, and Holocaust survivors.

"The commemoration is an honor for the city of Thessaloniki. But some people look upon this era nostalgically and are bringing back the old Nazi symbols," said David Saltiel, leader of the city's Jewish community.

He was referring to the emergence of the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn, a party with neo-Nazi roots that swept into Parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform.

On March 15, 1943, 2,800 Jews departed for the concentration camp.

"We were packed 80 to a train," recalled Holocaust survivor Moshe Haelion. "When we arrived, they sent a number straight to the crematoriums and kept some of us for work. We were beaten often by the guards."

Another survivor of the camps, Zana Santicario-Saatsoglou, described how for many years she was unable to tell her story.

"My children used to ask me what that number on my arm was," she said, referring to the identification number tattooed on Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners. "I told them it was my old phone number in Thessaloniki."