Jewish residents of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki today (March 16, 2013) marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of its Jews to Nazi extermination camps during World War II, according to the Associated Press website.
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 city's old railway station, where the first trains departed for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. A short ceremony was held at the station and flowers were laid on the tracks.
Speakers included the city's mayor, Yannis Boutaris, and Holocaust survivors. "We were packed 80 to a train....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," recalled Holocaust survivor Moshe Haelion.
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