Starting from the Statue of Holocaust in Eleftherias square we discover the story of every dark and creepy monument, square, building and templus. We see and explain stories of murders, tortures, slaughters, prostitution. We imagine the circumstances under which all these crimes have happened and the reaction of public opinion.
We start our tour from Holocaust Memorial. Since 1997, a monument in Thessaloniki’s city center commemorates the city’s murdered Jews. Only a few hundred members of what was once the largest Jewish community in Greece lived to return home after the deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which took place in a matter of just few months in 1943.
The we continue to the assasination monument of Grigoris Lamprakis, member of the parliament and EDA party that took place in the exact spot in May 22 1963. Lamprakis had already participated in the Peace Marathon a month earlier while he had arrived to the city in order to take part to the first convention of Peace and Nuclear disarmament. He was aware of numerous potential dangers. Unfortunately, in May 22 1963 during an “anti-demostration” consisted by extreme right wing groups and individuals Lamprakis was attacked by people that were on board a three-wheeled vehicle. One of them, (Spyros Gotzamanis and Manolis Emmanouilidis were on board) hit Lamprakis on the head using an iron bar thus causing serious injuries that proved to be fatal a few days later.
Later we will learn about the Ottoman horrible killings in Sintrivani Square. The face of Thessaloniki at that time was horrific. All the city’s squares was killing fields but the most important one was Sintrivani Square where the executioners tortured and killed the people in a horrible way.
After we visit the roman hippodrome, a few remnants of which have been located under the modern buildings. The Hippodrome of Thessaloniki is known for the massacre of at least 7000 citizens in 390, during the reign oh Theodosius I in retaliation for the death of members of the city’s guard in riots caused when a popular charioteer was arrested.
Our last stop is the White Tower. Over the years, it was referred to by various names: the Lion Tower in the sixteenth century, the Tower of Kalamaria in the eighteenth, while in the nineteenth century we find it with two names, depending on its use: the Tower of the Janissaries when the garrison of Janissaries was stationed there, and the Tower of Blood (Kanle Kule) when it became a prison and place of execution for convicts. In 1880, in his book on the city’s monuments the historian Mihail Xatzi Ioannou called it the Bastille of Thessaloniki, where those condemned to death were slaughtered on its terrace and their blood dyed its walls red, as a cannon shot from the western part of the city signified that the death sentence had been carried out. In 1883, on orders of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Tower was painted white and given the name “White Tower” (Beyaz Kule).
