Monument Jewish Martyrs Kastoria

The Monument of the Jewish Martyrs of Kastoria, victims of the Holocaust, is located in a panoramic spot with a wonderful view of lake Kastoria.
The memorial has been erected at the place where the Germans gathered the Jews of Kastoria, in order to send them to the Nazi concentration camps on 24 March 1944.
It stands there as a reminder of the existence in the city of a once numerous Jewish community, which was never able to re-establish itself. Few of the former Jewish residents have returned to Kastoria.

Until the capitulation of Italy, to whose zone of influence Kastoria belonged, the Jews lived "peaceful" years.
In September 1943 the Germans entered the city.
On the night of 24 March 1944, the Jewish population of the town was arrested and imprisoned in the Girls’ Gymnasium, uphill above the monument, in Kastoria. Three days later they were driven by trucks to Thessaloniki and from there to Poland, on the journey of no return.

Only 35 of the 1000 Jews survived.

Besides the monument is a plaque with the text of a letter from a jewish girl named Reggina Koen that was found after she was deported; she was one of the many that never came back.

The translated text of the letter:

'Dear Tasitsa,
when you read these words I will not be alive anymore
then strangers have taken me with them
shed a tear for me whether I live or die
Reggina Koen'

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Source

• Text: Martin Damen
• Photos: Martin Damen