FROM SWASTIKAS TO PALESTINIAN FLAGS: Thessaloniki’s Jews Face a Familiar Specter

Black-shirted men with the Palestinian flag emblazoned on their shirts formed assault squads and roamed the streets of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, harassing Jews and Israelis.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) condemned the incident, saying it recalls the Campbell Pogrom of the 1930s.

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Almost exactly 95 years ago to the day, on June 29-30, 1931, a violent mob of people also wearing black shirts attacked the Campbell district of Thessaloniki, destroying Jewish homes and businesses. Led by a paramilitary Greek group called the EEEE (Ethniki Enosis Ellados, or National Union of Greece), the rioters set fires to buildings, leaving 500 families homeless by the time they were done.

Nevertheless, before the Holocaust, Thessaloniki hosted one of the oldest and largest Sephardic communities, earning it the nickname “Jerusalem of the Balkans.” But the Nazis obliterated the community, murdering 96 percent of its Jews.

When the Holocaust-era Jews of Thessaloniki faced extinction, death held the visage of the swastika. Today, Jew hatred carries the visage of the Palestinian flag. When this particular era of Jew hatred ends, the Palestinian flag will take its place among the symbols of Jew hate on the shelf of history.