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JewishHistoryעברית

Deportation of the Jews of Salonika

Date
15 March 1943 – August 1943Hebrew date: 8th of Adar II, 5703
Location
Thessaloniki (Salonika), German-occupied GreeceGreece
Then part of
German occupation zone of Greece
Perpetrators
  • SS (State)
Killed (estimate)
40,000 – 54,000[1]Jews deported from Salonika and murdered, chiefly at Auschwitz-Birkenau. USHMM's Greece article states that over 40,000 of about 43,000 Jews in the city were deported between 20 March and 19 August 1943. The USHMM Salonika article gives more than 45,000 deported between March and August. A USHMM Greece booklet gives 46,091 deported from 15 March. Yad Vashem states that 54,000 of about 56,000 prewar Salonika Jews were murdered.
Locality

80% – 130% of the Jewish population of Thessaloniki (Salonika), German-occupied Greece[1]The killed estimate is higher than the population estimate.

Country

55% – 75% of the Jewish population of German occupation zone of Greece (c. 1941)[54]

Worldwide

0.36% – 0.49% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1945)[5]

Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Expulsion, Genocide, Massacre
Confidence
DisputedUSHMM pages give more than 40,000, more than 45,000, or 46,091 deported, and start dates of 15 or 20 March 1943. Yad Vashem gives 54,000 murdered of about 56,000 prewar residents. The lower figures count people loaded on the trains; the higher figure is a community death toll.

Summary

After Germany occupied Salonika in April 1941, German authorities arrested Jewish leaders, seized property and, in July 1942, forced thousands of Jewish men to assemble at Liberty Square. In February 1943 the Germans concentrated the community in ghettos, including the Baron Hirsch quarter by the railway. Deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau ran from March to August 1943; most of those who arrived were murdered on arrival. Fewer than 2,000 Jews lived in the city after the war.

Sources

  1. Salonika. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  2. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  3. The Holocaust in Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  4. Jews being Terrorized by Nazis in Salonika, Greece, 11 July 1942. Yad Vashem

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 11,000,000[5]c. 1945DellaPergola's core estimate for 1 May 1945, matching the 11 million figure he and the 1948–49 Year Book use for the immediate postwar world total.
  • German occupation zone of Greece: 71,611 – 73,000[54]c. 1941Country-wide Greece at Axis occupation, not only the German zone. USHMM Greece: nearly 72,000 Jews in 1941; Losses: 71,611 in 1941; 1933 table: about 73,000. German, Italian and Bulgarian zones partitioned the country; Salonika (about 43,000) was in the German zone.
  • Thessaloniki (Salonika), German-occupied Greece: 43,000 – 50,000[1]Jews in Salonika at the German occupation in April 1941, about two years before the 1943 deportations. USHMM's Salonika article gives about 50,000. USHMM's Greece article gives around 43,000 and calls that the largest prewar Greek Jewish community.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
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  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
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  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  35. Joseph Rothschild (tabulated), Interwar East European Census Data. Lawrence University course materials
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  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  39. Jewish Losses during the Holocaust: By Country. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  40. Andrzej Żbikowski, Extermination of Polish Jews. The genesis and course of Operation Reinhard. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute)
  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
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  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  61. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2020. American Jewish Year Book 2020, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2022)
  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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