Holocaust Memorial of Corfu

Holocaust Memorial of Corfu

Holocaust Memorial of Corfu
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4.5
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David D
Devon, UK27,137 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2021 • Couples
This poignant Memorial is entitled "Never again any Nation"

It depicts a naked woman carrying a child and a naked man comforting another older child. They stand stripped of everything that they had in the world.

The information has been taken from the small plaque at the base of the Memorial.

"Dedicated to the 2,000 Jews of Cofu that perished in Nazi concentration camps of Aushwitz and Birkeneau in June 1944.
The Municipality and Jewish Community of Corfu November 2001.

The bronze statue stands on a stone plinth along Stratigou Xenofontos, in front of the walls of the New Fortress in the Jewish Quarter of the Town.
Written August 26, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Vadim
Murmansk, Russia34,642 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2017 • Family
Before World war II, Corfu was home to 2,000 Jews. The Jews of Corfu were initially lucky, because the Ionian Islands and Epirus were part of the Italian occupation, and the Italian fascists did not pursue a consistent policy of genocide, focusing their hatred mainly on the Communists. However, in the summer of 1943 Italy withdrew from the war, it was occupied by the Germans in September tougher with the Ionian Islands. 9 months later, on 10 June 1944, the Nazis deported 1,795 Jews from the island by boat to Auschwitz. Imagine! They have from 6th ofJune great battle in Normandy after the allied landing, lost Ukraine, in two weeks the entire front in Belarus during the operation "Bagration" will collapse and they find the strength and sense to deal with the deportation of defenceless Jewish elders, women and children in Poland. What is the pathological hatred, which disables any rationality! By the way, the Greek mayor-collaborator thanked the occupiers for the liberation of the island from the Jews and "return of property on the Islands in the hands of the legitimate owners." Nazism has no borders. Most of the deportees, by the way, were poor because the rich Jews already emigrated from the island to Egypt in 1891. Only 121 people out of two thousand deportees survived. About 60 Jews lives here now. They established this monument in 2001. The sculptor is Georgios Karahalios.
Written May 2, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

shifra w
toronto4,651 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2016 • Friends
We had come to Greece to visit as many communities as we could reach in ten days, which had a significant Jewish presence before World War II.

If you walk from the port to the new Fortress, which is at the northern boundary of what was once the Jewish Ghetto, you will come across a very moving bronze statue consisting of a nude group--a woman cradling an infant and a young boy clinging to a man's thigh. This sculpture by Georgios Karahalios on a stone base was erected in 2001 by the city and the Jewish community. A plaque on the memorial states “Never again for any nation.”

Jews have lived in Corfu since 1160. At the dawn of World War II, there were about 2000 Jews living in the Jewish quarter, mostly young children and the elderly. With the end of the war in sight, on June 10, 1944, four days after the bombing of Normandy, with their guard down because they thought they were safe, the Jews of Corfu were rounded up and imprisoned in the Old Venetian Fort. They were kept there, in dank and cramped quarters, for three days, without food and water and then sent by boat to Italy and then by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was a ten day trip; many died along the way. Of the 1795 Jews of Corfu who were deported, only 121 would survive.

All that remains of the vital Jewish presence in Corfu is a small and highly assimilated community, numbering about 80 Jews, most survivors of the Holocaust, and the La Scuola Greca Synagogue, built in the 18th century and still standing in what was once the Jewish Ghetto.

When we were touring the synagogue, we had the pleasure of meeting Moshe Velelis, 57, the current community head of Corfu. He has a small clothing and textile shop just a few yards from the synagogue. In this shop, he keeps the striped shirt his father wore in Auschwitz.
Written August 18, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

jen545
Norwich, UK257 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2019
I was told this was the ghetto area.
The statue is haunting in itself- the area now busy with tavernas.
Such a terrible experience too harsh to contemplate. A fitting memorial as no one should forget
Written September 14, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2018 • Friends
Holocaust Memorial to the Jews of Corfu!
During World War II and the Holocaust, the Jewish community of Korpo, which numbered 2,000 people at the time, was almost completely destroyed and some 140 people survived. In April 1941, Corfu was occupied by the Fascist Italian army. The Italian occupation lasted two years and was a difficult period for the entire population of Corfu, and was characterized by shortages and starvation. Following the suffering of the period and after the destruction of the Synagogue in the bombing of the Germans, the two communities "Greek" and "Italian" merged. Since then all the Jews have prayed in the synagogue of the Grakim (Greeks) until the general expulsion from Corfu. In September 1943 Italy surrendered to the Allies and the Italian garrison withdrew from the island. As a result, Nazi forces entered the island. First the German army, the Wehrmacht, and then the SS, who planned to alienate the Jewish community.
On June 9, 1944, some 1,795 Corfu Jews were transported by the Greek police under the orders of the Nazi statute. A few managed to escape to the villages and were hidden there by friends. Their arrest began when they were rounded up in the city square and closed in a fortress known as the "Ferrario". The Jews of Corfu were taken out of the fortress in the middle of the night, and small boats and rafts were transferred to Athens, where they were interned in the city jail, Haidari. Together with Jews from other places in Greece such as Rhodes, all the Jews were put on a closed train that reached the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on 30 June 1944. About two-thirds of them, men, women and children, were immediately sent to the gas chambers and crematoria.
Few, almost all of them young, survived Auschwitz and the death marches to Germany.

Yehuda Shemesh
Beit-Shean
Israel
Written July 19, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Clogs-in-UK
Ely, UK516 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2018 • Couples
The monument is surrounded by bars, restaurants and terraces which we found weird and rather difficult accept. But then, when we thought about it, men, women and children were rounded up when they were in the middle of their normal life, most likely also surrounded by buildings and people. So perhaps it is very appropriate to not display the statues away from what goes on every day.
The man's hands clearly show that he asks "Why?". The woman takes on the protective pose. Powerful and moving. The "Why?" question is particularly hurting.
The sign on the memorial says "Never again". There will always be people who have the ability to appeal to those who can be made to despise and even hate others, to those who are not selective enough to recognise what they are subjected to, whose conscience can be altered, and who are then no longer able to think as individuals.
"Never again" should be a reminder that it is unacceptable and unforgivable that people are persecuted because of their religion, colour, gender, orientation, or background
Written October 14, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Linda A
Scunthorpe, UK3,465 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2015 • Couples
This bronze statue of a naked family is in remembrance of the Jewish citizens of Corfu who lost their lives in the holocaust.

This bronze Holocaust memorial consists of a nude group: a woman cradling an infant and a man seemingly helpless to protect a boy who hides his face in the man’s thigh. This sculpture by Georgios Karahalios on a stone base was erected in 2001 by the city and the Jewish community. A plaque on the memorial states “Never again for any nation.”

A beautiful and evocative memorial
Written November 16, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

tom
37 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2022
Once you get off the main drag in Corfu Town .You can start to explore all the lovely old streets of the town . And down one of them you will come across the Holocaust memorial .ITs just a simple memorial but its a reminder of not to let this happen ever again ,.Once my wife and I paid our respects .We found a lovely Taverna for lunch (not a touristy one where they hike the prices up for holiday makers).But a lovely old fashioned one and there we had a great lunch .
Written November 3, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Bryan M-G
Oldbury, UK839 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2019 • Couples
You could easily walk past this statue without knowing what it represents - perhaps it could have a little more oomph so we don't forget. There's also a synagogue nearby which is worth a visit.
Written July 1, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Bana N
11 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2018 • Friends
Obviously, it's crucial that this event is memorialized but I have issues with this sculpture itself. Why depict the family as naked? This symbolism I find very problematic. Why are all the politicians of the island depicted clothed and these people as naked? I think it takes away from their dignity as former proud citizens to be depicted nude. Also, the close placement of it next to a cafe is inappropriate. They deserve a better memorial, to be honest but its better than nothing. Again just my opinion.
Written June 16, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Holocaust Memorial of Corfu, Corfu Town

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