Spiders in Greece: Day 3
01/09/2024 | General, Academic Services, Spider Leadership, Spider Performance
Hello Spiders,
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Hope you all are doing well and have been enjoying reading the daily submissions from our time in Greece so far. Continuing on with our intent to learn all about the history of the religious groups which live, and once lived, in Greece, we began the next day with a quick walk to the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. The tour of the museum was conducted by the same guide from yesterday's tour around the city, Vivi, and I can say without a doubt that she should be considered the world's greatest tour guide. She was able to explain every event with impressive depth and clarity, answer each and every question we asked, and also was extremely helpful at helping me navigate finding gluten free foods in Thessaloniki and the future cities we will be visiting.
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We started our tour of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki by being told the history of how the city originally came to be named Thessaloniki. The city's namesake is Thessalonike of Macedon, who is the half-sister of Alexander the Great. She was named Thessalonike as a way for her father, King Phillip II, to commemorate and celebrate his victory over the Phenocian military. After learning of the origins of the city's name, we went upstairs to officially begin the tour of the Jewish Museum. We started with a walk through of the chronological history of the city, and learned how each moment in the city relates to and affected the large Jewish population which lived in Thessaloniki. We learned that the city went through many changes of leadership throughout its history, changing from Hellenistic leadership to Roman, to the Ottoman, and then back to Greek leadership. The city went through constant change in leadership due to its location being extremely sought after by the different leaderships. This is mainly due to its excellent strategic position on the water, along with having high and strong walls which prevented any chance for ancient militaries to overrun the city. After this, we went into a room with many maps of the city. These were the same maps we see of Thessaloniki today, but highlighted with specific areas where the Jewish populations lived during specific time periods. This was interesting to learn because the majority of the areas of the once Jewish neighborhoods today are currently used by commercial shops. This is due to the Great Fire of 1917, which was catastrophic and destroyed two-thirds of the entire city. Many of the Jewish inhabited areas were destroyed as a result of this fire. Vivi explained that the areas of the destroyed homes were turned into commercial shopping centers as a result of the government restricting the opportunity for the citizens to rebuild their homes, forcing them to move to new areas of the city. Next, we went into a room with the typical clothes that the Jewish men, women, and children of Thessaloniki would wear. One thing which caught my eye from this room was the fact that married Jewish women would wear a scarf on their head, signifying that they are married and should not be looked at with romantic intentions, while the single Jewish ladies would simply braid their hair and wouldn't cover their head, which served to show the men that they were single and open to a relationship. I found this interesting because I have never heard of anything like this in my entire life. This is my first time being able to travel abroad, so I sadly do not have the strongest grasp on the details of other cultures' traditions. This was something I have never heard before, and thought was really interesting, especially since something like this would typically be unheard of in America. This is one of the reasons why I was so happy to be able to have the opportunity to travel abroad on this occasion. Learning new information about the diverse populations of the globe is intriguing.
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Leaving the room of traditional clothing, we walked into a room which was the most saddening. This was a room with lots of historical artifacts from the time of the Second World War, and how the forced relocation of Jewish people during this time period specifically affected the Jewish population of Thessaloniki. There were many different artifacts from the camps, but one stuck out to me the most. This artifact was the striped-pajama clothes of a Thessaloniki Jew who walked from the concentration camps of Auschwitz back home to Thessaloniki. This was moving to hear. I was initially impressed by the sheer distance that this man was able to travel, 833 miles, but even more amazed by the sheer willpower and courage this man had. It might sound silly, but when looking at this pair of striped pajamas I thought that while what we are looking at may be a mere pair of clothes, there was a time when this man was actually wearing them and fighting for his life to survive. It is extremely moving, and something I will never forget. I bought a book in the gift shop titled, "From Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Back" as a way to continue with my interest of learning of the strength these people who had to endure such awful circumstances. These stories remind me that while my sport may be tough and challenging, it is nothing compared to what these people were forced to experience. I will take this new mindset with more appreciation and gratefulness for the opportunities I have had at this university.
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Leaving the Jewish Museum but continuing on with learning of the cities rich Jewish history, we were brought to a local landmark on the side of one of the main city streets. This landmark is called the "Menorah of Flames" and is a collection of bodies that are formed in the shape of a Jewish Temple Menorah. The artwork was created to represent the 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews who were brought to the concentration camps during the second World War. We learned that the menorah is specifically placed on a point on the street where the original Jewish citizens were gathered and forced to walk to the trains which would bring them to these camps. The history we learned today was extremely saddening to hear and is another testament to the strength of the survivors who bravely told their stories.
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To finish the day of learning we had lunch with our tour guide Vivi, and then packed up and hit the road for the Greek island called Rhodes. It was sad to leave such an amazing place like Thessaloniki, but getting onto the island of Rhodes was another exciting beginning to our journey around Greece. Finally, we finished the night eating McDonald's for our dinner – which was by special request from members of the group. I really enjoyed the time at dinner because I was able to speak to a custodian who was very excited to hear that we were from America. She was externally kind, and she was a good representation of the Greek people we have been able to meet so far.
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I am currently sitting on the balcony of our hotel overlooking the crystal blue water of Rhodes finishing up this blog. I am recounting the day, one I think I will remember for the rest of my life, and reflecting on this amazing privilege and opportunity I have to be here in Rhodes at this very moment.
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William Marhold
Cross CountyÂ
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