Salonika, City of Silence
Last Updated Tuesday, April 10 2007
Sunday, April 29th - 7:30 pm - Bell Auditorium
Director: Maurice Amaraggi
In his roots journey to Salonika, Maurice Amaraggi, 62, explores the port city that once was a thriving cosmopolitan
Jewish center, until its Sephardic community was destroyed in the Holocaust. Today’s mix of new immigrants and
buildings -– including a University, built over a Jewish cemetery of 10,000 graves – hides a rich and dark
past. The Sephardic history of Salonika is so completely buried, that even the ghosts do not have anywhere to wander.
Balanced between the Ottoman empire and Balkan nationalism, the 500-year Jewish culture became
“Judenfrei” in 1943 when the Nazi’s entered with their extermination camps. The “ancient
Jerusalem of the Balkans” is revisited by survivors of 1943 who look back with nostalgia, refusing to forget and
defying the silence that has become a second death. In Greek & French with English subtitles, Belgium, 2005, 52
Minutes. Presented by: Gardens of Salonica
2007 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival
http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2007
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