Xanthi Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
In the early 20th century, Sephardic Jews from Adrianople, Didimoticho, and Salonika settled in Xanthi and in 1913 established a community. In the early 1920s, the community founded and maintained a Jewish school for girls and boys. A synagogue was built in 1926, at which time there were five social welfare organizations. Zionist activity also began in the 1920s. Zionist organizations and clubs were founded and funds were raised to assist settlement in Palestine. The community was financially stable until the depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, when Xanthi’s acclaimed tobacco industry declined. About half the community then left for other towns, leaving around 130 Jewish families in Xanthi. In the 1930s, immigration to Palestine also began. Consisting of 718 Jews in 1928, the community was reduced to 500 by 1934. In 1940, there were around 600 Jews in Xanthi (of a total population of 26,500). On April 6th, 1940, Germany invaded Greece. On 4th March 1943, all the Jews were arrested and held in a tobacco warehouse. They were transferred to Bulgaria. They were held in Bulgaria for ten days and then, on 19th March, transported to Vienna and to the Treblinka death camp. After the war, in 1945, only 6 Jews remained in Xanthi. By 1960, the last Jewish family had emigrated to Israel.
The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown,. However, it can be assumed that it emerged in the early 20th century.