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Greek Doctor Arrested for ‘Jews Not Welcome’ Sign

Neurologist in Thessaloniki also had Nazi paraphernalia in his home

by
Lily Wilf
March 04, 2014
(Thessaloniki)
(Thessaloniki)

A “Jews Not Welcome” sign is not welcome in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. A 57-year-old neurologist who posted the sign outside his office was arrested last week for inciting racial hatred and possessing weapons, JTA reports.

Upon searching the doctor’s home, police found three daggers and 12 knives, two of which were engraved with Nazi symbols. The doctor, who remains unidentified, is a member of the Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn political party, known for its flag that eerily resembles a swastika and for its Holocaust-denying leadership.

The arrest comes just one week after the Jewish community of Thessaloniki announced its plans to take Germany to court in order to regain a large ransom their ancestors paid to the Nazis for the release of 10,000 Jews in 1942. Their payment was for naught, and the city’s entire Jewish population ended up in Nazi death camps. But now, 74 years later, the 1,000-person Jewish community of Thessaloniki—Greece’s largest Jewish community—will not be so easily shaken.

Lily Wilf is an editorial intern at Tablet.