Russia to return prewar Jewish archives stolen by Nazis to Greece

Russia will return to Greece the prewar archives of Jewish communities that were stolen by Nazi forces, the country’s Jewish council says.

“Our history returns home,” the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KISE) says in a statement.

KISE says Nazi forces in July 1942 plundered archives, books and religious artifacts from 30 synagogues, libraries and communal institutions just in Thessaloniki, which at the time was home to one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe.

They were transferred to Moscow after the Red Army took Berlin in May 1945.

“Their restitution would mean justice and would transmit knowledge about a part of the Greek people that contributed to the progress of the country and no longer exists, that of the 60,000 Greek Jews who were deported to and exterminated in the Nazi death camps,” the board says.