Thessaloniki marks 80th anniversary of first Auschwitz train convoy

Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, commemorated on Sunday the 80th anniversary of the departure of the first train convoy for the Auschwitz camp.

Officials, led by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, marched from Eleftherias ("Freedom") Square, where members of the city's Jewish community were rounded up by the German occupying forces, to the city's Old Train Station, where they laid red carnations on the tracks. Some marchers held a banner reading "Thessalonki Auschwitz 80 years: Never again" and white balloons carrying the same slogan were released.

The first train carrying Jewish people departed from the station, which is now a freight terminal, on March 15, 1943; the last one, on Aug. 7 that year. Most Jews, more than 48,000 of them, were sent to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau sub-camp, where almost all were immediately gassed. Another 4,000 were sent to...