Metadata: Records of the Jewish Community of Trikala
Collection
- Country:
- Greece
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Community of Trikala
- Holding institution (official language):
- Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Τρικάλων
- Title:
- Records of the Jewish Community of Trikala
- Title (official language):
- Αρχείο Ισραηλιτικής Κοινότητας Τρικάλων
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community of Trikala
- Date(s):
- 1946/2014
- Language:
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- English
- Hebrew
- Ladino
- Extent:
- 8 linear metres (50 boxes and books)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains the records of the Jewish Community of Trikala, a legal entity established by law 2456/20 in 1920 and one of three Jewish communities in the Thessaly region of central Greece. The collection documents community activities from 1907-2014 and largely contains the correspondence of the community council and rehabilitation and restitution efforts after the Holocaust. The collection contains much information about other Greek Jewish communities and community organisations, their destruction during the Holocaust and subsequent rehabilitation and reconstruction. The collection includes minutes of community council meetings; notes, memorandums, reports, minutes and correspondence with other Greek Jewish communities, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and institutions inside and outside the country including the municipality of Trikala and health institutions; financial documents: lists of expenses, invoices, acknowledgements of receipts of various costs covered by the community; the community’s petitions to and correspondence with the Greek authorities; correspondence with various Jewish and gentile individuals; correspondence of the community with various Jewish organisations and other Jewish communities in Greece; decrees, memorandums and orders issued by the community council; various lists of names, including community employees, beneficiaries and Holocaust victims and survivors; members’ registries, including number of members, occupation, family members and economic status; various certificates issued by the community for its members; and registry books recording the incoming and outgoing mail for the years 1946-2014. The most prominent people in the collection are the presidents of the community and members of the council.
- Archival history:
- The collection has remained in the possession of the Jewish community of Trikala and held in its premises since its creation in 1920. The archive is held at the community offices. Most of the prewar archival material was confiscated by the Germans and transferred to the Reich in 1944, after which no record of it exists.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jewish presence in Trikala has been well documented since the early Byzantine era. As in many other cases, the Trikala community flourished after 1492 with the arrival of many Sephardi Jews who came to the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula. Later, other Jews from Sicily and Hungary came to Trikala and the city had three synagogues (Romaniote, Sephardim and Ashkenazi). The community retained its Romaniote characteristics due mainly to strong connections with the Romaniote community of Ioannina. In 1907 the community numbered 559 members. The old Romaniote synagogue of Kal Kadosh Yavanim was used as a stable by the Germans during the occupation and suffered serious damages during the 1954-57 earthquakes. A community school operated in Trikala from 1913. The influential Zionist association Eretz Tsion operated in all the Jewish communities of the Thessaly region, in Trikala, Volos and Larissa. Some very active young Zionists from Trikala, including like Asher Moissis and Yomtov Yakoel, played a leading role in the Zionist movement and Jewish affairs in Greece. On the night of March 23 1944, the Nazis arrested the Jews of Trikala. Many had managed in the previous months to find shelter in areas controlled by the underground resistance movement EAM-ELAS. Today the community of Trikala has 40 members. Larissa’s Jewish population was 520 before WWII and 270 after. 112 Jews from Trikala were sent to the killing centres, of whom 10 survived. After the war the community was re-established with significant contributions from the Central Board of Jewish Communities and the JDC.
- System of arrangement:
- The archival material is divided between books and papers. The books and papers are arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- There are no inventories or finding aids.
- Yerusha Network member:
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Author of the description:
- Nikolaos Tzafleris
