ATHENS (JTA) — The Greek Parliament has erected a monument to eight Greek Jewish lawmakers who were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War.
The white marble tablet engraved with the eight names was unveiled on Wednesday by Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Nikos Voutsis.
Six of the parliament members were among the tens of thousands of Greek Jews who were murdered in Auschwitz, while two others were killed fighting with the Greek resistance. Some 60,000 Greek Jews died in the Holocaust, according to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
Voutsis apologized for the decades-long delay in commemorating the Jewish parliament members.
“For 75 years this has been on the conscience of this house. Seventy-five is too long for us to honor our colleagues who were killed by the Nazis,” Voutsis said at the ceremony, which was attended by representatives of all the Greek political parties except the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.
The heads of the Greek Jewish community and Israeli diplomats attended the ceremony.
“This monument to them will stand forever in the Greek Parliament and it is the least we can do to honor their great sacrifice,” said Voutsis. “They were our colleagues, elected by the Greek people and were our fellow citizens.”
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