Salonica- City of Ghosts - Christians- Muslims and Jews- 1430-1950 Description:

Salonica, City of Ghosts : Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950 review:
4 stars (History Matters) - Mazower captures in remarkable ways the history of Salonica, a town which is today in northern Greece. At the same time many events that took place at Salonica were repercussions and optics on European and Middle Eastern history as a whole. For very different reasons at different epocs, Salonica found itself responding to events far beyond its shores. In the fifteenth century it became the home of many Jews expelled from Spain. After centuries under Ottoman rule, in the twentieth century it saw the return of Greek rule and then the forced removal of its large Jewish population under German occupation. The story of Salonica is an illustration of the ways in which a single physical place has seen whole communities come and go, typically under tragic circumstances. The book reminds us of how difficult it is for human beings with different beliefs and ideologies to live peacefully together. For many centuries this was achieved in Salonica, but then something changes and persecutions and emigrations follow. Mazower tells these stories without any attempt to prove a thesis about inter-faith or even human relations. There are interesting individuals but no heroes or saints. Communities do good things and do bad things. It is a story of many human lives that would otherwise have been buried with the communities that over the years have been forced to leave and officially left out of the city's history. After reding it Salonica will be on my next trip to Europe!
5 stars (Thessaloniki Explained) - The Mazower book is superb. It makes the city come alive with a careful and thorough review of the city's history. Its ethnic composition was fascinating to explore. His footnotes put me on to two other books which added even more to the story of this intriguing city. He made some of what I have felt on my several visits become clear. Although he writes in a precise chronological manner, he inserts up-to-date observations which make the mosaic of Thessaloniki complete. This is a must for anyone interested in Modern Greece and the Balkans.
5 stars (Christians, Muslims and Jews Lived Together) - 500 years of a city in the Balkans makes for an awful lot of history. Salonica (or Thessaloniki as it is known today) is located at one of the crossroads of the world. It is Greek at the moment, but has at times been Turkish. As a crossroads it had strong Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. It was not without conflict, but they lived together for centuries. Only in fairly modern times were the Muslims forced to leave, and during World War II the Germans rounded up the Jews as part of the final solution (which makes for tragic reading).



This is an area far from the mainstream of most modern American history books. Most of our history comes from other areas of the world. So this book opens new areas to study for the first time. It is exhaustively researched and provides an insight into a world, a culture far from our own. For many years, this was considered the orient, where east meets west.



A fascinating place, a fascinating read.