The Greek Delegation to IHRA

jewish school of Athens
Gymnastics and parade of the Jewish Elementary School of Athens, 1960, JMG Photo Archive

Greece has been an IHRA member since 2005. Greece’s participation in IHRA highlights our determination to honour the martyrdom and sacrifice of thousands of Jewish Greeks in the Holocaust, while serving as a springboard for a more thorough understanding of the past. Greece and the Jewish community, in particular, were among the hardest hit by the Nazi onslaught in Europe during World War II. The Holocaust and the appalling loss of life and suffering it entailed still haunt our collective memory. To remember what was done and so that it should never be repeated, Greece has instituted special scholastic programmes, to teach the Holocaust to the younger generations. Greece is now drawing on this experience in view of her own Presidency of the IHRA for 2021-2022.

Members of the Delegation to IHRA

Ambassador Chris J. Lazaris – Head of Delegation

Georgios Polydorakis (Expert Counsellor, Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives, Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs) – Deputy Head of Delegation

Metropolitan Chrysostomos Savvatos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) – Academic Working Group

Zanet Battinou (Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece) – Museums and Memorials Working Group

Vassiliki Keramida (Ministry of Education) – Education Working Group

Paul Isaac Hagouel (University of California, Berkeley) – Academic Working Group

Leon Saltiel (Central Board of Jewish Communities) – Academic Working Group

Georgios Antoniou (Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – Education Working Group

Ioannis Mantzas (Pan-Hellenic Confederation of Greek Roma “Ellan Passe”) – Committee on the Genocide of the Roma