Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Remembering

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Of the many lost communities we must not forget the Jews of Greece. The Romaniotes were one of the oldest Jewish populations in Europe, the Sephardim of Thessaloniki were the direct descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492. They flourished and spoke Ladino, a dialect descended from Mediaeval Spanish. Nearly all were murdered.

So in remembrance of the appalling loss here is Savina Yannatou singing a Ladino Sephardic folk song, keeping alive a tradition that the Nazis wished to eradicate from history.

2 comments:

Rebecca said...

Thank you for this beautiful song.

Tony C said...

Very nice post.

The world must never forget.