Visual Clues to the Holocaust: The Case of the Deportation of Jews from Northern Greece

Abstract This study explores the persecution of Greek Jewry in Bulgarian-occupied lands by analyzing a unique silent film, preserved in several archives, depicting the March 1943 roundup, transfer, and deportation of Greek Jews. Rather than approaching the archival footage as merely illustrative, the authors analyze it as an element integral to the study of these historical events. They identify the locations and situations visible in most sequences by drawing on various sources: photographs, newsreels, maps, digitalized data visualizations, print archival records, and oral testimonies. Uncovering the political, social, and geographical contexts of the footage production and editing thus contributes to the field of visual Holocaust studies and the history of the deportation of Jews from Bulgarian-occupied western Thrace and eastern Macedonia.