For centuries, Thessaloníki was the world's largest Jewish majority city and a center of religious tolerance in the Balkans. The Germans would not let that stand. Following an influx of Greek Christians from Asia Minor which had already made Jews a minority in the city, the Germans killed and displaced the entire Jewish community during the Second World War.

The city does not only stand as a monument to Nazi depravity, however. Despite its relatively recent entry into Greece from its former master, the Ottomans, it has served as the center of a rival government during much of the First World War and commands trade in the Aegean Sea. Thessaloníki now rivals Athens as an administrative and economic center, and many now recognize it as the unofficial second capital of Greece.