| Part of Antisemitism in Greece | |
     (Top, clockwise from top left) Ruins of Campbell after the pogrom; wounded victim in hospital; families leaving the settlement; Jews sheltering in a synagogue; (bottom) Greek soldiers stationed in Thessaloniki in the aftermath of the pogrom | |
| Date | 29–30 June 1931 |
|---|---|
| Location | Campbell, Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Coordinates | 40°35′03″N 22°58′04″E / 40.5841501°N 22.9676707°E |
| Target | Jewish homes and businesses |
| Participants |
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| Outcome |
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| Casualties | |
| 2 residents killed, dozens injured, estimated 2 million drachmas of damage[a] | |
The Campbell pogrom, also known as the Campbell riot,[2] was an antisemitic pogrom that took place on 29–30 June 1931 in the Campbell neighbourhood of Kalamaria in Thessaloniki, in the Macedonia region of northern Greece.
Campbell was an impoverished Jewish settlement, set up in the aftermath of the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 to house Jewish refugees. The fire severely damaged the economic position of Thessaloniki's traditionally strong Jewish community. During the 1920s, the Jews became politically isolated, and were held responsible by the Venizelist political faction for both the Venizelists' defeat in the 1920 Greek legislative election and the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. In the mid-1920s, the first fascist organisations appeared in Thessaloniki, and engaged in antisemitic activities with tacit governmental approval. Venizelist newspapers, particularly Makedonia, ran articles characterising the Jews as a foreign population that sought the destruction of Greece. While antisemitism had little prominence in Greek national politics, it became an important force in Venizelist politics in northern Greece, and among Christian refugees from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace.
Encouraged by false accusations of Jewish collaboration with Bulgarians and communists to bring about the independence of Macedonia from Greece, refugees from Asia Minor, reservists of the Hellenic Army and members of nationalist organisations enacted a campaign of antisemitic violence and intimidation throughout June 1931. Following limited responses from the local authorities, including the governor-general of Macedonia, Stylianos Gonatas, nationalists attacked several Jewish neighbourhoods on the night of 29–30 June 1931. The greatest violence took place at Campbell, where the attacks resulted in the destruction of the neighbourhood, the deaths of a Christian resident, and dozens of injuries. Other attacks took place in other Jewish neighbourhoods, including one in the "151" camp in Kato Toumba, in which a Jewish resident, Leon Vidal, was fatally wounded. Local authorities largely failed to prevent violence, and hindered attempts by Jewish residents to resist the attacks.
In the ensuing trial, the perpetrators of the attack were all acquitted, while members of the Hellenic Parliament defended the pogrom as an act of patriotism. The government of Eleftherios Venizelos stated that it would support the Jewish community, but provided minimal financial assistance towards its recovery, with the result that thousands of Jews permanently left Thessaloniki, particularly for France and Palestine. The city's Jewish community remained substantially alienated and weakened until the imposition of a dictatorship under Ioannis Metaxas in 1936.
- ^ US Department of Commerce (11 February 1933), "The Business Situation Abroad: Greece", Commerce Reports, 6: 86
- ^ Mazower 2005, p. 382.
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