The northern Greek city of Thessaloniki will build a Holocaust research center at the site where some 50,000 of the city’s Jews were deported to Nazi death camps. “This is the fulfilment of a historic responsibility for Thessaloniki,” city Mayor Yiannis Boutaris told reporters.

The agreement to establish the Memorial Center on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research at the city’s old railway station was signed among the Thessaloniki Jewish community, the city and the Greek transport ministry.

The Jewish community of Thessaloniki was one of the most important centers of Sephardic Jewry for 450 years following the expulsion from Spain. Known as the Flower of the Balkans, it was the center of Ladino culture in the region. In March 1943 the Nazis began sending Jews in railway convoys to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. By August, 49,000 out of the city’s pre-war population of 55,000 Jews had been deported. Fewer than 2,000 survived.

Boutaris has been instrumental in acknowledging the city’s rich Jewish history and the extent of its devastation. Earlier this year he organized a public march to commemorate 70 years since the first deportations, the first such display by the Jewish community since the end of the war.

The Thessaloniki Jewish community said the project was a long-held dream and particularly important at a time when Greece is struggling to deal with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party which has 18 seats in parliament.

A Greek court has ordered the head of the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party held in jail until his trial following six hours of testimony that ran through the night.

Nikolaos Michaloliakos was arrested last week with several other lawmakers and senior Golden Dawn members on charges of forming a criminal organization, part of an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-Nazi party. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou hailed the decision on Michaloliakos an important victory for the Greek legal system, calling it “the most dynamic confrontation of a neo-Nazi criminal gang in European, and possibly world, history.”

Golden Dawn has 18 seats in the 300-member parliament and is known for its Nazi swastika-like flag and Holocaust-denying leadership. Its leaders have denied the charges against them, saying the arrests were part of a political witch hunt against the party.

The crackdown on Golden Dawn, which included the arrest of more than 10 other party leaders, follows widespread outrage and protests in Greece in the wake of the Sept. 18 killing of anti-fascist rapper Killah P by a suspected Golden Dawn member.

Soccer team AEK Athens player Giorgos Katidis has been under intense attacks by politicians, fellow soccer players, and—most important—the fans, after giving the Nazi salute after scoring a goal in a league game.

From the video of the game, it is clear that the midfielder Katidis raised his right arm in the “Heil Hitler” salute we all know from countless WW2 movies, after scoring the go-ahead goal in the 84th minute of a game against the Veria team on Saturday.

In the screen shot above, Katidis’ Brazilian-born teammate Roger Guerreiro is looking at him with a mix of astonishment and repulsion.

And the video below shows that while his ecstatic teammates were rushing to hug him in admiration, Katidis tried hard to keep up his saluting arm, meaning this was not just an unintentional gesture. This was a Nazi salute par excellence.

Nevertheless, the 20-year-old Katidis is pleading ignorance, insisting—including, of course, on his Twitter account—that he is, actually, anti-fascist.

And Ewald Lienen, AEK’s German coach, told the press his lad is innocent, and doesn’t have an “idea about politics” in his goal scoring head.

Since its foundation 1980, The People’s Association – Golden Dawn, or, simply Golden Dawn, has been a right-wing extremist political organization, led by Nikolaos Michaloliakos. Scholars and the media describe it as neo-Nazi and fascist, although the group rejects these labels, saying it follows the political ideology of Ioannis Metaxas, Greece’s prime minister in the 1930s, who preached national unity through the abolition of all political parties. But the Golden Dawn party uses of Nazi-looking symbols, and praises German Nazism.

Greece’s Jewish community has complained to authorities in Athens after a controversial entertainer used a symbol of an intertwined swastika and a Star of David to promote his night club shows.

“The design depicted on the poster fiercely insults our very religion as well as the memory of the six million Jews, victims of the Holocaust,” said a statement from the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, addressed to the country’s Minister of Justice and officials in the education ministry.

The poster advertising the show by singer and comedian Tsimis Panousis, for a series of shows at a club in the port city of Piraeus near Athens, shows a Magen David intertwined with a swastika.

The poster has been plastered widely across Athens and on major boulevards in the city. Panousis, who has a reputation for being provocative, was apparently trying to imply that Greece’s financial crisis was a result of the combined efforts of a German-led austerity plan and Jewish-controlled financial interests.

The Jewish central board’s statement said the board had appealed to various municipalities to remove the offending posters and that they had received positive responses. However, the posters remained up in many places in the city.

There has been an upsurge in anti-Semitic incidents in Greece recently, but most have been tied to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party.

Greece’s neo-Nazi party Chryssi Avghi (Golden Dawn) won between 6.0 and 7.5% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, according to exit polls, European Jewish Press reports.

Last month, Golden Dawn, riding a wave of anti-immigrant anger, received 6.97% of the vote, winning 21 seats in the 300-member Parliament.

The head of Golden Dawn, Nikos Mihaloliakos, is a holocaust denier. He told a reporter: “There were no oven, no gas chambers, it’s a lie.” He then added: “Auschwitz, what Auschwitz? I didn’t go there. What happened there? Have you been there?”

He said he has “read lots of books casting doubt on the number of six million Jews” who died in the Holocaust.

The central board of Jewish communities in Greece called on the Greek government to “condemn and isolate the forces seeking the revival of the darkest ideology of European history.”

Reuters reported that Greek parties committed to a bailout to save Greece from bankruptcy were set to win a slim parliamentary majority on Sunday, beating radical leftists who reject the terms of the lifeline and bringing relief to a world braced for fresh financial turmoil.

An exit poll carried out by five polling companies for Greece’s major television channels projected the conservative New Democracy party as coming in with between 27.5 and 30.5 percent of the vote, with the anti-EU extreme left Syriza party at between 27 and 30 percent.

The Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party, which won nearly seven percent of the vote in last week’s elections, has had its official website taken down by host WordPress.

“This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service,” said a message from WordPress that replaced their homepage.

The web page hosting service bars sites that include “hate content” or “contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities.”

The extreme-right Golden Dawn Party, whose flag closely resembles the Nazi swastika, received 21 seats in parliament, the first time it passed the threshold to enter the legislative body. It campaigned heavily on an anti-immigrant platform under the slogan “So we can rid this land of filth.”

Despite its strong showing, it is not clear how many Golden Dawn members would ultimately end up as lawmakers, as Greece appears headed to fresh elections. A poll published Sunday in the local To Vima newspaper indicated that in a new vote Golden Dawn support would shrink to under 4 percent.

Last week’s elections resulted in a fractured parliament as voters protested against the mainstream parties they blame for the country’s financial crisis and for accepting harsh European austerity measures.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias was holding last-ditch effort talks with political leaders on Sunday, trying to form a national unity government after the three largest parties failed to put together a coalition. If that fails the country must hold new elections in June.

Greece’s Jewish community has condemned the rise of Golden Dawn as “a serious blow for Greek democracy.”

Jewish reaction was mixed to the election of the Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande as the president of France while Jewish leaders in Greece expressed concern and disappointment after the fascist Golden Dawn party was poised to enter the Greek parliament for the first time.

The European Jewish Congress congratulated Hollande, who was elected Sunday over Nicolas Sarkozy with 51.7 percent of the vote to 48.3 percent for the incumbent.

“Our recent meeting with Mr. Hollande was very constructive and touched on many areas of concern to the Jewish community,” EJC President Moshe Kantor said in a statement.

“I believe we have a sympathetic ear in the new French leadership and we look forward to continuing this relationship with the new president.”

Richard Prasquier, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewry, told reporters Monday in New York that he was concerned that Hollande’s election would lead to a rise in the anti-Israel left.

“We know that some of the parties who are supposed to be partners of the coalition in favor of Francois Hollande are not friends of Israel. The part they will play we will see,” he said.

More than 92 percent of French nationals who voted in Sunday’s election at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv cast their ballot for Sarkozy, the center-left candidate, according to reports.

Israeli President Shimon Peres congratulated Hollande on his victory.

“On behalf of the Israeli nation, it is a pleasure for me to send my sincere congratulations on your election to the post of President of France. I am confident that under your leadership, the French people will look to the future with hope, security and a spirit of unity.”

Hollande became the first Socialist president of France in nearly two decades. Sarkozy, of the Union for a Popular Movement party, was considered the favored choice among French Jews.

Sarkozy, the ninth European leader to be ousted since the start of the continent’s debt crisis, conceded shortly after the polls closed, wishing his successor luck in handling difficult times in France and in Europe.

“Francois Hollande is the president of the republic; he must be respected,” Sarkozy said in a concession speech shortly after the polls closed.

Meanwhile, in Greece, Golden Dawn received nearly 7 percent of the vote as Greeks punished the mainstream parties they blame for the country’s financial crisis and accepting harsh European austerity measures.

“It is very disappointing that in a country like Greece, where so many were killed fighting the Germans, that a neo-Nazi party is now in parliament,” David Saltiel, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told JTA.

It was a major victory for Golden Dawn, whose flag closely resembles the Nazi swastika. In the 2009 elections, the party garnered just 0.29 percent of the vote. In Greece, a party needs more than 3 percent of the vote to make it into parliament.

According to the final results published Monday evening, Golden Dawn had 6.97 percent, which would give the party 21 seats in the 300-member parliament.

But with no party getting more than 20 percent, there are fears that the major parties will be unable to cobble together a coalition. The biggest party, the conservative New Democracy (18.85 percent), had three days to form a government. The runner-up Coalition of the Radical Left (16.78 percent) would get the next chance. If both fail, fresh elections will be called.

Saltiel said Golden Dawn entering the parliament was of “very great concern because they are extreme right,” but he expressed his hope that the party may now moderate its positions.

“We are looking at how the situation will be in parliament and what their positions will be,” he said.

Speaking to a news conference on Sunday, Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos warned Greece’s enemies inside and outside the country that they should be “very afraid.”

“We are coming,” said Michaloliakos, one of the party’s only nationally known leaders. He came to prominence when he won a seat on the Athens City Council in 2010 and celebrated by giving the Nazi salute at the first City Hall meeting.

The party had campaigned on an anti-austerity, anti-immigrant platform, preying on the fears of ordinary Greeks who have seen their neighborhoods overrun by the nearly 1 million immigrants who have flooded the country from Asia and Africa hoping to use it as a gateway to the European Union.

During the elections, young party supporters with shaved heads and wearing black shirts with the Golden Dawn symbol set up vigilante groups to protect Greeks from immigrants. They have been blamed for several attacks on foreigners; the party denies the charges.

The party’s election platform included plans to landmine Greece’s borders, immediately arrest and expel illegal immigrants, and set up special labor camps for legal immigrants who commit crimes.

Its manifesto does not specifically mention the country’s small Jewish community, saying only that the party would tolerate religious freedom “except in cases that affect national interest and undermine Hellenism.”

Jewish leaders in Greece expressed concern and disappointment after the fascist Golden Dawn party was poised to enter the Greek parliament for the first time.

Speaking to a news conference on Sunday, Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos warned Greece’s enemies – inside and outside the country – that they should be “very afraid.”

“We are coming,” said Michaloliakos, one of the party’s only nationally known leaders. He came to prominence when he won a seat on the Athens City Council in 2010 and celebrated by giving the Nazi salute at the first City Hall meeting.

The party had campaigned on an anti-austerity, anti-immigrant platform, preying on the fears of ordinary Greeks who have seen their neighborhoods overrun by the nearly 1 million immigrants who have flooded the country from Asia and Africa hoping to use it as a gateway to the European Union.

With most of the ballots counted, Golden Dawn received nearly 7 percent of the vote in Sunday’s elections as Greeks punished the mainstream parties they blame for the country’s financial crisis and accepting harsh European austerity measures.

“It is very disappointing that in a country like Greece, where so many were killed fighting the Germans, that a neo-Nazi party is now in parliament,” David Saltiel, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told JTA.

It was a major victory for Golden Dawn, whose flag closely resembles the Nazi swastika. In the 2009 elections, the party garnered just 0.29 percent of the vote. In Greece, a party needs more than 3 percent of the vote to make it into parliament.

Saltiel said Golden Dawn entering the parliament was of ” very great concern because they are extreme right,” but he expressed his hope that the party may now moderate its positions.

“We are looking at how the situation will be in parliament and what their positions will be,” he said.

During the elections, young party supporters with shaved heads and wearing black shirts with the Golden Dawn symbol set up vigilante groups to protect Greeks from  immigrants. They have been blamed for several attacks on foreigners; the party denies the charges.

The party’s election platform included plans to landmine Greece’s borders, immediately arrest and expel illegal immigrants, and set up special labor camps for legal immigrants who commit crimes.

Its manifesto does not specifically mention the country’s small Jewish community, saying only that the party would tolerate religious freedom “except in cases that affect national interest and undermine Hellenism.”

However, the party openly displays copies of “Mein Kampf” alongside works on Greek racial superiority at party headquarters and the party symbol has been found at the sites of anti-Semitic attacks in the past.