A decade after plans first arose of a Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki, the city has finally approved its construction.

After years of land ownership and zoning issues of the Thessaloniki Rail Cargo Station and two Presidential Decrees, the work in now expected to begin next year.

The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki announced the news, saying that the project is slated for completion in 2026.

“The issuance of the building permit paves the way for the construction of the Holocaust Museum, which is expected to be completed in 2.5 years,” the community said.

Also revealed was that the museum will be built with funding from the Greek government, Germany, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, through the Genesis Prize Foundation.

The decision to build the museum was mace in 2013 when a memorandum of cooperation was signed Thessaloniki municipality, the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and GAIAOSE, the company and developing property for Greece’s Hellenic Railways.

Thessaloniki Rail Cargo Station was the location from which nearly 50,000 Jews were sent to their deaths in German concentration camps during World War II.

President of the Jewish community David Saltiel said 46,000 Thessaloniki Jews were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau between March and August 1943, with just 1950 returning.

“The community lost 97 percent of its members, around 50,000 people,” he said, while also adding that Jews comprised a fifth of Thessaloniki’s population at the time.

Having been first announced in 2013, the leasing of the land took place in 2014. The first Presidential Decree approving changes in the building code was published in 2017.

Later it was found that not all the land leased to the Jewish Community belonged to Hellenic Railways. A swap of land between Hellenic Railways and the municipality of Thessaloniki was decided and approved by a 2021 law and the amended Presidential Decree published in 2022.

The project is expected to cost €29 million project, and will be overseen by the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki.