Souvenir de Salonique : Rue Parallèle au quai DS 135 .G72 T41 S688 1912
Newly acquired and cataloged for our Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection, this historical postcard depicts a street parallel to the dock in Salonica (Thessaloniki), circa April 1912.
At that time, the city was still governed by the Ottoman empire, which explains the captions in Ottoman Turkish above the French sentence "Souvenir de Salonique" (Memento from Salonica), as well as the term "Turquie" on the back of the card.
At first glance, the card does not convey any Jewish motifs. However, besides the fact that the street depicted in the card was likely located in a predominatly Jewish neighborhood, attention should be paid to the editors of the card, Matarasso, Saragoussi & Rousso – they were among the at least thirty Jewish editors of postcards active in the famous Balkan town between 1886-1917.
As indicated on the left side on the back of the card, this was number 4 in the series of postcards edited by Matarasso, Saragoussi & Rousso.
Inscribed apparently in French in green ink and damaged (or perhaps censeord), the card is dated April 20, 1912 – aproximately six months before the Ottomans surrendered Salonica to the Greek Army. On the bottom right side we can read that the card was sent to Siberia, Russia. The seal on the top right is in Cyrillic script, suggesting that the card successfully arrived.
The purchase of this card was made with the support of the Ileane and Bruce E. Thal Judaica Collections Fund. With this addition, the Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection now counts 11 items.