Hella Kounio-Matalon was born in Thessaloniki. Both her parents are Holocaust survivors – her mother being a “hidden child” during the Nazi occupation in Greece, and her father a concentration camps survivor, who was in in Auschwitz and two other camps in Austria, for over two years from the age of 14.
Hella’s interest in local Jewish history has always been a passion. Because she is a child of Holocaust survivors, it led her to study the Holocaust and especially the Holocaust in Thessaloniki, where prior to the Holocaust Jews over half the population of the city (known in Jewish history as Salonika) but lost more than 96% of its Jewish population to the Holocaust. For the past five years, she has been leading tours of the Jewish sites of Thessaloniki, welcomed hundreds of visitors from all over the world and educating them about the rich cultural history of the Jews in Thessaloniki throughout the centuries. Additionally, Hella is an active member of the local Jewish Community and where she is an active participant on its various projects and committees.
