The Jews of Rhodes are spotlighted in an exhibition at the University of Hartford that explores the once thriving Greek-Jewish community before the Nazis deported all 1,800 to Auschwitz. The display, titled “It was Paradise: Jewish Rhodes”, explores the Jewish community and its links between ancient Israel and the Greek island.

On display are personal items and books in Ladino on loan from the Rhodes Jewish Museum. The idea for the display came from Freund’s 2014 archeological excavation of the island’s Kahal Shalom synagogue that was established in 1557 and destroyed during the Allied bombing of Rhodes. Restored, it stands as the oldest synagogue in Greece today.

It was in July 1944 that Nazis forced the 1,800 men, women and children of Rhodes onto waiting ferryboats in a harrowing 3-week journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau that signified the Nazis’ attempt to obliterate all traces of the Greek island’s Jewish presence. In just one afternoon, the entire Jewish culture was wiped out from the island.