The Holocaust Memorial was erected in honor of the 50,000 Greek Jews of Thessaloniki who testified in the Nazi camps. It was originally placed at the intersection of Papanastasiou and Nea Egnatia streets but was moved in 2007 to the southeast corner of Eleftherias Square, the same square where Nazi men had gathered the city's Jewish men and tortured them in July 1942.

The monument represents the seven-light lamp, the menorah, with its flames enveloping human bodies. It was designed by the great sculptor Nandor Glid, a Jew of Serbian descent, who had lost almost his entire family in the concentration camps. It is titled "Menorah in Flames 2" and is modeled on two previous works by the artist, also Holocaust memorials, in Dachau and Belgrade. The artwork was completed by Daniel Glid, Nandor Glid’s son, after his father’s death.