[1] On 11 July 1942, thousands of Greek Jewish men were rounded up, publicly tortured and humiliated before being registered for forced labour during the Holocaust in Greece.

[9] The demolition of the wall to make easier the entry to the port created more space and helped the mobility of the ships.

During the late Ottoman Empire the square became an important cosmopolitan centre of the neighbourhood, known as Frangomahalas (Turkish: Frenk Mahallesi, European or Frankish Quarter),[10] and the wider city.

It also evolved into centre of commerce and finance, making Thessaloniki the financial capital of the Ottoman Balkans and a substantial economic player in the eastern Mediterranean.

[12] Beginning in 1893, a rapid transit system is implemented in Thessaloniki by means of a tram network, with Eleftherias Square as the western starting point.

[14] The rise of Thessaloniki as an Ottoman economic powerhouse meant an increase in western travellers, which rendered the original square unfit to cater to their needs.

[17] In his state visit to Thessaloniki in 1908, Sultan Abdulhamid II's official procession passed through the square and in front of the Club des Intimes.

[3] The Young Turks began the revolution in Thessaloniki and Enver Pasha declared to a crowd gathered on Eleftherias Square that "today the capricious ruler has ended, bad government is no more.

"[4] In old Ottoman and Greek postcards, it henceforth appears in French as Place de la Liberté (Liberty Square).

[19] During the First World War the square was popular with Allied troops of the 'five-nation army' fighting in the Salonica front, especially Café Flokas, the most famous pâtisserie in the city,[20] where a Scottish volunteer nurse notes that "warriors [were] at last able to relax, drink, smoke, and discuss the newest singers at the city's café-chantants".

[1] The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 destroyed the original character of the square, with only the Stein Building, an Austrian department store, being spared.

[21] The importance of Eleftherias Square to the life of Thessaloniki is illustrated by the fact that special Royal Decrees were issued, allowing establishments such as Café Flokas to be rebuilt temporarily.

In the summer of 1942, the day which became known as "black Shabbat", all Jewish men aged from 18 to 45 were commanded to present themselves at the square to be put to forced labour.

[8] The monument was defiled twice in 2018, once by Golden Dawn members in January, and once by far-right protesters participating in a Macedonia naming dispute rally.

[37][38] Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris, who championed the redevelopment of the square back into an open space, challenged the memorial as being "hard to find".

[39]A design competition was launched in 2013,[5] and in 2018 the tendering process to select a contractor to carry out building works was commenced.

The area of the square had, at the time, become the city's cosmopolitan centre and European-style buildings in the eclectic style began to be constructed, including examples of Ottoman neoclassicism and baroque.

[44] The events leading up to the destruction of the Jews of Thessaloniki were portrayed in a 2015 film by Manousos Manousakis titled Cloudy Sunday.