[1] Its construction was proposed in 2016 and is partly funded by Germany (€10 million), the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, with support from the Municipality of Thessaloniki and mayor Yiannis Boutaris.

[4] In 2022, Albert Bourla, a native of Thessaloniki and CEO of Pfizer, directed his $1 million award from the Genesis Prize for his leadership in delivering the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine towards the Holocaust Museum of Greece and Holocaust education, with the particular emphasis on the fate of Greek Jewish community.

The site chosen for the museum in the city is on an open plaza located at the endpoint of the rail lines and extends the walkway along Thessaloniki’s seashore, connecting the city’s harbor, the historic White Tower and the old railway station, which was used during the war for the deportation of nearly 50,000 Jews.

[11] In 1943 the city's 56,000 Jews were deported, by use of 19 Holocaust trains, to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, where 43,000 – 49,000 of them were murdered.

[15][16] Between the 15th and early 20th centuries, Thessaloniki was the only city in Europe where Jews were a majority of the population.