Help us promote Lemnos' link to Anzac - Make a donation now

Our Committee is raising funds to create a lasting legacy telling the story of Lemnos' link to Gallipoli and Australia's Anzac story. Our projects include the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park, the publication of a major new historical and pictorial publication and more. To make a donation you can also deposit directly by direct debit into the Committee's bank account: Account Name: Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Inc; Bank: Bendigo Bank; Account No: 188010037; BSB No: 633000; Include your surname in the reference section. For further information on our legacy projects or to make a donation please contact either Lee Tarlamis 0411553009 or Jim Claven 0409402388M

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Orosdi Back's - The famous Thessaloniki emporium



Amazing image of the advertisement for the famous Thessaloniki department store or emporium, Orosdi Back's, the "Harrod's of Thessaloniki". 


Famous throughout the Levant, it was frequented by the Anzac's and other Allied soldiers during the 1915-18 Salonika campaign. It was famous not only for its canteen but the fact that you could buy almost anything there - from scrambled eggs, toys, fashionable clothing to household goods. As one Australian soldier said during the First World War, you could buy all "'the oddments that make life bearable". As the emporium advertisement proudly says:

"We undertake any description of contract and what we have not bo ourselves we obtain for you free of charge..."

This was part of a chain of stores set up by a Austro-Hungarian businessman throughout the Ottoman empire in the 19th century. I love the fact that no address is needed.

The advertisement is from the back page of the newspaper of the British Salonika Force, The Balkan News, 10 December 1915, a copy held at the Wellcome Library, London.

More stories on Thessaloniki to come.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

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