Commemoration of Deported Macedonian Jews

On the occasion several events will be held in the capital Skopje and in the towns of Stip and Bitola to commemorate the victims.

During the night of March 10, 1943 the police of the then fascist government of Bulgaria apprehended almost the entire Jewish population in Macedonia.

They were put in railway cattle wagons and transported to the notorious Treblinka death camp in Poland where most of them perished. Only 2 percent of Macedonia’s Jews escaped the slaughter, either by going into hiding or fighting in the resistance.

The entire Jewish district in central Skopje bore the brunt of the events.

A Holocaust Memorial Centre is currently being built where the district was once located. The Macedonian Jewish Community plans to sign a memorandum with the Macedonian Government for its completion.

As part of the Holocaust observance, the book "Jews from Monastir, Macedonia" by Schlomo Albocher was promoted in Skopje on Tuesday.

According to estimates, about 900,000 people were killed in Treblinka alone during World War II, of which some 7,200 were Macedonian Jews.