Bitola ‘Procession of the Living’ commemorates Holocaust victims
Bitola, 10 March 2024 (MIA) – Through a “Procession of the Living”, the Municipality of Bitola, the Jewish Community in the Republic of North Macedonia and the Holocaust Fund of the Jews of North Macedonia marked 81 years since the Holocaust of the country’s Jews.
As part of the activities, Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska; MPs Marija Kochovska, Olga Lozanovska and Silvana Angelevska; the German Ambassador to North Macedonia, Petra Drexler; and Bitola Mayor Toni Konjanovski, laid flowers at the Monument to the Deported Jews in Bitola and the monument to Haim Estreya Ovadya.
“Bitola as a cultural and historic hub, as well as a city that has suffered, even 81 years after the deportation of its Jews, does not forget March 11. We do not forget this tragic day, and we pay our respects to our fellow citizens. The goal is to remember and to never forget, to ensure that such sad moments are never repeated,” said the Mayor of Bitola.
The events in Bitola were attended by several guests from Israel, from the country’s Jewish community, organizations and students who laid flowers at the city’s Jewish Cemetary.
“On this day we remember a very difficult time, when the majority of our ancestors were gathered and taken by the Bulgarian fascist occupier to a camp where none survived. Bitola is a city that we always speak of with love, we remember the beautiful coexistence, the stories we’ve heard from our ancestors, of the companionship and friendship. Unfortunately, we are living in a time when such bad moments and feelings still exist in the world and that’s why we want to convey the message that this should never be repeated,” stressed Zdravko Shami, former President of the country’s Jewish Community, and current representatives of the Jewish diaspora.
Representatives of nongovernmental organizations and citizens of Bitola joined in the “Procession of the Living” and placed flowers on the railway in remembrance and respect for the Jews of Bitola who were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp on March 11, 1943.
Photo: MIA
