Skopje, 12 March 2023 (MIA) - Nowhere in Europe had the morbid concept called "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" been more efficiently carried out than in then-occupied Macedonia. The authentic meaning of the word 'justice' in both Hebrew and Macedonian points to what corresponds to the truth. Justice means to recognize and name the truth and for it to be respected by all. Reconciliation requires an apology about the role of the then-pro-fascist government in Sofia in the deportation of the Macedonian Jews, said President Stevo Pendarovski in his address at the memorial of the 7,144 Macedonian Jews, who were deported to Treblinka death camp in occupied Poland 80 years ago.

"Our compatriots were among the six millions perished Jews. Their destiny depicts all stages of the Holocaust. First came discrimination. The then-fascist regime in Sofia adopted the law on protection of the nation, resulting in systematic discrimination of Macedonian Jews. Deprived of citizenship and legal protection, they were fired from public service, children thrown out of schools, families banished from their homes. The second step was isolation. At the order of the commissariat for Jewish affairs, the Jews had to wear the yellow Star of David in public, stigmatizing them through the eternal symbol of the Jewish identity. The third step was dehumanization," said President Pendarovski.

Almost all Jews from Skopje, Bitola and Shtip, he added, were deported from the then-Skopje-based Monopoly to Treblinka, where almost one million Jews were killed in gas chambers, including 96 percent of the Macedonian Jewish population and a third of the Macedonian victims in World War II.

"Faced with these facts, we are bound to ask the following questions: Do we, the current generations, have the right to calm down someone's guilty conscience over the Holocaust of the Macedonian Jews? Can we stay silent before the historical revisionism that rehabilitates criminals and celebrates perpetrators? Should we forget who signed the systematic deprivation of the Macedonian Jews' civil, economic and human rights and sent them to their death," asked Pendarovski.

He asked for an apology from Bulgaria for the role of the then-pro-fascist government in Sofia over the deportation of the Macedonian Jews.

"The authentic meaning of the word 'justice' in both Hebrew and Macedonian points to what corresponds to the truth. Justice means to recognize and name the truth and for it to be respected by all. Reconciliation requires an apology about the role of the then-pro-fascist government in Sofia in the deportation of the Macedonian Jews," noted Pendarovski.

This is critical, added the President, in a time when the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling and antisemitism is rising.

"Our institutions have the duty to implement the tasks that the country has undertaken at the international Holocaust forum in Malmo. Namely, educate pupils about the truth of this genocide and protect them from the dangerous virus of antisemitism through the mandatory visit of the Holocaust Memorial Center. Therefore, our duty is to remember and never forget, not allowing, ever again, the power of evil to get the chance to repeat the crime," underlined Pendarovski.