Skopje, 10 March 2024 (MIA) – Bitola and Shtip are set to host numerous commemorative activities on Sunday marking 81 years since the Holocaust of Macedonian Jews.

Shtip’s City Council will host a commemorative program that will be addressed by its Mayor, Ivan Jordanov. A “Procession of the Living” will be held after which flowers will be laid at the Monument to the Deported Jews, including by MPs Nikola Micevski and Emilija Rambabova.

The activities in Bitola began on Saturday and are set to continue Sunday with flowers being laid at the Monument to the Deported Jews in Bitola and the monument to Haim Estreya Ovadya. A “Procession of the Living” will be held in Bitola as well, where Mayor Toni Konjanovski will have an address. MPs Marija Kochovska and Olga Lozanovska will lay flowers at the Memorial to the Holocaust victims from Bitola.

The central commemorative activities will be held Monday in Skopje with respects being paid in front of the Monument to the 7144 deported Jews at the Skopje Monopoly. The President of the country’s Jewish Community, Pepo Levi, caretaker Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi, and Israel’s Ambassador to North Macedonia, Simona Frankel, will address the event.

The commemorative activities will conclude with a commemorative dinner at the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia which will be addressed by President Stevo Pendarovski, the President of the country’s Jewish Community, Pepo Levi, and Germany's Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Manuel Sarrazin.

The Jewish Community in the Republic of North Macedonia and the Holocaust Fund of the Jews of North Macedonia are marking 81 years since the Holocaust of the Macedonian Jews with activities from March 9 to March 11.

On March 11, 1943, 7144 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola and Shtip were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, which is one of the highest percentages of deported Jews in the world relative to the total population (98 percent).

Photo: MIA Archive