Skopje, 10 March 2026 (MIA) - President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova attended Tuesday an event commemorating the Holocaust of the Macedonian Jews at the Treblinka memorial in Poland. The President paid her respects to the victims and laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to the 7.144 Macedonian Jews deported by the fascist occupiers to the Treblinka death camp in 1943.

According to the President’s Office, in a statement to the media Siljanovska-Davkova said the country would not permit historical revisionism and falsification of the truth about the Holocaust of the Macedonian Jews.

“Here we stand before evidence, or rather an abyss of evil. We all believe and promise that we will not allow historical revisionism. Evil can’t be embellished, because there is proof of it at home, and there is proof of it here. Their homes are among us, their houses still stand. It is no coincidence that we have a Holocaust Memorial Center. It is no coincidence that everyone knows where the Jewish quarter was. It is no coincidence that everyone remembers those wonderful people. That brilliant mind was erased by a terrible, inhuman, malicious mind. That is why we often say that the truth must not be falsified, the truth must not be embellished, because it is impossible to turn evil into good. No one has ever succeeded in that. In the heart of Skopje, we have three urns with ashes from Treblinka,” the President said. 

Pointing out that it is both a state and human duty to be present in Treblinka on the eve of Wednesday’s Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust of Macedonian Jews, the President said that for the country the tragedy is greater and more painful, because antisemitism has never been a characteristic of the Macedonian people.

“Perhaps some will be upset, but I believe we must remind ourselves of evil so that it never happens again. We must understand that guilt lies not only in the perpetrators, but also with those who allowed this evil to occur. That is why we must never permit such a thing to happen. That is why I want to repeat that on March 11, 1943, the then Bulgarian fascist occupying authorities – meaning the authorities, not the Bulgarian people – the fascist authorities forcibly gathered the Macedonian Jews from occupied Macedonia, loaded them into cattle wagons, and deported them here, to the Nazi extermination center Treblinka,” President Siljanovska-Davkova said.

According to the President, the fact that Macedonian Jews who escaped deportation immediately joined the national liberation and anti-fascist struggle of the Macedonian people is proof of coexistence.

The President stressed that a testament to this are the few Jews who avoided deportation and their descendants, as well as the relatives of survivors present at the commemoration, who, she said, proudly represent the small but exceptionally important Macedonian Jewish community. 

At the commemoration, Goran Sadikario, Director of the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia, said the event is a powerful message that the country remembers and it must remember the truth and what it lost.

MP Rashela Mizrahi stressed that the victims are not just numbers, but families, identities, and stories with which all Macedonian Jews identify.

Michael Berenbaum, creator of the permanent exhibition at the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews from Macedonia, underscored the responsibility to ensure such evil never happens again.

The President laid flowers at the central monument in Treblinka, toured the museum exhibition, and met with Edward Kopówka, head of the Memorial and Museum Complex. President Siljanovska-Davkova welcomed the installation of a new wall on which all known names of Jews murdered in Treblinka will be inscribed, including the names of Macedonian Jews.

In Warsaw, the President laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Siljanovska-Davkova is the first Macedonian President to visit the Treblinka memorial.

Photo: President’s Office