Macedonia: 75th anniversary of Jewish deportations observed

Thousands mark destruction of communities of Skopje, Bitola, Stip – confined to ghettos, then sent to Treblinka

By AP 11 March 2018, 11:06 pm

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People hold the Israeli and former Macedonian flag as they take part in a commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust, at the railway station in Bitola, southern Macedonia, March 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
People lay flowers on railway tracks, during a commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust, at the railway station in Bitola, southern Macedonia, on March 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
A Jew puts his arms on a freight wagon, during a commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust at the railway station in Bitola, southern Macedonia, on March 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
People gather to take part in the International March of the Living, through downtown Bitola, southern Macedonia, to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, on March 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

BITOLA, Macedonia — Thousands of people have marched in southern Macedonia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the deportation and eventual death of almost the country’s entire Jewish population.

Public officials, civic group representatives and relatives of former Macedonian Jews came from Israel, Latin America and the United States to attend the event in the town of Bitola.

Macedonia was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when it was occupied by Germany and administered by its Bulgarian allies during World War II.

More than 7,000 Jews from the cities of Skopje, Bitola and Stip were confined to ghettos in March 1943 before being deported to the Nazi death camp in German-occupied Treblinka, Poland.

Ninety-eight percent of Macedonia’s Jews perished there.