Macedonia marks the 78th anniversary of the deportation of the Macedonian Jews today.

The deportation from the territories occupied by Bulgaria in Macedonia and in Greece began on March 11th 1943, on orders from Germany, and over 7,000 Jews were deported from Macedonia – mainly from Skopje, Bitola and Stip. They were killed almost to the man in the death camp in Treblinka. The deportations shocked the public and Bulgarian authorities rejected German request for further deportations from Sofia and other Bulgarian cities.

Macedonian leaders today expressed their sorrow for this tragedy. VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski noted that 1,500 of those killed were children under the age of 15. President Stevo Pendarovski planted a tree in the memory of those killed and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev referred to the Holocaust as the biggest crime in modern history.