A dramatic moment occurred in the Parliament today, as Prime Minister Zaev and his ministers came to answer questions from representatives. Rasela Mizrahi from VMRO-DPMNE, the first Jewish member of a Macedonian Government who was ousted by Zaev after a vile anti-Semitic campaign by SDSM activists, blasted him for his comments that the Bulgarian occupation in World War Two was mere “administration”.

Does this look like administration to you?, Mizrahi asked, as she was showing Zaev pictures of her family members who were taken to Treblinka in 1943.

The over 7,000 strong Jewish community in Macedonia was nearly entirely destroyed in the Holocaust, after being deported by the Bulgarian forces, on orders from Germany. Facing a Bulgarian veto and demands to rewrite Macedonian history, Zaev agreed to extend this process even to the Second World War period, and stated that what Bulgaria did was not occupation of Macedonia but simply administration, and later, when Bulgaria switched sides in the war – even liberation.