A procession to honor the Jewish community of Macedonia, destroyed in the Holocaust, is taking place in downtown Skopje today.

The Procession of the Living covers the area of the Museum of the City of Skopje and ends at the Monopol tobacco factory, where the Jewish population of Skopje was forced to gather on this day 80 years ago, and from where they were carried off to Treblinka, where they were killed on arrival. Over 7,000 Jews from Skopje, Bitola and Stip were killed in the Holocaust – almost the entire Jewish population of Macedonia.

Members of the Jewish community and from international Jewish organizations and Government officials are joining the procession. It comes at a time of growing historic disputes with Bulgaria, whose military occupied Macedonia during the war and carried out Germany’s orders to deport the Jews – while protecting the Jews from Bulgaria proper.