http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=231
The Holocaust in Macedonia, 1941-1945
Date: Saturday, January 10 @ 02:00:00 EST
Topic: Macedonia Articles
This article by guest author and noted Balkan historian Carl
Savich was originally published by www.serbianna.com. (more information
about Mr. Savich is available there). It serves as a compelling
reminder of the extent and scope of genocide carried out in Macedonia
by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Introduction
Over 7,000 Macedonians Jews were killed during the Holocaust in
Macedonia, 1941-1944, rounded up and deported by German, Bulgarian, and
Albanian forces. Macedonia was annexed and divided between Greater
Albania and Greater Bulgaria following the invasion and occupation of
Yugoslavia in April, 1941 by Germany and Axis allies Italy, Hungary,
Albania, and Bulgaria. The Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Kichevo, and Debar
districts of Western Macedonia were annexed and incorporated into an
enlarged Albanian state, or Greater Albania, sponsored by Adolf Hitler
and Benito Mussolini. Eastern Macedonia, including the capital Skopje,
Bitola, and Shtip, were annexed to Greater Bulgaria. Western Macedonia
was occupied by the Italian Army and was under Italian administration
until the Italian surrender in 1943 when it was re-occupied by Germany.
In conjunction with the Balli Kombetar, the Italian occupation forces
formed the fascist Albanian Ljuboten battalion which the German forces
retained after 1943. In 1944, Germany formed the Albanian Skanderbeg
Waffen SS Division which occupied Kosovo, Southern Serbia, Montenegro,
and Western Macedonia. The Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Roma,
and Macedonian Jewish populations were the targets or victims of
genocide and extermination. The Macedonian and Serbian nationalities
were de-recognized by the Bulgarian occupation forces. The Bulgarian
occupation regime categorized the Macedonian Slav population as
Bulgarian. In the Greater Albania region of Western Macedonia, the
Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Roma, and Jewish populations
were similarly targeted for elimination and deportation.
The Jewish Population of Macedonia
The total Jewish population of Macedonia in 1941 was approximately
7,800-8,000, concentrated in the Macedonian cities of Skopje, Bitola,
and Shtip, which were in the Bulgarian zone of occupation, Eastern or
Greater Bulgaria. There were also 300 Jewish refugees in Macedonia from
Belgrade, Serbia, who had escaped to Skopje. The Bulgarian police and
military forces rounded up over 7,000 Macedonian Jews who they then
turned over to the German forces who deported them to the Treblinka
concentration camp in railroad cars in March, 1943. During World War
II, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
Jews have lived in Macedonia since Roman times. A Greek inscription on
a pillar of a church which had been a former synagogue in Stobi near
Bitola showed evidence of Jewish settlement in the 2nd and 3rd
centuries. This historical record is preserved in the national museum
of Belgrade, Serbia. In the medieval period, Jews lived in Bitola,
Skopje, Ochrid, and Struga. During the reign of Serbian Tsar Stephen
Dushan, Jewish farmers are mentioned as living in Macedonia. Stephen
Dushan conquered Macedonia in 1353, when Macedonia was incorporated
into the medieval Serbian state. Skopje would become the capital city
of Serbia. During the 14th century, the Jewish grammarian Judah Moskoni
lived in Ochrid. During the 16th century, Jewish communities are known
to have existed in the Macedonian cities of Skopje and Bitola and the
Serbian cities of Nish, Smederevo, and Pozarevac.
During the medieval period as part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire,
Skopje (known as Uskub in Turkish, Skupi in pre-Ottoman history) became
a major commercial and trading center located on the trade route from
Constantinople and Salonika to Serbia and Bosnia. Ottoman Uskub was
inundated by Turkish Muslim settlers. Skopje was on a strategically
important military route. Jewish merchants in Skopje were involved in
various trades such as manufacturing wool clothing, commerce, and the
production of kachkaval cheese. Commerce was transacted between
Salonika and Constantinople in Skopje.
Mass Jewish migrations to Macedonia occurred following the Spanish
Inquisition and Reconquista or Reconquest in Spain and Portugal in the
late 15th century. Many of the Spanish Jews were craftsmen and
entrepreneurs and spoke their own language, Ladino, and were of the
Sephardic sect of Judaism. These Spanish and Portuguese Jewish refugees
settled in Salonika (Thessalonika) in Greece, Skopje, Bitola, Ber,
Kostur, Serres, Shtip, Kratovo, and Strumica. By the middle of the 16th
century, 3,000 Jewish households were established in Salonika, which
was called ''the mother-city of Israel''. In the 17th century, the
Jewish quarter of Skopje had its own schools, two synagogues, and walls
that surrounded it. The Jewish population of Shtip had its origins in
Salonika. During the march of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I’s forces on
Skopje in 1689, the city was burned and destroyed. The Jews of Skopje
were forced to flee the city, while synagogues were burned down and the
wall surrounding the Jewish quarter was destroyed. Mosques and Muslim
and Ottoman Turkish structures and buildings were burned down and
destroyed. At the time of the Young Turk revolution, there was another
influx of Jewish settlers in Macedonia.
Macedonia and the Holocaust: Greater Bulgaria
Yugoslavia was invaded on April 6, 1941 by Germany, Italy, Albania,
Hungary, and Bulgaria in a joint offensive termed by Adolf Hitler
Operation Punishment. Southern Yugoslavia was invaded by German and
Bulgarian forces which occupied Macedonia. Macedonia came under
Bulgarian military occupation on April 18 when Macedonia was annexed
into a Greater Bulgaria along with Thrace. Bulgarian King Boris III,
who ruled from 1918 to 1943, and his Prime Minister from February, 1940
to September, 1943, Bogdan Filov, had signed a pact with Germany on
March 1, 1941 making Bulgaria an Axis partner in the Hitler-Filov
Accords.
Bulgarian anti-Jewish measures began on January 21, 1941 when the Law
for the Defense of the Nation was promulgated by the Bulgarian
parliament in Sofia. The Law for the Defense of the Nation restricted
the civil rights of Bulgarian Jews. On October 4, 1941, Macedonian Jews
in the Skopje and Bitola districts were forbidden to maintain any
commercial/trade/economic business or to transact any business. Jewish
businesses were to be closed down and liquidated by the end of the
year. On June 28, 1942, a law was passed which mandated that the
Bulgarian Council of Ministers implement ''all necessary steps to solve
the Jewish question and the problems involved.'' Bulgaria thus was
committed to the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish
Problem, what became known as the Holocaust or Shoah. Other anti-Jewish
ordinances and orders were enacted by the Bulgarian government. On
September 4, 1942, Jews living in Macedonia, Thrace, and the rest of
Greater Bulgaria were required to identify their place of residence and
their businesses. On August 26, 1942, the Bulgarian Commissariat for
the Jewish Problem, also known as the Central Commissariat for Jewish
Affairs, in consultation with the German officials in Sofia and the
Gestapo, passed an order, number 4567, that mandated that Jews wear a
yellow badge. All Macedonian Jews over the age of ten were now legally
required to wear the ''Jewish badge'', a yellow Star of David, the
Magen David, or Mogen David, to identify themselves as Jews. Macedonian
Jews were further forbidden to frequent movie theaters and cafes. Jews
were forbidden to live in the same residence with Bulgarians. Moreover,
there was a curfew for Jews forbidding them to leave their homes after
certain times or to travel city streets after certain times. Jewish
residences and Jewish residents had to be listed. Due to these
anti-Jewish measures, Jews were excluded from the social, political,
and economic life of Greater Bulgaria which resulted in the
ghettoization of the Macedonian Jews.
In the fall of 1942, Macedonians were made Bulgarian citizens, but
Macedonian Jews were excluded from citizenship. The Macedonian
national/ethnic classification was de-recognized. The Serbian
national/ethnic classification was similarly de-recognized. The
Orthodox Slavic population of Macedonia was deemed to be Bulgarian. As
in the Croatian/Bosnian Muslim Ustasha NDH, the Independent State of
Croatia, the Serbian population ceased to exist. So Jews were not the
only targets of genocide in Macedonia. Macedonians, Serbs, and Roma
were similarly targeted for extermination and genocide. The Bulgarian
government implemented a policy of Bulgarization of the Slavic Orthodox
population, both Macedonian and Serbian. Pro-Bulgarian security
battalions, known as ''Ohrana'', were established in Macedonia. For
Macedonian Jews, the deprivation of Bulgarian citizenship meant that
their property could be seized or ''sequestered'' and there could be
economic discrimination applied to them. As non-citizen aliens, they
lacked full civil rights. Their movements could be restricted, and they
could be prevented from purchasing goods and services.
On February 22, 1943, Germany and Bulgaria signed an agreement to expel
20,000 Bulgarian Jews, the Bulgarian government agreeing to deport the
Jews of the areas annexed to Greater Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thrace. In
1941, Macedonia had a total Jewish population of approximately
7,800-8,000 Jews. Skopje had a population of 3,800 Jews, Bitola had a
population of 3,300, and Shtip had a population of 550. In 1910, Bitola
(known also as Bitolj and Monastir) had a total Jewish population of
2,000. In 1941, the Jewish population of Bitola was approximately
3,500. On April 5, 1943, the Jewish population of Bitola was deported
to the German concentration/extermination camp of Treblinka in
German-occupied Poland. By 1952, one or two Jews were left in Bitola.
There had been five synagogues in Bitola, none of which remain today.
The Jewish presence in Bitola was wiped out.
The center of Jewish life, culture, and commerce in the southern
Balkans was the Greek port city of Salonika or Thessalonika or Solun,
an important commercial sea port. Many Macedonian Jews had originally
come from Salonika. There had been a Jewish presence in Salonika since
140 B.C. In 1935, Salonika had a total Jewish population of 60,000.
Thrace had a total Jewish population of 1,250 Jews who had lived there
since 1542. In Bulgaria proper there was a total Jewish population of
approximately 50,000.
On March 11, 1943, the Bulgarian Commissariat for Jewish Affairs based
in Sofia ordered the seizure and detention of the Jewish population of
Macedonia and Thrace by Bulgarian military forces, police, and
governmental agencies after consultations with the German minister in
Sofia, Alexander Beckerle. The Bulgarian government acquiesced to the
deportation of the Jewish populations of Macedonia and Thrace but did
not relent to the deportation of the Jewish population of Bulgaria
proper, due to the pressure exerted by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
and Orthodox priests, who opposed the deportations and anti-Jewish
policies, and the pressure of public opinion, which likewise opposed
the deportations in Bulgaria proper. But there was no such compunction
or reluctance in deporting the Macedonian and Thracian Jews, regarded
as “foreign” Jews.
A total of 7,215 Macedonian Jews were seized by Bulgarian forces and
sent in wagon cars of 50-60 persons per wagon to a transit camp, the
tobacco factory, in Skopje. Eleven days later, 198 of these Jewish
deportees were released, those that were foreign nationals. A second
group released were 67 doctors, pharmacists, and their families. In the
group of deportees, there were 539 children up to three years of age,
602 children between the ages of three and ten, 1,172 children between
the ages of ten and sixteen. Thus, 2,313 children under the age of
sixteen were deported to Treblinka. None of them survived.
There were 865 elderly Macedonian Jewish deportees over the age of 60.
There were 250 severely ill deportees in the group.
The deportees were kept in deplorable conditions. Each room in the
tobacoo factory held over 500 persons. The Skopje tobacco factory
lacked adequate sanitation. Food and water were scarce. On March 22,
the first transport trains took the deportees to Treblinka. The
transport of the Macedonian Jews to Treblinka was supervised by SS
Hauptsturmfuehrer Theodor Dannecker. Bulgarian police forces guarded
the transports. The second transport was under the direction of German
Gestapo personnel. On March 25 and 29, a second and a third transport
respectively departed for Treblinka. The third transport consisted of
2,500 persons. Of the 7,144 Macedonian Jews deported to Treblinka, none
survived. Of that number, 2,313 children under the age of 16 were
killed. 100-200 Macedonian Jews survived the Holocaust in Macedonia.
The round-up and deportations were organized by the Bulgarian
Commissariat for Jewish Affairs and implemented by the Bulgarian
police. The properties, businesses, and financial holdings of
Macedonian Jews were seized by the Bulgarian government which allocated
these assets to Bulgarian organizations, institutions, and private
citizens.
Macedonia and the Holocaust: Greater Albania
Macedonia was divided between a Greater Bulgaria and a Greater Albania
during the Holocaust. The Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Debar, and Kichevo
regions of Western Macedonia, termed Illirida in the Greater Albania
nomenclature, were annexed to an enlarged Albanian state sponsored by
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The Western Macedonia/Illirida
sector of Greater Albania was occupied by Italy with Albanian proxy
forces and an Albanian administration until September, 1943, when
Western Macedonia was occupied by German forces after the Italian
surrender. During the Italian occupation, the Albanian nationalist
Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) was formed, a militant and radical
Greater Albania movement based in the Greater Albania ideology
established with the 1878 Albanian League of Prizren, that sought the
extermination and deportation of the non-Albanian populations of
Kosovo-Metohija, Western Macedonia, Montenegro, Southern Serbia, and
Chameria in Greece. The Serbian Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Roma,
and Jewish populations were the targets for elimination/deportation of
the Greater Albania ideology/movement. The Italian/fascist Albanian
Ljuboten battalion was formed in the Tetovo region made up of Albanian
troops. In 1944, when Germany occupied Western Macedonia, an Albanian
Waffen SS Division was formed, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS
“Skanderbeg”(Albanische Nr.1). The Skanderbeg Division occupied Western
Macedonia with a base in Tetovo. Remnants of the Skanderbeg Division
later were deployed in Skopje during the German retreat from the
Balkans. On August 29, 1944, Bulgaria signed an armistice with Russia
and switched sides in the war following the advance of the Russian Red
Army in the Balkans and the defeat of the German forces. The The 1st
and 2nd Bulgarian Armies attacked the retreating German forces which
included the Albanian Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division.
The first action of the Skanderbeg Division was the round-up of Kosovo
Jews in Pristina. The Kosovo Jews seized by the Albanian Skanderbeg SS
Division numbered 400 who were transported/deported by German forces to
the Bergen-Belsen concentration/extermination camp where 300 were
killed. The Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division was instrumental in making
Kosovo Juden-frei, free of Jews. The Skanderbeg Division targeted the
Serbian Orthodox population of Kosovo-Metojiha for extermination and
deportation. Albanian troops in the Skanderbeg SS Division
indiscriminately massacred Serbian civilians in Kosovo and deported
over 10,000 Kosovo Serbs, their land being taken over by Albanian
settlers from Albania proper. Thus, the Kosovo Jewish populations and
the Kosovo Serbian populations were victims of genocide during the
Greater Albania period. The Skanderbeg Division occupied Macedonia in
early September, 1944, moving into the Skopje and Kumanovo area.
Albania proper had a total Jewish population of 300 in 1930. Following
the Italian invasion and occupation of Albania on April 7, 1939,
Albanian Jews were deported to Italy. But most of the Jews killed
during the Holocaust in Albania were in the Greater Albania or ''New
Albania'' region of Kosovo-Metohija. Italian forces deported Jewish
refugees in the Pristina prison in Kosovo to the German concentration
camp in Belgrade where they were subsequently executed by the German
forces.
The Italian occupation forces in Western Macedonia installed ethnic
Albanian Dzafer Sulejmani as the president of the Tetovo District,
while Husein Derala was made the commander of police in Tetovo. The
Italian forces relied on local Albanian proxies and an Albanian civil
administration. Italian forces sponsored the nationalist Balli Kombetar
movement, and established Vulnetara, Albanian proxy police forces, and
the Albanian Ljuboten battalion, a military formation recruited by
Italian intelligence, OVRA.
As in Greater Bulgaria, the Macedonian Jews were not the only targets
of genocide and extermination. The Macedonian and Serbian Orthodox
populations were targeted for genocide and deportation. The Roma of
Macedonia were targeted as well. The Albanian High Commissioner for
Western Macedonia, Feyzi Alizoti, called for and advocated publicly the
extermination and deportation of non-Albanians in Western Macedonia.
Alizoti gave a speech in Tetovo in which he argued for the annihilation
of the non-Muslim communities of Macedonia. He called for the expulsion
and deportation of the Orthodox Macedonian and Serbian populations,
creating a pure, ethnically homogenous Illirida, an integral part of
Greater Albania.
Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler became a sponsor of the Greater
Albania ideology. Himmler sought to create two Albanian Waffen SS
Divisions. The German-sponsored 1943 Second Albanian League of Prizen
sought to realize the objectives of the Greater Albania ideology, to
unite Albanian-inhabited areas into an ethnically pure Albanian state.
Himmler supported Greater Albania because the Albanian Ghegs were
purportedly of pure Aryan origins, i.,e., were part of the herrenvolk
or master race. Moreover, Himmler perceived the Waffen SS as
functioning as a liberation army for oppressed/repressed minorities and
nationalities seeking independence/freedom/secession/annexation.
Himmler would thus sponsor Greater Albania.
The Jewish population of Western Macedonia/Illirida, of the Macedonian
sector of Greater Albania, was not deported until September, 1943, when
German forces occupied the Italian zones. The German occupation forces
in Western Macedonia rounded-up and deported several groups of
Macedonian Jews to the concentration/extermination camps. Thus, the
Macedonian Jews of Greater Albania, Western Macedonia/Illirida, and
those of Greater Bulgaria, Eastern Macedonia, over 7,000, were deported
and killed during the Holocaust.
Conclusion
During the Holocaust in Macedonia, 1941-1944, over 7,000 Macedonian
Jews were killed. Bulgarian military/police forces in Eastern
Macedonia, part of Greater Bulgaria, rounded-up the Macedonian Jews and
turned them over to the German occupation forces who deported them in
railroad cars to the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland in March,
1943. None of the deported Macedonian Jews survived. In Western
Macedonia/Illirida, a part of Greater Albania, the German occupation
forces deported groups of Jews to the concentration camps. During the
Holocaust, 90% of the Macedonian Jewish population was killed by
German, Bulgarian, and Albanian forces. There is a total Jewish
population of 100-200 living in Macedonia today, out of a total
Macedonian population of 2 million, most of whom live in the capital
city of Skopje. Shtip has several remaining Jewish residents. There are
no synagogues in Macedonia anymore. The Jewish community of Macedonia
maintains contacts and links to the Jewish communities in Belgrade,
Serbia, and in Salonika, Greece. The Holocaust in Macedonia from 1941
to 1944, implemented by German, Bulgarian, and Albanian forces,
resulted in the destruction of the Jewish population of Macedonia.
Bibliography
Browning, Christopher. Genocide in Yugoslavia During the Holocaust.
Washington, DC: USHMM, 1994.
The Crimes of the Fascist Occupiers and Their Collaborators Against
Jews in Yugoslavia. Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities of
theFederal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, 1957.
Gutman, Israel, ed. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 4 vols. New York:
Macmillan, 1990.
Ivanov, Pavle Zeletovic. Skenderbeg SS Divizija. Belgrade: Nova
Knjiga, 1987.
Laqueur, Walter, ed. The Holocaust Encyclopedia. New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 2001.
This article comes from Balkanalysis.com
http://www.balkanalysis.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=231
The Holocaust in Macedonia, 1941-1945
Date: Saturday, January 10 @ 02:00:00 EST
Topic: Macedonia Articles
This article by guest author and noted Balkan historian Carl
Savich was originally published by www.serbianna.com. (more information
about Mr. Savich is available there). It serves as a compelling
reminder of the extent and scope of genocide carried out in Macedonia
by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Introduction
Over 7,000 Macedonians Jews were killed during the Holocaust in
Macedonia, 1941-1944, rounded up and deported by German, Bulgarian, and
Albanian forces. Macedonia was annexed and divided between Greater
Albania and Greater Bulgaria following the invasion and occupation of
Yugoslavia in April, 1941 by Germany and Axis allies Italy, Hungary,
Albania, and Bulgaria. The Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Kichevo, and Debar
districts of Western Macedonia were annexed and incorporated into an
enlarged Albanian state, or Greater Albania, sponsored by Adolf Hitler
and Benito Mussolini. Eastern Macedonia, including the capital Skopje,
Bitola, and Shtip, were annexed to Greater Bulgaria. Western Macedonia
was occupied by the Italian Army and was under Italian administration
until the Italian surrender in 1943 when it was re-occupied by Germany.
In conjunction with the Balli Kombetar, the Italian occupation forces
formed the fascist Albanian Ljuboten battalion which the German forces
retained after 1943. In 1944, Germany formed the Albanian Skanderbeg
Waffen SS Division which occupied Kosovo, Southern Serbia, Montenegro,
and Western Macedonia. The Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Roma,
and Macedonian Jewish populations were the targets or victims of
genocide and extermination. The Macedonian and Serbian nationalities
were de-recognized by the Bulgarian occupation forces. The Bulgarian
occupation regime categorized the Macedonian Slav population as
Bulgarian. In the Greater Albania region of Western Macedonia, the
Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Roma, and Jewish populations
were similarly targeted for elimination and deportation.
The Jewish Population of Macedonia
The total Jewish population of Macedonia in 1941 was approximately
7,800-8,000, concentrated in the Macedonian cities of Skopje, Bitola,
and Shtip, which were in the Bulgarian zone of occupation, Eastern or
Greater Bulgaria. There were also 300 Jewish refugees in Macedonia from
Belgrade, Serbia, who had escaped to Skopje. The Bulgarian police and
military forces rounded up over 7,000 Macedonian Jews who they then
turned over to the German forces who deported them to the Treblinka
concentration camp in railroad cars in March, 1943. During World War
II, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
Jews have lived in Macedonia since Roman times. A Greek inscription on
a pillar of a church which had been a former synagogue in Stobi near
Bitola showed evidence of Jewish settlement in the 2nd and 3rd
centuries. This historical record is preserved in the national museum
of Belgrade, Serbia. In the medieval period, Jews lived in Bitola,
Skopje, Ochrid, and Struga. During the reign of Serbian Tsar Stephen
Dushan, Jewish farmers are mentioned as living in Macedonia. Stephen
Dushan conquered Macedonia in 1353, when Macedonia was incorporated
into the medieval Serbian state. Skopje would become the capital city
of Serbia. During the 14th century, the Jewish grammarian Judah Moskoni
lived in Ochrid. During the 16th century, Jewish communities are known
to have existed in the Macedonian cities of Skopje and Bitola and the
Serbian cities of Nish, Smederevo, and Pozarevac.
During the medieval period as part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire,
Skopje (known as Uskub in Turkish, Skupi in pre-Ottoman history) became
a major commercial and trading center located on the trade route from
Constantinople and Salonika to Serbia and Bosnia. Ottoman Uskub was
inundated by Turkish Muslim settlers. Skopje was on a strategically
important military route. Jewish merchants in Skopje were involved in
various trades such as manufacturing wool clothing, commerce, and the
production of kachkaval cheese. Commerce was transacted between
Salonika and Constantinople in Skopje.
Mass Jewish migrations to Macedonia occurred following the Spanish
Inquisition and Reconquista or Reconquest in Spain and Portugal in the
late 15th century. Many of the Spanish Jews were craftsmen and
entrepreneurs and spoke their own language, Ladino, and were of the
Sephardic sect of Judaism. These Spanish and Portuguese Jewish refugees
settled in Salonika (Thessalonika) in Greece, Skopje, Bitola, Ber,
Kostur, Serres, Shtip, Kratovo, and Strumica. By the middle of the 16th
century, 3,000 Jewish households were established in Salonika, which
was called ''the mother-city of Israel''. In the 17th century, the
Jewish quarter of Skopje had its own schools, two synagogues, and walls
that surrounded it. The Jewish population of Shtip had its origins in
Salonika. During the march of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I’s forces on
Skopje in 1689, the city was burned and destroyed. The Jews of Skopje
were forced to flee the city, while synagogues were burned down and the
wall surrounding the Jewish quarter was destroyed. Mosques and Muslim
and Ottoman Turkish structures and buildings were burned down and
destroyed. At the time of the Young Turk revolution, there was another
influx of Jewish settlers in Macedonia.
Macedonia and the Holocaust: Greater Bulgaria
Yugoslavia was invaded on April 6, 1941 by Germany, Italy, Albania,
Hungary, and Bulgaria in a joint offensive termed by Adolf Hitler
Operation Punishment. Southern Yugoslavia was invaded by German and
Bulgarian forces which occupied Macedonia. Macedonia came under
Bulgarian military occupation on April 18 when Macedonia was annexed
into a Greater Bulgaria along with Thrace. Bulgarian King Boris III,
who ruled from 1918 to 1943, and his Prime Minister from February, 1940
to September, 1943, Bogdan Filov, had signed a pact with Germany on
March 1, 1941 making Bulgaria an Axis partner in the Hitler-Filov
Accords.
Bulgarian anti-Jewish measures began on January 21, 1941 when the Law
for the Defense of the Nation was promulgated by the Bulgarian
parliament in Sofia. The Law for the Defense of the Nation restricted
the civil rights of Bulgarian Jews. On October 4, 1941, Macedonian Jews
in the Skopje and Bitola districts were forbidden to maintain any
commercial/trade/economic business or to transact any business. Jewish
businesses were to be closed down and liquidated by the end of the
year. On June 28, 1942, a law was passed which mandated that the
Bulgarian Council of Ministers implement ''all necessary steps to solve
the Jewish question and the problems involved.'' Bulgaria thus was
committed to the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish
Problem, what became known as the Holocaust or Shoah. Other anti-Jewish
ordinances and orders were enacted by the Bulgarian government. On
September 4, 1942, Jews living in Macedonia, Thrace, and the rest of
Greater Bulgaria were required to identify their place of residence and
their businesses. On August 26, 1942, the Bulgarian Commissariat for
the Jewish Problem, also known as the Central Commissariat for Jewish
Affairs, in consultation with the German officials in Sofia and the
Gestapo, passed an order, number 4567, that mandated that Jews wear a
yellow badge. All Macedonian Jews over the age of ten were now legally
required to wear the ''Jewish badge'', a yellow Star of David, the
Magen David, or Mogen David, to identify themselves as Jews. Macedonian
Jews were further forbidden to frequent movie theaters and cafes. Jews
were forbidden to live in the same residence with Bulgarians. Moreover,
there was a curfew for Jews forbidding them to leave their homes after
certain times or to travel city streets after certain times. Jewish
residences and Jewish residents had to be listed. Due to these
anti-Jewish measures, Jews were excluded from the social, political,
and economic life of Greater Bulgaria which resulted in the
ghettoization of the Macedonian Jews.
In the fall of 1942, Macedonians were made Bulgarian citizens, but
Macedonian Jews were excluded from citizenship. The Macedonian
national/ethnic classification was de-recognized. The Serbian
national/ethnic classification was similarly de-recognized. The
Orthodox Slavic population of Macedonia was deemed to be Bulgarian. As
in the Croatian/Bosnian Muslim Ustasha NDH, the Independent State of
Croatia, the Serbian population ceased to exist. So Jews were not the
only targets of genocide in Macedonia. Macedonians, Serbs, and Roma
were similarly targeted for extermination and genocide. The Bulgarian
government implemented a policy of Bulgarization of the Slavic Orthodox
population, both Macedonian and Serbian. Pro-Bulgarian security
battalions, known as ''Ohrana'', were established in Macedonia. For
Macedonian Jews, the deprivation of Bulgarian citizenship meant that
their property could be seized or ''sequestered'' and there could be
economic discrimination applied to them. As non-citizen aliens, they
lacked full civil rights. Their movements could be restricted, and they
could be prevented from purchasing goods and services.
On February 22, 1943, Germany and Bulgaria signed an agreement to expel
20,000 Bulgarian Jews, the Bulgarian government agreeing to deport the
Jews of the areas annexed to Greater Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thrace. In
1941, Macedonia had a total Jewish population of approximately
7,800-8,000 Jews. Skopje had a population of 3,800 Jews, Bitola had a
population of 3,300, and Shtip had a population of 550. In 1910, Bitola
(known also as Bitolj and Monastir) had a total Jewish population of
2,000. In 1941, the Jewish population of Bitola was approximately
3,500. On April 5, 1943, the Jewish population of Bitola was deported
to the German concentration/extermination camp of Treblinka in
German-occupied Poland. By 1952, one or two Jews were left in Bitola.
There had been five synagogues in Bitola, none of which remain today.
The Jewish presence in Bitola was wiped out.
The center of Jewish life, culture, and commerce in the southern
Balkans was the Greek port city of Salonika or Thessalonika or Solun,
an important commercial sea port. Many Macedonian Jews had originally
come from Salonika. There had been a Jewish presence in Salonika since
140 B.C. In 1935, Salonika had a total Jewish population of 60,000.
Thrace had a total Jewish population of 1,250 Jews who had lived there
since 1542. In Bulgaria proper there was a total Jewish population of
approximately 50,000.
On March 11, 1943, the Bulgarian Commissariat for Jewish Affairs based
in Sofia ordered the seizure and detention of the Jewish population of
Macedonia and Thrace by Bulgarian military forces, police, and
governmental agencies after consultations with the German minister in
Sofia, Alexander Beckerle. The Bulgarian government acquiesced to the
deportation of the Jewish populations of Macedonia and Thrace but did
not relent to the deportation of the Jewish population of Bulgaria
proper, due to the pressure exerted by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
and Orthodox priests, who opposed the deportations and anti-Jewish
policies, and the pressure of public opinion, which likewise opposed
the deportations in Bulgaria proper. But there was no such compunction
or reluctance in deporting the Macedonian and Thracian Jews, regarded
as “foreign” Jews.
A total of 7,215 Macedonian Jews were seized by Bulgarian forces and
sent in wagon cars of 50-60 persons per wagon to a transit camp, the
tobacco factory, in Skopje. Eleven days later, 198 of these Jewish
deportees were released, those that were foreign nationals. A second
group released were 67 doctors, pharmacists, and their families. In the
group of deportees, there were 539 children up to three years of age,
602 children between the ages of three and ten, 1,172 children between
the ages of ten and sixteen. Thus, 2,313 children under the age of
sixteen were deported to Treblinka. None of them survived.
There were 865 elderly Macedonian Jewish deportees over the age of 60.
There were 250 severely ill deportees in the group.
The deportees were kept in deplorable conditions. Each room in the
tobacoo factory held over 500 persons. The Skopje tobacco factory
lacked adequate sanitation. Food and water were scarce. On March 22,
the first transport trains took the deportees to Treblinka. The
transport of the Macedonian Jews to Treblinka was supervised by SS
Hauptsturmfuehrer Theodor Dannecker. Bulgarian police forces guarded
the transports. The second transport was under the direction of German
Gestapo personnel. On March 25 and 29, a second and a third transport
respectively departed for Treblinka. The third transport consisted of
2,500 persons. Of the 7,144 Macedonian Jews deported to Treblinka, none
survived. Of that number, 2,313 children under the age of 16 were
killed. 100-200 Macedonian Jews survived the Holocaust in Macedonia.
The round-up and deportations were organized by the Bulgarian
Commissariat for Jewish Affairs and implemented by the Bulgarian
police. The properties, businesses, and financial holdings of
Macedonian Jews were seized by the Bulgarian government which allocated
these assets to Bulgarian organizations, institutions, and private
citizens.
Macedonia and the Holocaust: Greater Albania
Macedonia was divided between a Greater Bulgaria and a Greater Albania
during the Holocaust. The Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Debar, and Kichevo
regions of Western Macedonia, termed Illirida in the Greater Albania
nomenclature, were annexed to an enlarged Albanian state sponsored by
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The Western Macedonia/Illirida
sector of Greater Albania was occupied by Italy with Albanian proxy
forces and an Albanian administration until September, 1943, when
Western Macedonia was occupied by German forces after the Italian
surrender. During the Italian occupation, the Albanian nationalist
Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) was formed, a militant and radical
Greater Albania movement based in the Greater Albania ideology
established with the 1878 Albanian League of Prizren, that sought the
extermination and deportation of the non-Albanian populations of
Kosovo-Metohija, Western Macedonia, Montenegro, Southern Serbia, and
Chameria in Greece. The Serbian Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Roma,
and Jewish populations were the targets for elimination/deportation of
the Greater Albania ideology/movement. The Italian/fascist Albanian
Ljuboten battalion was formed in the Tetovo region made up of Albanian
troops. In 1944, when Germany occupied Western Macedonia, an Albanian
Waffen SS Division was formed, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS
“Skanderbeg”(Albanische Nr.1). The Skanderbeg Division occupied Western
Macedonia with a base in Tetovo. Remnants of the Skanderbeg Division
later were deployed in Skopje during the German retreat from the
Balkans. On August 29, 1944, Bulgaria signed an armistice with Russia
and switched sides in the war following the advance of the Russian Red
Army in the Balkans and the defeat of the German forces. The The 1st
and 2nd Bulgarian Armies attacked the retreating German forces which
included the Albanian Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division.
The first action of the Skanderbeg Division was the round-up of Kosovo
Jews in Pristina. The Kosovo Jews seized by the Albanian Skanderbeg SS
Division numbered 400 who were transported/deported by German forces to
the Bergen-Belsen concentration/extermination camp where 300 were
killed. The Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division was instrumental in making
Kosovo Juden-frei, free of Jews. The Skanderbeg Division targeted the
Serbian Orthodox population of Kosovo-Metojiha for extermination and
deportation. Albanian troops in the Skanderbeg SS Division
indiscriminately massacred Serbian civilians in Kosovo and deported
over 10,000 Kosovo Serbs, their land being taken over by Albanian
settlers from Albania proper. Thus, the Kosovo Jewish populations and
the Kosovo Serbian populations were victims of genocide during the
Greater Albania period. The Skanderbeg Division occupied Macedonia in
early September, 1944, moving into the Skopje and Kumanovo area.
Albania proper had a total Jewish population of 300 in 1930. Following
the Italian invasion and occupation of Albania on April 7, 1939,
Albanian Jews were deported to Italy. But most of the Jews killed
during the Holocaust in Albania were in the Greater Albania or ''New
Albania'' region of Kosovo-Metohija. Italian forces deported Jewish
refugees in the Pristina prison in Kosovo to the German concentration
camp in Belgrade where they were subsequently executed by the German
forces.
The Italian occupation forces in Western Macedonia installed ethnic
Albanian Dzafer Sulejmani as the president of the Tetovo District,
while Husein Derala was made the commander of police in Tetovo. The
Italian forces relied on local Albanian proxies and an Albanian civil
administration. Italian forces sponsored the nationalist Balli Kombetar
movement, and established Vulnetara, Albanian proxy police forces, and
the Albanian Ljuboten battalion, a military formation recruited by
Italian intelligence, OVRA.
As in Greater Bulgaria, the Macedonian Jews were not the only targets
of genocide and extermination. The Macedonian and Serbian Orthodox
populations were targeted for genocide and deportation. The Roma of
Macedonia were targeted as well. The Albanian High Commissioner for
Western Macedonia, Feyzi Alizoti, called for and advocated publicly the
extermination and deportation of non-Albanians in Western Macedonia.
Alizoti gave a speech in Tetovo in which he argued for the annihilation
of the non-Muslim communities of Macedonia. He called for the expulsion
and deportation of the Orthodox Macedonian and Serbian populations,
creating a pure, ethnically homogenous Illirida, an integral part of
Greater Albania.
Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler became a sponsor of the Greater
Albania ideology. Himmler sought to create two Albanian Waffen SS
Divisions. The German-sponsored 1943 Second Albanian League of Prizen
sought to realize the objectives of the Greater Albania ideology, to
unite Albanian-inhabited areas into an ethnically pure Albanian state.
Himmler supported Greater Albania because the Albanian Ghegs were
purportedly of pure Aryan origins, i.,e., were part of the herrenvolk
or master race. Moreover, Himmler perceived the Waffen SS as
functioning as a liberation army for oppressed/repressed minorities and
nationalities seeking independence/freedom/secession/annexation.
Himmler would thus sponsor Greater Albania.
The Jewish population of Western Macedonia/Illirida, of the Macedonian
sector of Greater Albania, was not deported until September, 1943, when
German forces occupied the Italian zones. The German occupation forces
in Western Macedonia rounded-up and deported several groups of
Macedonian Jews to the concentration/extermination camps. Thus, the
Macedonian Jews of Greater Albania, Western Macedonia/Illirida, and
those of Greater Bulgaria, Eastern Macedonia, over 7,000, were deported
and killed during the Holocaust.
Conclusion
During the Holocaust in Macedonia, 1941-1944, over 7,000 Macedonian
Jews were killed. Bulgarian military/police forces in Eastern
Macedonia, part of Greater Bulgaria, rounded-up the Macedonian Jews and
turned them over to the German occupation forces who deported them in
railroad cars to the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland in March,
1943. None of the deported Macedonian Jews survived. In Western
Macedonia/Illirida, a part of Greater Albania, the German occupation
forces deported groups of Jews to the concentration camps. During the
Holocaust, 90% of the Macedonian Jewish population was killed by
German, Bulgarian, and Albanian forces. There is a total Jewish
population of 100-200 living in Macedonia today, out of a total
Macedonian population of 2 million, most of whom live in the capital
city of Skopje. Shtip has several remaining Jewish residents. There are
no synagogues in Macedonia anymore. The Jewish community of Macedonia
maintains contacts and links to the Jewish communities in Belgrade,
Serbia, and in Salonika, Greece. The Holocaust in Macedonia from 1941
to 1944, implemented by German, Bulgarian, and Albanian forces,
resulted in the destruction of the Jewish population of Macedonia.
Bibliography
Browning, Christopher. Genocide in Yugoslavia During the Holocaust.
Washington, DC: USHMM, 1994.
The Crimes of the Fascist Occupiers and Their Collaborators Against
Jews in Yugoslavia. Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities of
theFederal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, 1957.
Gutman, Israel, ed. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 4 vols. New York:
Macmillan, 1990.
Ivanov, Pavle Zeletovic. Skenderbeg SS Divizija. Belgrade: Nova
Knjiga, 1987.
Laqueur, Walter, ed. The Holocaust Encyclopedia. New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 2001.
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