North Macedonia
Recognition of the Roma Genocide
Recognition, official texts
In North Macedonia the Holocaust is recognised as such but there is no information whether the Roma Genocide as such is recognised.
The 12th March has been designated as the Holocaust Memorial Day. On the 12th of March 1943 the Jews were deported to the National-socialist camps, namely Treblinka, by the Bulgarian occupation forces. Macedonia lost the highest proportion of its Jews of any country in the world - 98% of them perished in the Holocaust.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
The Holocaust Memorial Centre in Skopje was inaugurated on 10th March 2011 in the presence of the country's president and representatives of international Jewish organisations. Unfortunately, information on the Roma Gencide is not included in that centre.
Other places of Remembrance are Jewish cemeteries in Bitola, Štip and Skopje and the Memorial Plaque at the Tobacco Factory, the monument erected in the building of an old tobacco factory that was used as a transit camp during the Holocaust. The memorial plaque on the factory premises and a monument were set up in 2004.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
There are no specialised institution, commission or research centre dealing only with the issue of the Genocide of the Roma.
Holocaust Memorial Center of the Jews from Macedonia
11th March Street, no 2.
Skopje
Telephone: +389 2 329 8025
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
Teaching about the Genocide of the Roma
Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum
In North Macedonia there is no special commemoration day of the Genocide of the Roma.
The central commemoration event is held at the Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia. It is organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Jewish community and non-governmental organisations. The event is attended by high level Government officials, mayors, public figures and representatives of the Jewish community.
Other annual commemorative gatherings are also held on 10th and 11th March, which are also attended by Government officials, politicians, diplomats, representatives of the Jewish Community and public figures. In Skopje, the Jewish Community traditionally holds an official meeting with the Mayor, as symbolic recognition of the coexistence and good relations that have traditionally existed among various communities in North Macedonia. The commemoration ends with a concert in honour of the victims. The events are promoted through the media, as well as through the educational system. (OSCE report “Holocaust Memorial Days in the OSCE Region: An overview of governmental practices”, page 69).
Other dates of commemoration of victims of National Socialism are 9th May - the Day of Liberation and 11th October - the date of the start of the Macedonian uprising against fascism in 1941. These dates are commemorated to honour 28 000 citizens who lost their lives in World War II. Ceremonies are held in the National Assembly, in front of the monuments to victims throughout the country, and in schools and universities as well as at the Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia. Such ceremonies have been held since 1945. The events are organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Science, associations of veterans and representatives of the Jewish community. Government officials at the highest level participate in the ceremonies. Activities may include exhibitions, lectures and presentations of short movies about the lives and heroic deeds of the people in World War II, as per the OSCE report “Holocaust Memorial Days in the OSCE Region: An overview of governmental practices”, page 70.
A memorandum of cooperation was signed on 16th December 2014 between Albania’s State Archive and North Macedonia’s Holocaust Museum. In this document, both sides engage to boost scientific cooperation and exchange of archive documents.
The 12th March has been designated as the Holocaust Memorial Day. On the 12th of March 1943 the Jews were deported by the Bulgarian occupation forces to the National-socialist camps.
Currently the North Macedonian Government is building a Holocaust Memorial Centre in Skopje. It is not known if Roma will be included at that centre.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
The sixteen intercultural curricula for four subjects of primary education were developed, containing content of the history, culture, language and traditions of the Roma students who attended the school.
Training of teachers and education professionals
According to the OSCE, “the state does not provide separate teacher-training courses in the field of Holocaust education. The Bureau for Development of Education stated that teachers are sufficiently trained to teach about the Holocaust.” ("Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches", page 124).
The international seminar on Holocaust “The Diverse Survival Strategies of Jewish and Roma Communities in Macedonia: From Resistance to Memorialisation” was held from 26th September to 2nd October 2011 in Ohrid. The organiser was the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities Euro-Balkan from Skopje in cooperation with the International Task Force for Holocaust Research (ITF) and the Academic program Ohrid Summer University.
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
The Macedonian History Teachers Association organised a kick-off meeting in the EUROCLIO project “History that connects the Balkans, Rethinking History Education? 21st Century Approaches” in Skopje, from 2nd to 5th April 2015. Members of History Teachers Associations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia were invited to participate in order to discuss organisational issues with the development of regional website and with preparations for the summer school in Mrkonjić Grad. The summer school will be focused on topics such as cultural history, remembrance and glocal history (global and local history). In addition to this, there will be several on-site learning activities such as visits to archaeological sites, museums, former concentration camps and memorial sites. EUROCLIO was represented by Jonathan Even-Zohar (director), Judith Geerling (project manager) and by Ivan Markovic (trainee).
Testimonies
In August 2015, R.R.O.M.A. Kratovo (Regional Roma Educational Youth Association from Macedonia), participated in the Roma genocide commemoration activities organised in Poland. During 2013, the NGO was a part of the project “Migration never stops” together with young people from Germany, Czech Republic and Serbia.
Another project that involved young Roma and non-Roma participants from North Macedonia called Pravde Jakhenca (With Open Eyes) took place in Krakow/Żywiec in Poland from 24th July to 4th August 2013. 60 young Roma and non-Roma from Albania, Germany, North Macedonia and Poland came together to learn more about the Roma Genocide during World War II and to fight anti-Gypsyism and racism in the present day.
Initiatives of the civil society
The 11th March 1943 Foundation, whose name refers to the deportation of the Jewish population to the Treblinka concentration camp, sponsors a writing competition for the best story on the Holocaust in one of the daily newspapers and organizes a literary competition for secondary-school students every five years. Awards for the winners are presented at the commemoration of the 11th March events. Members of the Jewish Community have also undertaken an initiative to conduct a 45-minute class on the Holocaust in any school that expressed interest in the subject. (See “Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches”, page 124)
The Post-Conflict Research Centre organised a two-day capacity-building seminar on Preventing and Responding to Genocide and Mass Atrocities for NGO and civil society representatives in collaboration with the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) from 22nd to 25th October 2013 in Skopje.
Information material
“Roma and the Holocaust from the Second World War” was the topic for the panel discussion organised by IDEA (International Debate Education Association) Southeast Europe on Wednesday, 18th September 2013, at the “Citizens for European Macedonia” Club in Skopje. At the event IDEA Southeast Europe promoted the Croatian translation of “Pharrajimos: The Fate of the Roma During the Holocaust”, book that offers readers chronologies of the Pharrajimos in the Third Reich and in Hungary and general background on the Roma in Europe before and during World War II.
Report of the CEDIME-SE, Centre for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe: “MINORITIES IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE, Roma of Macedonia” from 2000 states that the Roma of Macedonia were spared from extermination unlike the Jewish population in Macedonia who was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The reason was the Roma’s adherence to Islam, as well as their general trend of declaring themselves as other minorities. However, some individual non-Muslim Roma who revealed their ethnicity were sent to the death camps. Others were sent to the Bulgarian interior and were used as forced labour. Some of those Roma were maltreated and died in Bulgaria.
The Holocaust in Macedonia, 1941-1945, by Balkanalysis.com Editorial Team, Balkanalysis.com (Balkanalysis.com), issue: 01 / 2004, pages: 17
Scientific publications
Bulajić, M. (1996). Tudjman's "Jasenovac myth": Genocide against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. Belgrade: Stručna knj.
Crowe, Kolsti, Hancock: „The Gypsies of Eastern Europe“, 1992, Routledge
Fejzula, Sebijan : Article „Roma victims as “phantoms” in the history of the Holocaust. The duty of memory and the possibility of change“ , published on the website of Romalitico-Roma Policy Analysis in Decembre 2014
Fings, K., Lissner, C. and Sparing, F. (1992). “...einziges Land, in dem Judenfrage und Zigeunerfrage gelöst”: die Verfolgung der Roma im faschistisch besetzten Jugoslawien 1941-1945. Köln: Rom e.V. Köln.
Jevtic, E. (2004). Blank pages of the Holocaust Gypsies in Yugoslavia during World War II. Thesis (M.A.), Brigham Young University.
Lewy, Guenter: „The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies“, 2000, Oxford: OUP 0 19 512556 8
Lituchy, B. M. et al. (2006). Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: Analyses and survivor testimonies. New York: Jasenovac Research Institute.
Mirkovi, D. (1993). “Victims and Perpetrators in the Yugoslav Genocide 1941-1945. Some preliminary observations”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 7 (3), pp. 317-332.
Cohen, Mark: “The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry” article published at the Holocaust encyclopaedia website.
Jevtic, E. Master's Thesis: BLANK PAGES OF THE HOLOCAUST: GYPSIES IN YUGOSLAVIA DURING WORLD WAR II
Multimedia material
1971: “Istrel” (Gunshot), Yugoslavia, historical movie, directed by Branko Gapo, produced by Bosna film, 94 min
This excerpt from the film is about commencement of the Macedonian resistance against Nazi Bulgarian rule on 11th October 1941. It is based on factual events that took place in Macedonia after the Nazi Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia during World War II. The clip shows Bulgarian genocide and re-education camps in Macedonia. Bulgarian Nazis did not forget to leave out the Jews and the Gypsies, both of whom were targets of genocide along with the Macedonian people after Bulgaria's invasion of Macedonia.
1971: “The Macedonian Part of Hell”, Yugoslavia, historical movie, directed by Vatroslav Mimica, produced by Macedonia film Skopje.
This excerpt from the film relates to a true event from World War II in Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia - a random act of genocide committed by Bulgarians against the Macedonian people. At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, the Bulgarian fascist occupiers intensify the oppression and torture of the civilians in order to prevent the spreading of the Revolution for the liberation of Bitola's environs.
2012: "Treto poluvreme" (The third half), “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, historical drama, directed by Darko Mitrevski, co-produced by Kino Oko, fx3x, I/O Post, 113 min
A film that deals with Macedonian football during World War II and the deportation of Jews from Macedonia. It is a story of love during wartime between a Macedonian and a Jewish girl and a country's passion for soccer.