In the Treblinka Memorial and Museum Complex in Poland, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova attended the commemoration of the Holocaust of Macedonian Jews.
She paid tribute to the victims and laid a wreath at the memorial dedicated to the 7,144 Macedonian Jews deported by the fascist occupier to the Treblinka death camp in 1943.
In a statement to the media, she said that standing before the abyss of evil, we will not allow historical revisionism and falsification of the truth about the Holocaust of Macedonian Jews.
Indicating that it is a state and a human duty to be here on the eve of tomorrow’s Holocaust Remembrance Day of Macedonian Jews, she said that for us the tragedy is greater and more painful, because anti-Semitism has never been a Macedonian characteristic.
According to Siljanovska-Davkova, the fact that the Macedonian Jews who escaped deportation immediately joined the national liberation and anti-fascist struggle of the Macedonian people is proof of our coexistence.
According to her, this is evidenced by the few Jews who escaped deportation and their descendants, as well as the relatives of the survivors present, who proudly represent the small, but for us extremely important Macedonian Jewish community.
At the commemoration, the Director of the Holocaust Fund of the Jews of Macedonia, Goran Sadikario, said that today’s event is a strong message that we remember and must remember the truth and what Macedonia lost.
According to MP Rachela Mizrahi, the victims are not just numbers, but families, identities and stories by which all Macedonian Jews identify themselves.
Michael Barenbaum, creator of the permanent exhibition at the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia, said that when we come to this place, we should not only look back at the past, but also remember the responsibility we have to ensure that such an evil never happens again.
The President also laid flowers in front of the central monument in Treblinka, visited the museum exhibition and met with the Director of the Memorial and Museum Complex, Edward Kupowka. She welcomed the installation of a new wall on which all the known names of the Jews murdered in Treblinka will be written, including the names of Macedonian Jews.
In Warsaw, the President laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Siljanovska-Davkova is the first Macedonian President to visit the Treblinka Memorial Complex.
Below is the integral statement of President Siljanovska-Davkova:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Last year I visited Auschwitz. A terrible and sad sight. At that time, I said that all of us, and especially the Macedonian presidents, have not only a state, but also a human obligation, to always be here on this day of mourning, with the people whose homes are elsewhere. That is why I am so worried.
This place is tragic, especially in the face of the day that will forever remain engraved as one of the most difficult days for all of us. That is why I said that today I feel like a Macedonian Jew, because this is their home.
Imagine, leaving with your life in a suitcase, in a bag, on the last trip and never coming back. Maybe someone will be angry, but I think we must remind people of the evil so that it does not happen again. We must know that not only the perpetrators are guilty, but also those who allowed the evil to happen. That is why we must not allow something like this to happen again. That is why I want to repeat that on 11 March 1943, the then Bulgarian fascist occupying power, meaning the power, not the Bulgarian people, the then fascist power forcibly gathered Macedonian Jews from occupied Macedonia, that is what we have in common with Poland, then occupied Poland, put them into cattle cars and deported them here, to the Nazi extermination center Treblinka.
I repeat, from occupied Macedonia to occupied Poland. It is terrible for a person to say that the goal of Treblinka was to destroy as many people as possible as quickly as possible. We heard today, 2,000 people were executed at once. Terrible. I wonder, can normal minds in 13 months from July 1942 to August 1943, imagine, not to cause, but to produce the death of about 900,000 people, Jews. Among them were 7,144 Macedonian Jews.
The terrible thing about our Jews is that 98% of the entire Macedonian Jewish population is at stake. Someone put an end to the Macedonian Jewish community, and within the framework of the Macedonian victims in World War II, it is about a third. Is there a greater sacrifice for Macedonian freedom? Is there a greater sacrifice for Jewish freedom?
I often say, what an invaluable loss is at stake?
Imagine, what would their descendants be today? How much mind, knowledge, energy, creation, ended up here? Why is the tragedy for me, for everyone, even more painful? Anti-Semitism has never been a Macedonian characteristic.
There has never been a Macedonian soil for anti-Semitism, nor for manifestation of anti-Semitism. We have a millennial tradition of coexistence. If you go to Stobi, you will see the remains of one of the oldest synagogues there.
You will see a menorah there and you will feel the Jewish spirit. I have already said today why this is so painful for me.
As a child, playing with Jewish children in the center of Skopje, I learned the song Hava Nagila. And now I can sing it to you in its entirety. It is proof that we lived together, that we were equal and that is why the pain is enormous.
Another proof of coexistence. Macedonian Jews who, with God’s blessing, avoided deportation, immediately joined the National Liberation and Anti-Fascist Struggle and we have Jewish heroes. Is there any greater proof? They are victims for our freedom.
Their descendants, their present here, the relatives of the survivors, speak clearly about their ancestors. It is something that affects us all. Today, when the world is once again facing wars, I wonder how could that evil happen, the evil of the Holocaust? How did that moral vacuum come about in which the mind, reason, conscience, humanity disappeared? They disappeared. How is it possible that that deadly virus of anti-Semitism could have spread in a perverted fascist and Nazi ideology? That is a huge warning, because for me that act is an act of dehumanization. Now I think about how the human mind can dehumanize to such an extent as to industrialize, imagine, the process of killing. Here we stand above a proof or abyss of evil. We all believe and promise that we will not allow historical revisionism. You cannot embellish evil, because there is evidence of evil at home, but there is evidence of evil here too. Their homes are with us; their houses are standing. It is no coincidence that we have a Holocaust memorial center. It is no coincidence that everyone knows where the Jewish neighborhood was. It is no coincidence that everyone remembers the wonderful people. That wonderful mind was removed by some terrible, inhuman, evil mind.
That is why we often say that the truth must not be falsified, the truth must not be embellished, because it is impossible to make good out of evil. No one has succeeded in that. We, in the middle of Skopje, have three urns with ashes from Treblinka.
So, we have a part of the memory that is here. It constantly reminds us of the wonderful people whose lives ended because of some sick minds. So, from here, I believe and promise that every year at this time, we must meet with our Macedonian Jews, here, in this terrible place. And at home to tell that very, very sad story. However, a story that shows that even here we are aware that their spirit is there with us. But their spirit is also throughout Poland and everywhere. Their spirit reminds, their spirit warns, and that is why we should cherish that spirit.
Next year, if I am alive and well, only a force major can prevent me from coming here, because this is where I belong.
And when I came, I said that yes, those who did not commit this evil, but some of their ancestors did, should, like Willy Brandt, all line up here on their knees and apologize to all people.
That also applies to those who sent them here, drove the Macedonian Jews from their homes. But perhaps we should all do the same, promising that we will not allow such a thing to happen again, but we will not allow anyone to erase the painful and difficult memory from us, because our Jews will remain ours. The memory of them will remain not only as long as their heirs, their relatives, are alive, but as long as there are Macedonians, always, because that is the brotherhood that remains forever.
Thank you. Sorry for being anxious, but I think that is natural.
