Multimillion-dollar Holocaust museum opens in Macedonia
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Robert Singer, the executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, were among the other dignitaries who attended the museum opening.
The capital of this Balkan nation of 2 million people saw the dedication of a multi million-dollar Holocaust museum that has been called one of the finest institutions of its kind.
Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece, had a Jewish population of about 8,000 before the Holocaust, “and more than 98 percent of them were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators,” Michael Berenbaum, a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s research institute, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
That’s part of the reason that an institution of the magnitude of the new museum, which according to Macedonian media cost $23m to build, is “appropriate” in Skopje, he said.
The funding came from restitution money paid in 2000 by the government to the local Jewish community, which is now comprised of about 200 members.
WJC CEO Robert Singer visited #Skopje's #Holocaust Memorial Center w/ #NorthMacedonia PM @Zoran_Zaev and Jerusalem Minister @zeev_elkin. A great example of how Holocaust history should be presented to European societies. The museum is a must for all who visit the Balkans. pic.twitter.com/AQsoxVPcBE
— World Jewish Congress (@WorldJewishCong) March 11, 2019
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Robert Singer, the executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, were among the other dignitaries who attended the museum opening.
The museum, a three-story building located in the Macedonian capital’s museum quarter, includes unique displays such as hundreds of suitcases dangling from the ceiling, a transport wagon similar to ones used to transport the Macedonian Jews to be murdered, and a tank engine of the kind used to produce deadly gas for the gas chamber of Treblinka, where Macedonian Jews were killed.
Skopje, North Macedonia: WJC CEO Robert Singer laid flowers in memory of the 7,000 Macedonian Jews deported to Treblinka during the #Holocaust 76 years ago, at a commemoration ceremony at the Old Monopol Tobacco Factory – the same place where Jews were deported from. #WeRemember pic.twitter.com/AyrzBLzQJL
— World Jewish Congress (@WorldJewishCong) March 11, 2019
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