NI Institute and Museum

Museum Devoted to Jewish Ethnic Entity

The museum exhibition devoted to the Jewish ethnic entity is housed in one of the rooms of the Portal of the Jewish cemetery in Bitola.

Full screen

With the celebration opening of this exhibition, the Bitola Museum contributed to the general marking of the 500 years since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal (1492) and their migration to the Balkans and Bitola.

The exhibition content is based on photographic documents, copies and other written documents, representing the Jewish ethnic entity that lived some 500 years together with the Macedonian population.

The majority of the exhibited items originate from the end of the XIX c. and the beginning of the XX c. Many family photos of distinguished Jewish families are presented as well as their folk associations, sport societies, rabbis, craftsmen, their participation in NLAWM and the genocide of 11 March 1943 by the fascist military forces according to their ideology.

 

History

Escaping from the inquisition in Spain and Portugal in 1492, about 90,000 Jews came to the Balkans. From that number, 2000 came to Macedonia and about 700 settled in Bitola.

The Jews in Bitola preserved all of their ethnic marks, in the time of the Turkish administration. They were living in the city, concentrated in one space – a ghetto which was established in the space behind today’s “Health home”. In the second half of the 19th century the wealthier families began to settle on the right side of the river Dragor, in today’s area between hotel Macedonia – Broken Mosque – The post office – Restaurant Solun.
Mosque – the post office and Restaurant Solun.

They had their own community, from which they administered activities concerning the religious life as well as their own health, social, cultural and humanitarian needs. These activities were realized trough various funds such as: Matanot Le’Evyjonim – (Gift for the Poor) Ozer Dalim – The health help, Bikur Holim - (Sick Aid), Malbish Irrumim – (Clothing the Naked).

Children were educated in their own religious schools, but they also attended other primary and secondary schools in the city.

During the Fascist aggression, Hitler’s Germany started the notorious genocide of the Jews. Upon immediate occupation of Bitola, the German and Bulgarian military units started to bring terror upon the Jews.. Their homes were marked with specially-made signs with inscriptions like “Here live Jews”. They were forbidden to administer their communities, they were forbidden to administer their communal funds. Because of all the other restrictions they were limited in their possibilities for a normal existence. They lived in fear.

On the 11th of March 1943, the Act of the genocide, the most terrible tragedy of the Jews from Bitola and Macedonia happened.

3,351 Jewish descendents from Bitola, together with the other Jews from Macedonia, were taken in the Concentration camps of death in Treblinka, by the 5th of April, from which no Jew from Macedonia ever returned.

The Jews from Bitola, even though they were robbed, marked, tortured and tortured in different ways, helped the National Liberation and Anti-Fascist Movement.

Some of the young Jews who had escaped from the blockade, joined the partisan units.