Clarifying 70 Years of Whitewashing and ... - Shelomo Alfassa

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way from cold, malnutrition and beatings. They were placed in tobacco warehouses and in the last week
of March they were locked inside freight trains as human cattle for the dreaded voyage to the port of Lom.
One account tells how a train stopped by a labor camp, where early in the morning Jewish slave workers
awoke to what sounded like the “wailing of caged birds.” A witness told that he saw a white-bearded old
Jew, a Sephardic elder who was sentenced to death, crying: “No vos spantes, hermanos, la salvacion
viene!” 84 [Have no fear, brothers, salvation is coming!] On that dark day of March 11, 1943 other Jews
were rounded up and taken prisoner: 186 from Pirot in Yugolslavia; 3,500 from Skopje; 550 from Shtip;
and 3,100 85 from Monastir (aka Bitola). 86
The Jewish community of Monastir, 87 historically the largest Jewish community in Macedonia, was
deported. 88 The terror started at 2am when officials gathered at police headquarters across Macedonia. 89
The Bulgarian military established a blockade around the city to prevent escapes. At dawn members of
the KEV– Komisarstvo za Evreiskite Vaprosi (Bulgarian “Commissariat for Jewish Affairs”), 90 which had
been established to institute anti-Jewish legislation in Bulgaria, broke into Jewish homes and hauled out
their inhabitants. The Jewish quarter of Monastir 91 was divided into ten parts, with each assigned a
contingent of police officers and soldiers. Once the Jews of Monastir were locked into ghettos, their
84 Tamir. 194
85 Mark Cohen in his extraordinary book (Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943.
Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, New York, 2003.) details the name and occupation of every
single victim from Monastir. 198-250
86 All counted, some 7,315 Macedonian Jews put to death. See: Pandevska, Maria. “The Rescue of the Jews of Macedonia (1941-
1943): Options and Opportunities.” in Rozen, Minna. (ed.) The Last Ottoman Century and Beyond: The Jews in Turkey and the
Balkans 1808-1945. 2 Vols. Tel Aviv:Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center, Tel Aviv Univ., 2005. II:257
87 This community was up almost exclusively of Judeo-Spanish speaking Jews who, in their historic allegiance to Turkey,
continued to call their city ‘Monastir,’ the name it bore during centuries of Ottoman rule, even though since 1913 it was known as
Bitola.
88 In the year prior to the deportation, the Bulgarian government had demanded that all Jewish households hand over 20 percent
of the value of all assets, including property, furniture, cash, and household items. Committees were established to assess the
value of the Jews’ property. The possessions of those who did not have the money to pay the tax were sold at auction. The
Bulgarians collected photos of all registered Jews and if one had no photo then the photo would be taken by a commissioned
photographer hired by the Bulgarian government. (Cohen 173 - These photos and registration books are in the custody of Yad
Vashem) All of these degrading, restrictive measures halted normal Jewish life in Monastir, even before the deportations. Zamila
Kolonomos, a local Jewish woman, lived through these years of occupation in Monastir. She recalled, “Ansina la vida si truko i
no avia mas ni enkontros, ni fiestar, ni bodas, ni aligrias” [Thus life was so greatly changed and there were no more gettogethers,
no festivals, no weddings, no celebrations]. (USHMM Website “The Holocaust In Macedonia: Deportation Of
Monastir Jewry” which quotes: Cohen, Mark. Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943.
Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, New York, 2003.)
89 See Cohen. 176-177 for full accounting of this process
90 The aims of the Commissariat were to implement and enforce the anti-Jewish legislation (removal of their basic rights,
imposition of economic and social restrictions, liquidation of businesses, confiscation of property and imposition of penalties,
including the establishment of the concentration camp). In regards to economic affairs and the recruitment of men for the forced
labor battalions, the KEV was assisted by the police force and other government institutions. The main purpose of the
Commissariat was to prepare the deportations of Bulgarian Jewry and to provide aid to, and coordinate with, the Germans. (Yad
Vashem Website: ‘Monastir During the Holocaust’).
91 The occupations of the Jews of Monastir can be shown from a report of 1940: There were 80 shop assistants, 63 unskilled men,
70 porters, 57 cobblers, 54 vegetable vendors, 43 used clothing men, 43 merchants, 42 daily workers, 34 peddlers, 29 bakers and
flour merchants, 29 beggars, 26 assistant tailors, 24 small grocers, 22 butchers, 21 domestic servants, 17 tinsmiths, 16 poultry
dealers, 14 fruit growers, 14 tanners, 11 café owners, 10 carters, 9 money changers, 9 clerks, 8 vegetable growers, 8 milkmen, 8
rabbis, 8 sanitation workers, 7 students, 6 glaziers, 6 commercial agents, 6 barbers, 5 metal workers, 4 owners of small
restaurants, 4 coke-men, 4 exporters, 3 physicians (not local), 3 tailors, 3 inn owners, 2 carpenters, 2 firefighters, 1 decorator, 1
lawyer (not local), 1 dentist (not local) and 1 engineer (not local). Oren, Uri. A Town Called Monastir. Dror Publications, Tel
Aviv, 1971. 179
Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)