13.11.2008
Memorial Day of the Liberation of Skopje from Fascist Occupation -
64 години слободно Скопје
On April 8, 1941, German troops entered the town, which they had heavily bombed only two days earlier. However, the Nazis did not stay long. They handed over Skopje and most of Macedonia to fascist Bulgaria. Now, Skopje was under Bulgarian-fascist occupation. It became the headquarters for the Command of the Bulgarian Occupying Army, the District Police, and the Civil Commissariat for the whole of Macedonia. The Bulgarian occupation cut off road traffic and the town lost its importance as a crossroads in the Balkans. Its economy stagnated.
However, the Macedonian people did not accept the Bulgarian fascist occupation, and they rose up in resistance. The national liberation movement spread and Skopje became a major center of underground activity. It was from here that the political leadership of Macedonia (the Communist Party of Macedonia), oversaw the resistance movement throughout Macedonia itself. In August 1941, the first partisan detachment in Macedonia was formed in Skopje. Even before that, the young people of Skopje had carried out several successful acts of sabotage at Skopje's airport, at the Raduša chrome mines and the locomotive repair shop, and had assassinated a number of traitors and collaborators of the occupiers. Skopje grew into a major stronghold of resistance and the fascist occupiers began taking their revenge. A number of prominent revolutionaries, such as national heroes Strašo Pindžur, Orce Nikolov, Mirče Acev and Cvetan Dimov were killed in Skopje's jails; Kuzman Josifovski Pitu was killed on his way to a clandestine meeting; leaders of the National Liberation Movement in Macedonia and national heroes were shot dead.
After days of street fighting against German forces, units of the National Liberation Army of Macedonia finally liberated Skopje on November 13, 1944.
At the end of World War II, 26.000 ethnic Маcedonians fell for Freedom for Macedonia.
Tags: Republic Macedonia Ethnic Macedonian Makedonien Makedonia WW2 NOB National Liberation War against Bulgarian German Italian Fascist Occupation Albanian Fascists Balisti
