Cekada Smiljan

Čekada, Smiljan In April 1941, after Germany and her Axis allies occupied Yugoslavia, the country was divided into areas of control between Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. In exchange for her support of Germany, Bulgaria was allowed to annex Macedonia and Aegean Thrace. In mid 1942, secret negotiations were opened between Bulgaria and Germany to plan the deportation of all the Jews of Bulgaria, Thrace and Macedonia to the death camps in Poland. A special Commission for Jewish Issues (under the Ministry of the Interior) headed by Alexander Belev was formed in early September 1942. Its intention was to complete the isolation of Jews from the economy, eliminate all their remaining rights and finally deport them from the country. An agreement signed between Germany and the Bulgarian government on February 22, 1943, provided that the first to be deported would be the 20,000 Jews from annexed Thrace and Macedonia. On March 11, 1943, more than 7,000 of the Jews of Macedonia were rounded up and transferred to the warehouses of the Monopol tobacco company in Skopje, located next to the train tracks. Dr. Smiljan Čekada (b. 1902) was appointed Bishop of Skopje in August 1940. Already In his first sermon, he spoke of justice for all men of any nationality or race. On March 11, 1943, he sent a letter of protest to the Skopje police commander Asen Bogdanov in which he called the action against the Jews “a painful occurrence.” He demanded the release of what he referred to as “the Jews of the Catholic faith”, insisted that he be allowed to visit the Jews in the Monopol warehouses, and that the Jews be treated humanely. Bogdanov did not reply to his letter but sent a complaint to Artur Vitte, the German consul in Skopje. Vitte attached this complaint to his report to the Foreign Office on the deportation of the Jews of Macedonia. Not only did Bishop Dr. Čekada risk his life by openly opposing the Nazis, but he also took at least five children – four boys and onegirl – into hiding. He used the premises of the Catholic Church in Skopje, and later the Letnica and Janjevo Catholic monasteries. Among the children saved through his intervention were Shaul Gattegno (b. 1940), Albert Mussafia (b. 1936), and Erica Weingruber. On March 9, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Smiljan Čekada as Righteous Among the Nations.