An exhibition of 16 posters awarded at a competition for design students from the Czech Republic, France and Israel has been opened Friday at the Holocaust Memorial  Museum in Skopje. The exhibit entitled "The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive" marks this year's International Holocaust Remembrance Day and will be opened in 90 cities worldwide.

It is also focused on the theme "Children and the Holocaust", aiming to raise awareness on the significance of this day, which was proclaimed in 2005 by the United Nations on the 60th anniversary since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.

"The black spot of civilisation in the 20th century - the century of totalitarianism, world wars and endless suffering of nations and especially the project intended to exterminate a nation, the Jews, will be always remembered as a warning for coming generations," Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Poposki said at the opening of the exhibition.

Skopje is joined by Bitola in marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. A great number of Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola and Stip were deported to the Nazi extermination camp Treblinka.

"We have forever lost our countrymen of Jewish origin in that hell-like trip to Treblinka. The contribution of 7.148 Jews from Macedonia cannot be forgotten. To keep the memory of this contribution, Macedonia after adopting the Decentralisation Law in 2000 paid a tribute to them by constructing this magnificent memorial center," Poposki added.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27) is being marked for the first time this year at the new Holocaust Memorial Museum in Skopje, which was inaugurated in March 2011.