New permanent exhibition “Macedonian refugees in WWII and civil war in Greece 1940-1949” has been opened Saturday in the Museum of Macedonia.

The museum’s exhibition covers an area of 400 meters including many photos, documents, personal and family belongings, weapons, clothes, newspapers, textbooks and other testimonies connected with this segment from the history of the Macedonian nation.

The opening of museum’s exhibition in the Museum of Macedonia is part of significantly important project of the Government and the Ministry of Culture, which will provide new and enrichment of all existing museum displays in Macedonia.

President Gjorge Ivanov, PM Nikola Gruevski, Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska, Director of the Museum of Macedonia Mirjana Nincovska, MPs, professors, scientists, historians and ethnologists attended the opening ceremony.

Gruevski addressing the present guests said that World War II in the world historiography is marked as event which fully changed the image of Europe including other divisions, aggression, destruction, victims and numerous displaced persons.

Macedonians in the Balkans were not spared from this evil and paid the price for this great war. What should not be forgotten is that the Macedonians stood on the side of the anti-fascists fight and gave numerous victims for expulsion of fascist occupier. Thanks to such fight the People’s Republic of Macedonia was established in the frames of Yugoslavia, which included only Macedonians that live in the borders of today’s Republic of Macedonia, Gruevski said.

He said that the destiny of the Macedonian refugees after the civil war in Greece was treated in many books, films and theatre plays and as of today also in the permanent exhibition in the Museum of Macedonia.

He underlined that the project was prepared for longer period of time including expert teams in collecting materials, as well as numerous institutions, association and citizens gave photos, document, and personal and family belongings.

History sometimes can be significantly painful and tragic, but it must never be forgotten. One can be deprived from childhood, house to be tore down, village to be set on fire, but human memory cannot be destroyed. Such memory connected with a painful and difficult history of some of our nation can be supported today with this museum’s display, Gruevski said.

Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska said that by the museum’s exhibition we are legitimating as a nation that knows to respect and to valorize the history, nation that knows to respect the past and to learn lessons.

This museum’s display is a new stirring audio-visual narration of pain, of manifestation of most brutal forms which did not succeed to break Macedonian spirit, but created real myth for self-sacrificing endurance of a nation that conquered the most difficult temptations and remained united, Kanceska-Milevska said.

Director of the Museum of Macedonia Mirjana Nincovska thanked all that cooperated with the museum in equipping and installing the exhibition, the institutions that provided access to their funds, and the citizens that gave materials, photos, documents and personal and family belongings.