March 5, 2013

(JTA) — The Macedonian Holocaust Museum  was damaged in a surge of violence that erupted in the country’s capital.

Protesters over the weekend damaged the Holocaust Museum in the capital of Skopje and the glass area of the Macedonian Museum of History, and broke several windows of a new theater under construction, Sitel.com.mk, a news website, reported.

The hostilities broke out March 2 when police used tear gas to break up a demonstration by ethnic Albanian youth in support of newly-named Defense Minister Talmut Xhaferi, a former leader of Albanian guerrillas who fought government forces in 2001, according to China’s Global Times.

The demonstrators also damaged bus stops and traffic signs and overturned vehicles.

The violence came about a week before the second anniversary of the opening of the museum to commemorate the over six million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis.

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