Bloody Christmas

Bloody Christmas, or Krvav Bozhik, was a campaign of political repression in January 1945, part of the political terror in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. People with an openly Bulgarian national identity were killed or abused without trial. The atrocities committed by the communist authorities began on 7 January, Christmas according to the old calendar.

On Marshal Tito's orders, 1,200 Bulgarians were killed from lists prepared by Lazar Koliševski. The campaign aimed to erase Bulgarian identity and accelerate the population's Macedonisation. According to some sources, repression in the Ohrid and Prespa regions in 1945 killed 23,000 Bulgarians, while another 130,000 were displaced, expelled, persecuted or sent to concentration camps in Tito's Yugoslavia.

The deaths numbered 63 in Skopje, 54 in Veles, 48 in Kumanovo, 36 in Bitola, 77 in Štip, 35 in Prilep and 330 near Vladimirovo in the Berovo region. Many Bulgarians were killed around Lakes Ohrid and Prespa and on Mount Galičica near Oteševo, with bodies thrown into Lake Prespa. In Veles, bodies were buried behind the Church of the Holy Saviour and near Pusta Kula.

On 7 January 2024, a memorial service for those killed in the massacres was organised outside St Nedelya Church in Sofia.