At one point, Bitola had nine synagogues. A massive fire in Bitola in 1863 significantly diminished the Jewish population . The Jewish community was almost entirely Sephardic, and most spoke Ladino at home as opposed to Hebrew. 1895 the Alliance Israelite Universelle established a school in Bitola. More than 30% of Macedonian Jews spoke French at this time.. Prior to WWII the Macedonian community was centered in Bitola (8000), the capital Skopje (3000), and with a small number (500) in Stip. In 1941, The Bulgarians then ghettoized the Jews of Bitola, forcing them to move from the Jewish areas of the town, which were relatively affluent, to poorer areas of the town.Over the course of 1942, they enacted increasingly harsh measures against the Jews. In 1943 with the deportation, upon orders from Germany, of Macedonian and Greek Jewry to the Bulgarian border on the river Danube. From there they were transported with German boats and trains to the German death camp Treblinka in occupied Poland. A few dozen Bitola Jews managed to avoid deportation, and four escaped from the transit camp. None of the 3,276 Jews of Bitola deported to Treblinka survived.