On the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day – January 27 – the documentary ‘Beyond Hitler’s Grasp’ was shown in UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The documentary was made after the book of the same name written by Bulgaria-born Israeli writer and historian Michael Bar-Zohar. It is dedicated to the rescuing of the 50,000-strong Bulgarian Jewish community from the death camps.

The documentary caused exaltation with the large international audience in the main hall of UNESCO in Paris. In a very dramatic way, the movie tells this less-known story of the rescue during WWII. At that time, 1943, Bulgaria was an ally of Germany but the trains especially prepared for the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews never left the country. This is a story of a moral heroism to whose global promotion Prof. Bar-Zohar, author of over 30 books, devoted a lot of time and efforts.

“The world must know that during the war when all countries, either allied with Germany or occupied by it, sent their Jews to death, a small country like Bulgaria decided to rescue its Jewish citizens,” says Prof. Bar-Zohar in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. “Bulgarians from all walks of life, the church and even the pro-Nazi majority in the parliament together with the king rebelled against the deportation. There was a lot of pressure on the part of Germany. Hitler even invited the Bulgarian king to Germany in order to force him to deport the Jews. Not even a single Bulgarian Jew was sent to death in Poland. This was the entire Bulgarian-Jewish community survived.”

When told today, this story sounds a bit unbelievable. This is why during every presentation of the book or screening of the documentary, Prof. Bar-Zohar shows copies of documents testifying to the survival of the Bulgarian Jews. According to him, the moral act of heroism of the Bulgarian people was not accidental but it was an expression of their essence which he called ‘the Bulgarian spirit’.

“This is the special mentality of the Bulgarian people who have no claims to be a superior or inferior race. They consider people as equal,” says Prof. Bar-Zohar. “In Bulgaria, the Jewish community lives in a very deep relation to the Bulgarians. That’s why when the Germans wanted to send us to the death camps, the Bulgarians felt we were part of them. They didn’t see any difference between Bulgarians, Jews, Greeks, Armenians and Gypsies who lived in perfect harmony in Bulgaria.”

Among the other reasons which made the impossible possible, Michael Bar-Zohar points out the Bulgarian constitution. It guaranteed the equality of all citizens and explicitly banned any act of discrimination. This was the part to which MPs resorted to when they rejected Germany’s order for deportation. Here, once again, the author of ‘Beyond Hitler’s Grasp’ sees an manifestation of what he calls ‘the Bulgarian spirit’.

“Unlike other nations, the Bulgarians take everything very seriously, for instance, their Constitution. It was true that Bulgaria used to have an exceptional Constitution. It was the same case with French constitution – it was exceptional. However, in contrast, when the German soldiers started marching down Champs-Élysées, the French constitution was put in the fridge. At the same time, the Bulgarians took it seriously. This was further evident from the debates and talks held in the Bulgarian parliament by its deputy chairman Dimitar Peshev – one of the most important figures in the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. During these talks, it was explicitly emphasized that the Jews were before all Bulgarian citizens and that the constitution did not allow for their deportation.”

Another important feature of the so-called ‘Bulgarian spirit’ is the inherent Bulgarian tolerance. In a letter to Berlin, the then ambassador to Sofia explained that they (the Bulgarians) “do not understand anything of the modern ideas” and that anti-Semitism was foreign to them.

“This is the secret,” says Prof. Bar-Zohar. “Bulgaria is very open to the other. Anti-Semitism was imported from abroad and it was not a typical Bulgarian characteristic. To convince Bulgarians that Jews were their main enemy and that the latter lived off the labor of the former (when in fact the latter were poorer than the former) was not at all easy. Bulgarians never took such claims seriously.”

One of the episodes of the documentary shows how a few years after the war while departing for Israel, a trainload of Jews were singing the nostalgic Bulgarian folk song “You are beautiful, my forest”. Among those immigrants was Michael Bar-Zohar, still a child at that time.

“Look, we left Bulgaria with tears in our eyes,” he says. “We were not running away from the country because it was very dear to us. We left because Bulgarian Jews had a very strong sense of national belonging and we wanted to rebuild our Jewish state. However, we had a very profound connection with Bulgaria, not only because of the rescue but also because of the entire history of the Bulgarian lands. We went to Israel with hearts full of love for Bulgaria. Later, when Bulgarian Jews traveled to Bulgaria in large groups, they would go to the graves of patriarch Kiril and exarch Stefan – their defenders from the past – to pay homage to them. Years ago, when Bulgaria was in a grave economic crisis, we would send planeloads of medicaments and aid. This is so because we consider Bulgaria our own country and we have very deep connections with it.”

The next step in the promotion of the rescuing of all Bulgarian Jews during WWII is a feature movie. The script has been written, now only director and producers are sought. Michael Bar-Zohar hopes that it will be ready within a year and a half.

“This must be a large production with an American director,” says Prof. Bar-Zohar. “We also need an American producer and we are looking for a few movie stars. The crisis won’t stop us,” he says in conclusion.

English version: Delian Zahariev