70 years since rescue of Bulgarian Jews

published on 3/10/13 12:59 PM

It was the year 1948. Over 1000 Jews departed from Bulgaria on a train to join the building of their national state Israel. At the Bulgarian border they jumped out of the carriages and spontaneously started to sing the Bulgarian national anthem: “Dear motherland, you are the heaven on Earth”. Many of them were crying. When one of the kids, who later became the great Israeli historian Michael Bar Zohar, asked why, his father replied: This country was good to us. Several decades later Bar-Zohar wrote the book entitled “Beyond Hitler’s Grasp”, where he told the story about the salvation of 50 000 Bulgarian Jews during the WW2. Then, the Bulgarian government which was an ally of Nazi Germany was under constant pressure by the Reich to deport all Jews living on Bulgarian territory. In the winter of 1943 a secret pact was made. It envisaged the deportation of the Jews, starting form the so-called newly joined lands-Macedonia and White Sea Thrace. Some 11 343 people were sent to the concentration camps in Poland The deportation succeeded on these lands, because they did not have a clear statute- they were put under Bulgarian rule in 1941, but were also under German military occupation, without being completely joined to the Bulgarian state. Only ethnic Bulgarians on these lands had Bulgarian citizenship.
However, the attempts for deportation of Bulgarian Jews living within the old confines of the Bulgarian Kingdom failed. Bulgarians of different political views stood in support of the Jews, including MP’s from the ruling party. Deputy President of the National Assembly Dimitar Peshev was among them, who, along with 42 other members of the Parliament sent an incensed letter to Prime Minister Bogdan Filov. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church was also very active in the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews, especially bishops Stefan and Kiril. Kiril, who later became the Bulgarian Patriarch, joined the Jews in the town of Plovdiv, who were prepared for deportation and said he would stay with them no matter what would happen in the future. On March 10, the deportation was cancelled. On this day Bulgaria marks the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews from the death camps. This is the only country in occupied Europe, along with Denmark, which saved its Jews.

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70 years since rescue of Bulgarian Jews

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