After the end of World War II, it became clear that the greatest genocide in human history had taken place – the victims of the Hitlerite regime were 6 million Jews. Following these revelations, it is only natural that society’s focus should be on this monstrous crime, on the death camps.
This focus was later shifted and more attention was paid to those in power who prevented the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews and helped many others emigrate to Palestine and countries outside Nazi control. In Bulgaria, this happened at the will of Tsar Boris III and several governments, which proved extremely inconvenient for the new communist regime – the author of the oxymoron “monarcho-fascism” and declared the people and the Communist Party as saviors.
All documents about the events of the Second World War in the archives of Western European countries, the United States and Israel are freely available.
Through these documents, it becomes clear that the process of Jewish emigration is not a matter of geography, but of a consistent state policy, associated with complex diplomacy, Nazi opposition and insufficient involvement of Western allies.
The speculation can only end with the publication of the truth as it is and as documented – for the assistance provided by the Bulgarian authorities for the emigration of thousands of Bulgarian and foreign Jews and although it does not aim to show all the actions of the government to preserve the Jews on Bulgarian territory, considers this issue as a mandatory condition for their subsequent resettlement in Palestine. Because there is no way back from Adolf Eichmann’s camps.
On February 16, 1943, Prime Minister Bogdan Filov announced to the German ambassador Heinz-Adolf Beckerle the state position on the Jews with Bulgarian citizenship. Literally – “The Jews of Sofia and old Bulgaria will be mobilized primarily in labor activity for the Bulgarian interest.”
The ambassador sent a report to Berlin in a flash. This document has been carefully concealed by the communist authorities for decades because it turned history upside down. It shows that the king and the government, despite the German intervention, were determined to keep the Bulgarian Jews within the borders of the country, at least a month before the protest of 43 deputies, led by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Dimitar Peshev, the intercession of the Church and many cultural figures.
Even more clearly – the state decision was not taken under pressure,
and is a concrete expression of Bulgarian politics at the highest political and managerial level on the Jewish question.
As early as February 8, a report by German deportation specialist Theodor Daneker informed the chief executioner of the Jews, Eichmann, of his meeting with Interior Minister Petar Gabrovski, who said that at present there could be no question of the expulsion of Jews from the country’s old borders. The minister intended to use them for community service.
The protests of influential circles in defense of our compatriots are extremely important – they give strength to the rulers to defend the accepted line at a time when the Nazis are making great efforts to implement their plans for total eviction. Peshev’s petition, signed only by members of the ruling majority, is admirable, but is inherently a supportive rather than a decisive factor.
The preservation of the Bulgarian Jews within the borders of the country was finally decided by Tsar Boris at his meeting with Hitler on March 31, 1943.
Tsar Boris’s order to expel the Jews from Sofia to the countryside instead of to the camps in occupied Poland was dated May 20, 1943, and had nothing to do with the St. Cyril and St. Methodius demonstration, which was four days later. late.
Tsar Boris III planned a radical change in foreign policy – a break with the Reich and Bulgaria’s accession to the Western Allies. Are these intentions the cause of his death? Was he poisoned and by whom?
Not only has he planned, he has taken the first serious steps in this direction. My personal conviction that his death was caused by poison is based on the firm opinion of German doctors and the established Kremlin practice of removing awkward politicians. To detect this crime, we need to have the order for the operation, the weapon and information about the physical perpetrator. So far, however, no such documents have been found. From data in the German archives we can only conclude that the Bulgarian monarch was not poisoned by Hitler.
Should Bulgaria bear guilt and repent for the tragic fate of 11,343 Jews from the “newly annexed territories” sent to the death camps?
This is an issue that requires special attention and thorough research. It should take into account:
– These lands were occupied by the Wehrmacht without any participation of the Bulgarian army. They were given for the occupation of the kingdom without any contract, with a bare German promise that they would become Bulgarian after the end of the war. They are not recognized as our territory by any country.
– The Jews in the Aegean and Macedonia are Greek and Yugoslav subjects, whom the Nazis consider subject to their regulations.
– The Germans strongly state that these Jews will be accommodated in the Eastern Provinces, where they will work for the Reich. In Sofia, they do not assume that the Nazis lied most unceremoniously – almost all Jews were immediately exterminated in the Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps.
In this regard, I will quote a world-famous American Jew – Abraham Foxman. He is a longtime director of the League against Defamation, one of the leading organizations on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
His assessment is an undoubted reason for pride: “There is nothing perfect in life. And that was not perfect.
Because this saved the Bulgarian Jews, but did not save the Macedonians…
That’s right. Yes. I’m sorry! And I’m sure many other people are sorry. But if only every country in occupied Europe had saved its Jews! Oooh! Then we would not need museums and monuments! We would not talk about the Holocaust! ”
Will a monument to the rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria be erected, as is the thesis of Abraham Foxman?
– Bulgaria deserves such a monument because it is the only country in Nazi-controlled Europe that has preserved all Jews on its territory.
I will quote Foxman again: “Today there is a movement around the world to build Holocaust museums. I don’t know if there should be a museum in every country. But here in Bulgaria is the real museum. Because here is the museum, if you do it, if you build it – here in Bulgaria.
This is a museum of fame! He must be in Bulgaria, “said Georgi Bozduganov in an interview with Henrieta Kostova of the Maritsa newspaper.
P. S. Georgi Bozduganov’s new book – “Almost Impossible” arouses great interest. In it, with unique documents found in archives in Bulgaria, London, Geneva, Jerusalem, is presented the feat of the Bulgarian state, which during World War II saved not only Jews within the Kingdom, but also provided a way to escape from Nazi terror of thousands other Jews; valuable edition, which was presented for a first time on June 30 in Plovdiv-Bulgaria.
