The Power of Civil
Society:
The fate of Jews
in Bulgaria during
the Holocaust
Bulgaria saves its Jewish community from the Nazis
By Dr Albena Taneva, Centre for Jewish Studies, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Besides its present, every people has its past.
To create its present, it must know its past.
To have a future, it must understand its past.
This motto is the most synthesized expression for the need for
mentioning and returning to the topic of the Holocaust and the
historic rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria.
March 10, 1943 was a day like any other. The weather was typical
for March: chilly and at times even cold. In some places it was
sleeting. A few days earlier, freight trains had begun arriving at
Monument in the centre of Plovdiv, with the inscription:
‘To all who helped to save us , on 10 March, 1943.
From the grateful Jewish Community of Plovdiv’.
many train stations in various Bulgarian cities under a puzzling veil
of secrecy. Their destination, however, was not the usual. They had
been ordered to deport thousands of defenseless civilians from
Bulgaria so they could be murdered. Every single person born into
the world as a Jew merely by fate, had suddenly become a victim
of the murderous policies of Hitler and Nazi Germany.
What was actually happening?
At that time in Europe, Nazi Germany’s plan for the so-called Final
Solution to the Jewish Question was being carried out in full force
– the murder of Jews wherever they could be found. At the
infamous Wannsee Conference, the Nazis made a list that included
the Jewish population of every country in Europe. This number in
Bulgaria was 48,000. According to Hitler’s plan, not one person
from that list was to escape extermination.
During World War II, Bulgaria, in view of historic circumstances,
was allied with Nazi Germany, though it never fought on
Germany’s side. Under Nazi pressure, in February 1943 the
Bulgarian Government agreed to deport its Jewish population to
Nazi concentration camps. The initial agreement included the
deportation of 20,000 Jews. Of those, 12,000 were Jews who
lived in the so called “new territories” – Aegean Thrace and Vardar
Macedonia, put under Bulgarian administration, and promised to
be returned to Bulgaria as compensation for being a Nazi ally. The
other 8,000 were to be chosen from the Jewish population living
within the old Bulgarian borders. To carry out the plot, a special
secret organization was created. The Jews living in the so-called
“new territories” did not receive Bulgarian citizenship because of
the new racist laws; the territories themselves were considered
German occupation zones. The Jewish population in the “new
territories” fell victim to Hitler’s policies during the Holocaust. The
perpetrators of this horrific and shameful act were several
representatives of the Bulgarian government.
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
The concentration camps Treblinka and Maydanek were where
11,342 Jews from Aegean Trace and Vardar Macedonia ultimately
lost their lives. Similar events unfolded throughout Europe. Forcefully
and with unfathomable cruelty, Jews from all over Europe were
murdered in multiple concentration and death camps.
However, the 48,000 Jews living within the old borders of
Bulgaria, noted on the list made at the Wannsee
Conference, managed to not only stay in their homeland,
but even increase their number during the War. How was
such an exception to the widespread apocalypse possible?
The Government order to deport the remaining 8,000 Jews from
different parts of Bulgaria was retracted at the last minute. Thus
the first deportation attempt of March 1943 failed. Then, a second
attempt to deport all 48,000 Jews in May of the same year also
failed. Finally, the special police branch called the Commissariat on
Jewish Issues, headed by Bulgaria’s most infamous anti-Semite
Alexander Belev, attempted to deport the Jewish population a
third time. Again, the plan failed.
What undermined this plan and ultimately stopped it? After all,
Bulgaria and Nazi Germany were allies! The Bulgarian government
had signed a secret agreement and was ready to carry out the
plan. Both the Bulgarian police and the Gestapo were at the
authorities’ disposal; even before Bulgaria became allied with
Germany, the government had approved several laws restricting
the rights of the Jewish minority. The authorities basically drove
the Jews to poverty. They took away their homes, they no longer
allowed them to work, and they collected a 20% tax on all their
possessions. In 1942, they had to wear yellow stars and put
Plaque on the site where Kiril, Metropolitan Bishop of Plovdiv
("I won't leave you”), stood by the Bulgarian Jews.
special signs on their homes and businesses. They were no longer
free to go wherever they wanted and they even had a curfew.
What happened then is a real lesson in human dignity. As
early as 1940, the same year the Bulgarian government began to
impose restrictions on the Jews, there was a huge upheaval in
Bulgairan society against the government’s actions.
Civil society protested against the anti-Jewish laws. Many
professional guilds publicly denounced the anti-Semitic measures.
These included writers, doctors, lawyers, artists, teachers,
businessmen, shoemakers, hairdressers and journalists. Some
government representatives, many intellectuals and youth
organizations also joined the cause. Even illiterate villagers signed
petitions against these policies by leaving their thumbprint in place
of a signature.
A very decisive and persistent supporter of the Jewish population
was the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is worthy to note that not
just a few separate priests voiced opinions against the
government, but rather the Church as a whole stood strongly
united behind the same cause of averting the unjustified
deportation and killing of the innocent Jewish minority.
Between 1940 and 1943, the repression was mainly political and
economic and the opposition was mainly through petitions and
written statements. Afterwards, things began to change.
The secret pact between the Bulgarian government and the
Germans for the deportation of Jews did not remain hidden. The
Jews of Kyustendil were the first to find out the full extent of the
plan to exterminate them. Concerned for their lives, Jews were
joined by their Bulgarian compatriots in active opposition against
the government. Four brave and selfless men stood out for their
determination in this critical and dangerous time. Their names are
Petar Mihalev, a parlimentarian from the majority; Ivan
Momchilov, a lawyer and a former parlimentarian; Assen
Souichmezov, a businessman; and Vladimir Kourtev – a teacher.
They travelled to Sofia and on Monday, March 9, they met with
Dimitar Peshev, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and through
him succeeded in compelling the Bulgarian government to retract
its orders for Jewish deportation.
King Boris III and Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia.
2
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
However, another dramatic event followed. In the town of Plovdiv,
the second largest city of Bulgaria, local authorities had not
received the retracted order and began rounding up the Jewish
population in the middle of the night. To express their disgust with
these actions, the local Bulgarian population crowded around the
school where the Jews were being collected. The huge mass of
people that soon gathered began shouting anti-governmental
slogans and slogans in support of the persecuted Jews.
As a result of the public’s opposition, Dimitar Peshev, Deputy
Speaker of the National Assembly took a dignified and crucial
position. In order to prevent another attempt to deport the
Jewish population, he decided to make the issue both public and
political. He wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister, Bogdan Filov
and got 43 other parliamentarians from the majority to back him
and sign the letter. Aside from those representatives, the Prime
Minister received written protests from a few opposition
politicians, including Petko Staynov and Nikola Mushanov.
Because of this opposing action, the Bulgarian government fiercely
punished Dimitar Peshev and removed him from the post of
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in a scandalous plenary
session. However, his move had widespread political implications.
Thanks to him, the rest of the National Assembly was informed of
the secret actions of the Filov cabinet.
In May 1943, the Germans sent another request for the
deportation of the entire Bulgarian Jewish population, King Boris
III agreed only to relocate the Jews of Sofia to the countryside. He
did this under the pretext that he needed Jewish labour for
construction of roads. Some members of Parliament, however,
including the most adamant anti-Semite and Commissar on Jewish
Issues, Alexander Belev, thought that they would succeed in
deporting Bulgaria’s Jews in this way. On May 24, 1943, when the
King ordered the relocation of Sofia’s Jews to the provinces, many
Jews were frightened thinking this was the beginning of the end.
No one knew the real intentions of the King and if there would be
further deportation beyond Bulgaria’s borders. As a result, both
concerned Jews and Bulgarians once again protested in any way
they could.
The third deportation attempt in June was the sole action of the
Commissar on Jewish Issues, Alexander Belev. He even ordered
freight ships to dock at several ports along the Danube and payed
an expensive fee, just so he could hand over to Hitler the
Bulgarian Jews. Yet he failed to outwit the Bulgarian public.
Republic of Bulgaria
State Institute for Culture
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
To summarize this story full of events, names, and facts, it is
worthy to mention that the opposition of Bulgarian society as a
whole was so active, energetic and successful, that in the end
even the German ambassador, Beckerle, gave up. He wrote the
following to his bosses at the German Foreign Ministry as an
excuse for his failure: “…I am thoroughly convinced that the Prime
Minister and his cabinet wish and aim to reach the ultimate and
irreversible solution to the Jewish problem. However, they have
been affected by the mentality of the Bulgarian people, who lack
the ideological clarity that we have. Growing up alongside
Armenians, Greeks, and Gypsies, the Bulgarian finds no flaws in
the Jews that justify in their minds measures against them…” In
reality, that was the end of the attempts for deportation of
Bulgarian Jews.
This incredible story tells us something very important. There is a
wise saying that people must know their history in order to avoid
making its mistakes. We are not immune to the emergence of
xenophobia and other types of hatred among peoples. The story
of the saving of the Jews in Bulgaria shows us that the positive
results a society can achieve depend on the determination of
every one of its members. Today, therefore, we must not turn our
heads away when we see hatred and racial and ethnic violence.
Our ancestors, whether Bulgarian, Jewish, or other, have given us
the gift of tolerance.
The lessons we should learn are as follows:
First, that there is no force that cannot be resisted, even Nazism.
Second, that anyone can influence what may seem like
predestined events, so long as he or she has the courage and
morals to do so.
Third, that the forces of evil win when those who oppose them fail
to support each other, or remain indifferent and thus one by one
become victims.
Fourth, that even in the darkest hour, there is the possibility of a
positive outcome, as long as more people actively seek it.
Find out more:
Beyond Hitler’s Grasp by Michael Bar Zohar, Adams Media Corp.,
MA, USA 1998; Film by same name.
The Power of Civil Society in a Time of Genocide: Proceedings of
the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the Rescue
of the Jews in Bulgaria 1940-1944, Sofia University Press, 2005
website: www.centropa.org
Embassy of Bulgaria
in Ireland
Sofia University
3
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
Righteous Among the Nations
The story of the Righteous is the story of men and women
who risked their lives and those of their families to help save
Jews during the Holocaust; people who, as Si Frumkin, a
survivor of the Kovno ghetto, tells us, “ignored the law,
opposed popular opinion, and dared to do what was right”.
In Jewish tradition there is a famous quotation from the
Talmud: For he who kills one life is considered as if he had
destroyed an entire world; and therefore he who saves one
life is regarded as if he had saved an entire world. (TB
Sanhedrin 4:5) This Talmudic quotation which is included in
the Yad Vashem diploma awarded to the Righteous Among
the Nations, should be treated literally; not only those Jews
who have been personally saved by the Righteous owe them
their lives, but all their descendants as well.
What I did for the Jewish people...was but an
infinitesimal contribution to what ought to have been
done in order to prevent this horrible slaughter...
Father Marie-Benoit, France
The Righteous come from all levels of society, from different
backgrounds, ages, religions and ethnic groups. They are
individuals such as simple villagers in occupied countries,
families, groups of friends or members of organized efforts
such as the Dutch Resistance, the village of Le Chambon sur
Lignon in France, or Zegota(the Council for Aid to Jews) in
Poland. They include well-known efforts such as that of
businessman, Oskar Schindler, to assistance by diplomats
such as the Swedish consul Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary, or
the Japanese official Sempo Sugihara in Lithuania.
In 1953 the State of Israel established Yad Vashem, the
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in
order to document and record the history of the Jewish people
during the Holocaust. That institution inaugurated the award
of Righteous Among the Nations in 1963 to honour nonJews who had saved Jews during the Second World War.
Many of those who survived Nazi occupation in Europe
between 1939 and 1945 owe their survival to non-Jews. In
every single case the decision to save a Jew could mean
death. And not only death to the Righteous person, but
often to his family and sometimes his neighbours as well.
Death was the penalty for remaining human in the face of
inhumanity. Under German occupation the Righteous
feared their neighbours as much as the authorities. A Jew
in hiding was a potential threat to all those who lived
nearby. Hostile neighbours could be as dangerous as the
Gestapo, often betraying both those in hiding and those
who were hiding them.
After the war, many Righteous encountered hostility from
their fellow countrymen if their brave actions became
known. In the immediate post- war years, the Krakow
Catholic weekly newspaper, Tygodnik Powszechny began
publicising the heroism of Poles who had saved Jews. But
many Righteous named in articles called in to complain
saying that their neighbours were angry, telling them that
their safety had been compromised to save detestable
Jews! Even today, many descendants of the Righteous
refuse to accept the Yad Vashem award, for fear of
antagonising their neighbours.
Find out more: Read the essay, ‘Righteous Among the
Nations, Holocaust Memorial Day booklet 2008 on the HETI
website: www.hetireland.org
Righteous Among the Nations: www.yadvashem.org.il
Righteous Among the Nations - per Country & Ethnic Origin January 1, 2010
These figures are not necessarily an indication of the actual number of Jews saved in each country, but reflect the cases that were made available to Yad Vashem.
Albania
Latvia
Armenia
Lithuania
Austria
Luxembourg
Belarus
Macedonia
Belgium
Moldova
Bosnia
Montenegro
Brazil
Netherlands**
Bulgaria
4
69
123
13
772
87
1
608
9
1,537
79
40
1
2
5,009
19
Norway
Chile
Poland
China
Portugal
Croatia
Romania
Czech Republic
Russia
Denmark*
Serbia
Estonia
Slovakia
France
Slovenia
TOTAL 23,226
45
1
6,195
2
1
102
60
108
164
22
131
3
498
3,158
6
Georgia
Spain
Germany
Sweden
Great Britiain
(Incl. Scotland)
Switzerland
Greece
Turkey
Hungary
Ukraine
Italy
USA
Japan
Vietnam
1
4
476
10
14
45
306
1
743
2,272
484
3
1
1
*The Danish Underground requested that all its members who participated in the rescue of the Jewish community not be listed individually, but commemorated as one group.
** Includes two persons originally from Indonesia, but residing in the Netherlands.
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
The Kindertransports
Following Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938, the British
government decided to accept Jewish children from
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and, later, Poland, and
offer them refuge from Nazi persecution. Funds were raised
(a £50 bond was required for each child to finance their
eventual return home) and block visas were issued. Children
were accommodated in foster homes, boarding schools,
farms and hostels. The Jewish communities in Germany,
together with non-denominational organisations abroad,
organised the rescue operation.
Geoffrey Phillips
Geoffrey Phillips (originally
Gunther Philipps) was born
in Wanne-eckel, Germany in
1925. In December 1938,
along with thousands of
other German children, he
Geoffrey Phillips, 1938
was sent away to Britain on
the Kindertransports. He didn’t know where he was
going. He had a small suitcase as well as another small
bag with provisions, and a ticket to a foreign land. He
was 13 years old.
‘We heard that our synagogue had been set on fire by
squads of Hitler Youth and that the same thing was
happening all over the country. Before we had
recovered from the shock of this terrible news, there
was a knock on the door. Two plain-clothes policemen
asked for my father, told him to pack a change of
clothes, and took him away. We heard afterwards that
my father had been taken to a concentration camp. A
cousin of my father’s was the welfare officer of the
Jewish community in a neighbouring town. From her we
discovered that Britain was
prepared to take in a
limited number of young
Jewish children. Our cousin
urged my mother to
register me for the
transport.
I am here today; I never
saw my parents again.’
Geoffrey Phillips, 2008
A child of the Kindertransports
During the nine months before the outbreak of the Second
World War, 10,000 Jewish children were transported to
Britain from mainland Europe on special trains called
Kindertransports. They ranged in age from young infants to
teenagers of 17 years.
The first Kindertransport from Berlin departed on 1 December
1938; the first from Vienna left on 10 December. Transports
from Prague were hastily arranged after the German army
entered Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and transports of
Polish Jewish children were arranged in February and August
1939. Transport trains crossed into the Netherlands and
Belgium, then the children continued to Britain by ship.
The outbreak of war forced the Kindertransports to end.
The last train left Germany on 1 September 1939. The last
transport ship left the Netherlands on 14 May 1940, the day
that the Dutch army surrendered to Germany.
Most of the Kindertransport children who arrived in Britain
never saw their families again – they had perished in the
Holocaust.
Find out more: www1.uni-hamburg.de /rz3a035//kinder
transport.html
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport,
available through www.amazon.com
5
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
The Winton Children
While visiting a friend in Prague in 1938, Nicholas Winton
became aware of the impending plight of Jews in the
Sudentenland and Czechoslovakia and volunteered to see if
he could help some of the children. Rumours of his activities
spread, and desperate parents flocked to his improvised office
in the dining room of his Prague hotel. After establishing the
‘Czech Kindertransport programme’, In the months before the
outbreak of war, Winton arranged for eight Kindertransport
trains to bring 669 children to safety in England.
For 50 years his story was unknown, but eventually it began
to unfold. Since then, Winton has been reunited with
hundreds of the “Winton children”. In 1983, he was awarded
an MBE for his charitable work, in 1998 he was awarded the
Freedom of the City of Prague, and in 2002, he received a
knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. We can understand
Winton’s motives from a letter he wrote in 1939: There is a
difference between passive goodness and active goodness.
The latter is, in my opinion, the giving of one’s time and
Nicholas Winton
energy in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entails going
out, finding and helping those who are suffering and in
danger and not merely in leading an exemplary life, in a
purely passive way of doing no wrong.
Find out more:
Holocaust Memorial Day booklet 2006 on the HETI website:
www.hetireland.org
The Quakers
Jewish doctors learning to do manual work at the Quaker
workcamp in Kagran in preparation for emigration to South
America, August 1938 (Ruth Karrach)
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) are well known for
their philosophy of helping their fellow-man. During the
1920s, 30s and 40s, they worked tirelessly to help those
fleeing Nazi Europe. Between 1928 and 1939 the Quaker
International Centre in Vienna handled over 11,000
applications for exit papers and re-settlement, affecting
15,000 people. The Centre managed to help more than 4,500
people settle in other countries and assisted 2,408 Jews to
leave Austria. Several refugees were facilitated by Friends in
Ireland who sheltered them in their private houses. Some of
these refugees settled here and made Ireland their new home.
Irene Sendler
Irene Sendler was a young Polish woman who joined
Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland. As
a social worker, Irene had a permit that allowed her access
to the Warsaw ghetto where she provided many Jews with
medicines, clothing and money. Irene wore an armband
with the Star of David, both as a sign of solidarity with the
Jews and in order not to draw attention to herself. Irene
6
was part of an
operation that
smuggled 2,500 Jewish
children out of the
Warsaw ghetto.
Irene Sendler 2008
The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust
The Rescue of Denmark’s Jewish Population
The German occupation of Denmark began in April 1940. Eager
to cultivate good relations with a population they regarded as
fellow Aryans, the Nazi occupiers allowed the Danish
government to continue running their own domestic affairs. The
Danes even held elections and it is said that every day King
Christian X rode his horse through Copenhagen, reassuring his
people that the Danish establishment still continued.
The Danish–German Agreement of 1940 stipulated that
Denmark’s 8,000 Jews were not to be deported. But in
August 1943, the Danish government resigned rather than
yield to new German demands. Three and a half years of
relatively benign occupation came to an end when the Nazis
proclaimed a state of emergency. Reich plenipotentiary
Werner Best drew up plans to deport the Danish Jews.
Photo: USHMM
found hardly anyone at home. The rescue operation
involved thousands of Danish people from all walks of life.
The Danish Jews were taken to the coast, where fishermen
helped ferry 7,220 Jews and 680 non-Jewish family
members to safety across the water to neutral Sweden.
On 29 September, the day before the Jewish New Year,
Denmark’s Chief Rabbi, Marcus Melchior, warned his congregation
to go into hiding immediately with their friends and relatives.
The collective heroism of the Danes in rescuing its Jewish
population from the Nazis is recognised all over the world. The
main door of Copenhagen’s Danish Jewish Museum bears the
sign with the Hebrew word ‘mitzvah’ (a good deed).
The Nazis acted on 1 October. Danish police refused to cooperate. German special units knocked on Jewish doors, but
Find out more
www.jewishvirtuallibraryorg/jsource/Holocaust/denmark.html
Individuals, groups of people, Arabs and Muslims, diplomats,
businessmen – who saved Jews during the Holocaust
Magda and André Trocmé,
Le Chambon sur Lignon, France
Miep Gies, Amsterdam, looked
after Anne Frank and her family
Sempo Sughara of Japan, saved
thousands of Lithuanian Jews
Stephan Mika, Poland, whose
family hid Jews and partisans
Raoul Wallenberg Swiss
diplomat in Hungary, saved
thousands of Hungarian Jews
Khaled Abdelwahhab one of
many Arabs who saved Jews
Paul Grueninger, Switzerland,
provided thousands of Jews
with false papers
Oskar Schindler, German
industrialist, who saved some
12,000 Jews in Krakow
7
Many thousands of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation in
Europe between 1939 and 1945, owe their survival to Righteous
gentiles.The heroism the Righteous displayed was limited in time;
our gratitude, however, can know no limits. It will remain as long
as the Jewish people exist.
The Righteous refute the notion that there was no alternative to
passive complicity with the enemy. The farmers, priests, nuns and
soldiers, the believers and non-believers, the old and the young
from every background in every land made the impossible
possible. Their altruism calls us to understand the different choices
that individuals make, and to commit to challenging every
example of intolerance that we witness. The challenge of our time
is not whether to remember but what to remember and how to
transmit our memory to our children and our children’s children.
Through their compassion and valour, without regard for religious
or ethnic differences, the Righteous upheld the honour of the
human race and the conscience of the world.
Their stories can be found in Holocaust Memorial Day booklet
2009 on the HETI website: www.hetireland.org
and on www.yadvashem.org.il.
The exhibition can be viewed online ?????????????????????????
HETI wishes to acknowledge the support of the Republic of Bulgaria State Institute for Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in producing this booklet.
8
Clifton House, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. Telephone: +353-1-669 0593 Email: [email protected] www.hetireland.org
Charity No. 16331 Tax Reference No. 49625701T © 2010 Jackson, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.