By a Government Act from 29 August 1942 a Commission on Jewish Affairs (CJA) was created within the Ministry of Interior and Public Health. The Commission was given the task to organize the expulsion of the Jewish population and the liquidation of their property. The orders and regulations of the Commission were subject to no control. The number of its employees gradually increased to 113 and the 42 year old fanatic and systematic anti-Semite attorney at law Alexander Belev was appointed as the Chairman.
At the beginning of 1942 at the special Wannsee Conference the Nazis took the final decision for the physical elimination of the Jewish people, to be implemented not only on the territories of the Reich, but also across all occupied countries, including the countries, which were German allies. This decision regarded 48 thousand Bulgarian Jews as well.
The beginning of 1943 was marked by fierce pressure upon the Bulgarian Government to deport the Bulgarian Jews. On 22 February the Haupsturmfuerehr from SS Theodor Denecker and the Chairman of the CJA Alexander Belev signed “Agreement for the initial deportation to the East German territories of 20 thousand Jews (from the new Bulgarian territories Thrace and Macedonia).” Belev falsified the document, scratching with the same ink the words in brackets. In this way the Agreement was valid for the “old” Bulgarian territories also. To avoid mass protests the authorities did not promulgate the Agreement in the State Gazette, hiding the planned deportation from the Bulgarian society.
With the collaboration of the police and administrative Bulgarian authorities around 11350 Jews from Thrace and Macedonia were deported between 18 and 29 March 1943 to Poland, where almost all died in the Treblinka concentration camp. The Germans viewed this as a beginning of the deportation of all Jews, who lived in the old Bulgarian territories and their fate appeared on the agenda.
Bulgaria, however, did not send its Jews to the Germans. As a result of strong public and political opposition, which developed parallel with the anti-Jewish activities the whole Bulgarian Jewry was saved from the deportation, planned for March 1943. The social spectrum of people, who dared to protect and save the Jews covered the a wide range from the political left to the far right nationalists. Among the first to raise voice in defense of the Jews, even before the anti-Semitic legislation was promulgated were the Union of Bulgarian writers, the Union of Bulgarian lawyers, the Union of Bulgarian Doctors, among whom were Todor Vlaykov, Elin Pelin, Stoyan Chilingirov, Mladen Isaev, Ana Kamenova, Elisaveta Bagryana and others.
The protests of the writers were joined by prominent artists, businessmen, musicians, publicists, members of Parliament, politicians. The opinion of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was exceptionally strong, with the Church leaders like the Sofia Metropolitan Stefan and Plovdiv Metropolitan Kiril showing exceptional leadership. Using baptism, exhibitions and meeting Tsar Boris III among other initiatives to influence the authorities they were able to impose pressure on the Government to save the Jews.
The action for saving the Jews from the old Bulgarian territories starts from Kustendil. In accordance with the Bulgarian-German agreement local Jews were prepared for deportation and gathered in the tobacco warehouse “Fernandes”. Information for their imminent deportation was leaked and mobilized their Bulgarian friends. A delegation, formed by four eminent Kustendil citizens: Assen Switchmezov, Petar Mihalev, Ivan Momchilov and Vladimir Kurtev departed to Sofia to negotiate the cancellation of the planned deportation. The delegation contacted the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Dimitar Peshev, a fellow citizen from Kustendil.
Under the pressure of the massive outrage within Bulgarian society, facing the insistence of all the Jewish supporters and under the threat of interpellation actions in the Parliament the Government folded and on 9 March 1943 issued orders to cancel the deportation. On 17 March 43 MPs, including the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly protested in writing against the Prime Minister’s Bogdan Filov deporting to Poland of those Jews, who were outside of the old Bulgarian territories.
The Kustendil action was followed by a saving operation in Plovdiv as well. During the night of March 9 against March 10, 1943 around 1500-1600 people were arrested and gathered in one of the large local schools, where a designated train was to take them to Poland. Kiril, the Metropolitan of Plovdiv, who was a well-known critic of the anti-Semitic policy of the Government, sent a special telegram to Tsar Boris III, pledging for his mercy for the Jews. He was able, at the same, to get into contact with the local city police shief and insisted the Plovdiv police got into contact with the Government to arrange a release warrant for the prisoners. Metropolitan Kiril went to the school, where the Jews were gathered and told them, that wherever they would be taken he was going to share their fate. The actions of one of the most prestigious and popular leaders of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church alarmed the ruling authorities for the outrage, that was gathering momentum across the country against the anti-Jewish policy.
During his regular meeting with Hitler on 1 April 1943 Tsar Boris III declared he agreed to the deportation to East Europe of the Jews from Macedonia and Thrace only. Regarding the Jews in Bulgaria itself he wanted only a small number of communist-Bolshevik elements to be deported, to gather the remaining 25 000 in concentration camps in the country, using them for road building. On 24 May 1943 the Jews from larger cities started getting deported to work camps across Bulgaria.
Bulgarian Jews themselves offered a strong resistance to the planned deportation and undertook a series of effective actions in this regard. On 24 May, when the Apostles of the Slavs Cyril and Methodius are celebrated, a group of around a thousand Jews organized a protest manifest in Sofia against the Government’s plans of realizing the postponed deportation. This act of bravery was supported by many Bulgarians and foremost by Stefan, Metropolitan of Sofia, who strongly condemned the governmental persecution of the Jews during his festive speech. On the same day the Bulgarian spiritual leader advocated for the Jews in front of the Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and spoke to Pavel Gruev-the head of the cabinet of the Tsar, trying to establish contact with the monarch. Boris III himself was not in Sofia at that time, but under pressure on the Jewish question from various sides had already decided for the deportation of the Jews to the country only. On 26 May the deportation of the Jews from Sofia had begun and by 07 June 19153 had left the capital. Across the country they found shelter at the homes of local Jews or were placed in specially designated empty schools. Their life conditions were difficult, but guaranteed was their physical survival. The existing legal regime was not cancelled, but was not implemented either, with the deportation to Poland not officially cancelled, but not carried out.
On 28 August 1943, only two week after meeting Hitler in Germany, the Bulgarian Tsar Boris III died suddenly. The most prominent figure at the Bulgarian political stage has departed, with his death additionally helping the saving of the Jews, since the pressure on Bulgaria in this regard became less severe. Three days after the death of the monarch the German Foreign Ministry had the strong impression that German every action on the issue, however strong it could be, would be resisted by the Bulgarian Government. On 02 October 1943 the Bulgarian Minister of Interior Dotcho Hristov summed up the Jewish question in the following way: “We are not going to displace Jews any more. They will stay where they are. They will be unofficially granted some benefits in order to not be a burden for the country and the Bulgarian people”.
The consequences of the anti-Semitic legislation started getting overcome with the Order for amendment and supplementation of the LPN, issued on 31 August 1944 by the Government of Ivan Bagryanov. The Order restored the legal rights and freedoms of Jewish people and the succeeding Government of Konstantin Muraviev granted amnesty for all crimes under the LPN and under the Law for Taxation of the Jewish Population. All legal and governmental acts with anti-Jewish character were cancelled by a Law-Order for arranging the property consequences of the cancellation of the anti-Jewish legislation, issued by the Government of the National Front of Kimon Georgiev after 09 September 1944.
The historians differ as to whom the greatest merit for saving the Jews should be attributed to: the Tsar, the Church, the responsible Government officials, or the whole Bulgarian nation. The basis was formed, however, on the resistance to the anti-Semitic policy, which the Bulgarian society showed and proved how alien anti-Semitism was to Bulgarian people.
Position regarding attempts to rewrite the history of the Holocaust
