The Holocaust saw the persecution of Jews in the Tsardom of Bulgaria and their deportation and annihilation in the Bulgarian-occupied regions of Yugoslavia and Greece between 1941 and 1944, arranged by the Nazi Germany-allied government of Tsar Boris III and Prime Minister Bogdan Filov. The persecution began in 1941 with the passing of anti-Jewish legislation and culminated in March 1943 with the detention and deportation of almost allMonastir During the Holocaust article from Yad Vashem11,343of the Jews living in Bulgarian-occupied regions of Northern Greece, Yugoslav Macedonia and Pirot. These were deported by the Bulgarian authorities to Vienna and ultimately sent to extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The deportation of the 48,000 Jews from Bulgaria proper also began at the same time but was found out and halted following the intervention of a group of government members of parliament led by Dimitar Peshev. Subsequent public protests and pressure from prominent figures persuaded the Tsar to reject further plans for the deportation. Instead Sofia's 25,743 JewsDid Bulgaria Save All of its Jews? article by Angel Wagenstein (in Bulgarian) were internally deported to the countryside and had their property confiscated. Jewish males between the ages of 20 and 46 were conscripted into the Labour Corps until September 1944. The events that prevented the deportation to extermination camps of about 48,000Sofia: Double-Faced Bulgaria Civil Society and the Holocaust: International Perspectives on Resistance and Rescue Jews in spring 1943 are termed the "Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews". The survival rate of the Jewish population in Bulgaria as a result was one of the highest in Axis Europe.
Background In the period between the two world wars the Jewish community accounted for around 0.8% of the Bulgarian population, reaching approximately 48,000 people. More than half of them lived in the capital Sofia. Almost 90% of them were born in Bulgaria, 92% were Bulgarian citizens and their total share in the Bulgarian business and trade was 5.17%. The Bulgarian Jewish Community enjoyed excellent relations with the state as demonstrated in 1909 when the grand opening of the impressive new Sofia Synagogue (the third largest in Europe) was attended by the Bulgarian royal family.
The 1930s saw the Bulgarian government under the personal rule of Tsar Boris III become increasingly dependent on Nazi Germany as it sought to break the country's international economic isolation and to counteract the Balkan Pact signed by all its neighbours. By 1939 almost 70% of Bulgaria's trade was with Germany. As a newly assertive Germany shook off the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and recovered its pre-WW1 territories its erstwhile World War I ally Bulgaria similarly sought to repudiate the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and to recover territories lost in the war to Greece, Yugoslavia and Romania. The successful recovery of the vital Southern Dobrudja region from Romania in September 1940 following the personal intervention of Hitler further pushed Bulgaria in the German camp. With Germany poised to invade Greece and requiring transit through Bulgaria the country finally officially joined the Tripartite Pact in March 1941.
The influence of Nazi Germany became increasingly reflected in the political arena. A number of pro-fascist parties were founded in the 1930s, most notably the Legionaries; and the Ratniks who attempted their own version of Kristallnacht in Sofia. These organisations published anti-Jewish propaganda, distributed brochures and copied Nazi racial documents. While none of these organisations achieved any significant national following their close links with German Nazis gave them disproportionate influence. Several pro-Nazi politicians were appointed to senior positions by the Tsar in 1939 to foster a closer relationship with Nazi Germany. Key figures were the minister of the interior Petar Gabrovski and his protege Alexander Belev, both virulent antisemites who eventually architected the country's anti-semitic laws and oversaw their implementation.
For the whole period from 1934 until his death in August 1943 ultimate authority rested with the Tsar (whose personal rule has been characterised as a "mild dictatorship" by modern historians). Boris tried to keep Bulgaria out of the war at all costs, resisting pressure to send troops on the eastern front while otherwise generally aligning with Nazi Germany.
1940–1942 anti-Jewish legislation The beginning of World War II and the dependence of Bulgaria on a Nazi Germany that by now dominated most of Europe intensified the pressure to pass anti-Jewish legislation. German support for the rejoining of Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria in September 1940 proved the tipping point. Within a month, on 8 October 1940, interior minister, Petar Gabrovski, introduced the parliamentary bill for the Law for the Protection of the Nation (). The law was modelled on the Nuremberg Laws, which Alexander Belev had been sent to Germany to study by Gabrovski. The Law for Protection of the Nation prohibited the granting of Bulgarian citizenship to Jews; it prohibited Jews from holding elected office or serving in the civil service; it prohibited them from serving in a military capacity and mandated that they complete their national service in the Labour Corps.
A number of economic and social marginalisation measures were introduced, such as limits on the numbers of Jews in each profession and in education, residency restrictions and others. The bill triggered a major outcry from the public and most of the intellectual elite. The small parliamentary opposition (Communists and Democrats alike) led by ex-PM Nikola Mushanov and former cabinet ministers Dimo Kazasov, Yanko Sakazov, and Stoyan Kosturkov condemned the law. The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church published an open protest letter, as did 18 of Bulgaria's most prominent writers. A wave of protests and petitions were sent to the government by unions, professional organisations, prominent citizens, and concerned citizens. The Jewish Central Consistory of Bulgaria made detailed representations to the National Assembly chairman refuting the antisemitic accusations from the government. On the other hand, the bill was endorsed by nationalist and far right groups such as the Legionaries, the Ratniks, Brannik (a Bulgarian version of Nazi Germany's Hitlerjugend), as well as right-wing conservative organisations such as the Federation of Reserve Officers, the Federation of Reserve Sergeants and Soldiers, the Merchants' Association, the Students' Union, the Bulgarian Youth League, and the Pharmacists' Association. It was also supported by leading government delegate Dimitar Peshev, who later played a crucial role in saving Bulgarian Jews from deportation.
The Law for Protection of the nation was passed and received royal assent in January 1941. Throughout 1941, members of Brannik and the "Insurgents" (Chetnitsi) indulged in random acts of violence against Jews. Subsequent legislation continued the marginalisation. A one-time wealth tax of 1/5 to ¼ was imposed in July 1941 on the grounds of the Jews endangering the national economy. Jews who owned property were forced to offer it for sale to the State Land Fund, to Bulgarians or to Bulgarian companies at prices not exceeding 50% of the market value of the property as of 1932. The Commissariat for Jewish Affairs was founded in 1942 in the wake of the Wannsee Conference, with Alexander Belev as director, which issued further policing measures against Jews such as mandatory wearing of yellow stars. This can be interpreted as the immediate precursor of the decision to deport Jews to extermination camps.
Deportations from the occupied territories
In April 1941, German forces invaded Greece and Yugoslavia from the territory of Bulgaria, defeating both countries in a matter of weeks. At a summit meeting between King Boris III, Hitler and Italy's Count Ciano on 17 April, Bulgaria was granted responsibility for administering Greek east Macedonia and Western Thrace, plus the Yugoslav provinces of Vardar Macedonia and Pirot, territories Bulgaria had fought over in World War 1 and hoped to annex permanently. Another possibly fatal factor was the newly passed Law for Protection of the Nation, which meant that Jews in the newly acquired regions would be denied Bulgarian citizenship. From April 1941 to September-October 1944 the regions would be under Bulgarian administration.
In January 1942, Nazi Germany outlined what it called the Final Solution to the Jewish Question at the Wannsee Conference and the new Commissariat for Jewish Affairs began to prepare to execute Bulgaria's part in the Final Solution. Belev signed a secret agreement with Germany's SS-Hauptsturmführer Theodor Dannecker on 22 February 1943 to initially deport 20,000 Jews, starting with those in the occupied Greek and Yugoslav regions.
The deportation of 11,343 Jews (7,122 from Macedonia and 4,221 from Thrace) was organised and executed by the Bulgarian authorities, with the Treblinka extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland as their final destination. The Jews of Greek Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Yugoslav Macedonia and Pirot began to be rounded up 4 March 1943. They were transported by train via transit camps in Bulgaria to Lom on the Danube, then by boat to Vienna, and again by train to Treblinka. The railway that carried the trains transporting Jewish deportees from Greece was constructed by Bulgarian Jewish forced labourers in the winter of late 1942 and early 1943. By 15 March, all but about a dozen of the Jews had been murdered at Treblinka. Additionally, at least one Bulgarian national was sent to Auschwitz.
Attempted deportations from Bulgaria proper and rescue
The Belev-Dannecker agreement provisioned for 20,000 Jews from the "New Lands" to be deported. As there were only 12,000 Jews there the remaining 8,000 were to be deported from "Old Bulgaria". The communities in Kyustendil and Plovdiv were targeted first, followed by Dupnitza, Gorna Dzhumaya and Pazardzhik. On 2 March, the Council of Ministers signed several decrees approving the deportation plans.The power of the civil society: Proceedings of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the Rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria (1940-1944), Sofia, 2005, The Sofia University Center for Jewish Studies, Sofia University Press St. Kliment Ohridski, , p. 117 Jews from "Old Bulgaria" were to be rounded up in local detention centres, transported to the internment camps in Lom and Somovit, and from there deported by boat up the Danube to Vienna then on to German-occupied Poland. They were to be stripped of their Bulgarian citizenship upon leaving the country, and the government agreed not to ask for their return. Importantly, the decree (Order 127) was never publicised in the state gazette and did not specifically refer to Jews from "Old Bulgaria" - something later used as an argument by opponents of the deportations.