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In
the course of March 1943, 11,343 Jews were deported to Treblinka
from Thrace, Macedonia and Pirot, areas that Bulgaria had occupied
and administered according to a military agreement with Germany. The
deportation was based on a unique accord between the Bulgarian
Jewish Commissary and the Germans on February 22, 1943, for the
deportation of 20,000 Jews from Bulgaria. The deportation was also supposed to include nearly 9000 Jews
from the area of prewar Bulgaria. On March 9, the concentration of
the nearly 9,000 Jews began.
In
light of the deportation from Thrace and Macedonia and the
preparations in old Bulgaria, a delegation from the town of
Kiustendil approached the vice chairman of the Bulgarian Parliament
Dimitar Peshev on March 9. As a result of this meeting and the
activities of various parliament officials, the deportations were
postponed. On March 17,
Dimitar Peshev, along with 42 other members of the Parliament, in a
protest statement, demanded that the government desist from all
future deportations. However, German officials continued to pressure
the Bulgarians to comply with the agreement.
On
May 21 a new decree, number 70, of the Bulgarian Government was
enacted for the evacuation of about 25,000 Sofia Jews to the
provincial towns. A notice to this affect was advertised on May 22.
On May 24, the Jews of Sofia, supported by Communist Party
activists, demonstrated against the decree. The police dispersed the
demonstration brutally and the expulsion order went into effect.
Within twelve days, over 19,000 Jews were exiled to the provinces.
Owing to grass roots pressure on the government and the King,
the Jews from Sofia were never deported outside of Bulgaria. Because
of a complex combination of political interests, the war situation
and public resistance across a broad social and political spectrum,
about 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were saved.
An
important factor in the rescue was the position of the Holy Synod of
the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the activity its officials.
The role of the Bulgarian King Boris III in all of this
remains a subject of controversy. Some writers say he courageously
stopped the action against the Jews, whereas others pin much of the
blame on his shoulders for the deportation and the plans to continue
them. |
