80th Anniversary of Rescue of Bulgarian Jews to Be Marked in European Parliament

Jerusalem, 5 March, 2023 (TPS) -- BRUSSELS, 04.03.2023 16:54 (BTA)
The 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews will be marked in the European Parliament in Brussels next week, Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev told BTA on Friday. In his words, “the anniversary is a cause for pride and is a story that more people should know.”

Said Kovatchev, “Not only did our ancestors give a ray of hope during the darkest years of the Holocaust, but they also saved, besides the Bulgarian Jews, more than 15,000 Jews from all over Europe.”

Kovachev also noted that Bulgaria provided those who tried to reach what was then Palestine under the British Mandate with transit visas behind the Nazis’ backs.

The program of the event includes speeches by historian Michael Bar-Zohar, Director of the Transatlantic Institute of the American Jewish Committee Daniel Schwammenthal, the Bulgarian and Israeli Ambassadors to European Union, Rumen Alexandrov and of Israel Haim Regev respectively, and MEPs Asim Ademov and Alexander Yordanov.