Bulgarian Society, Not Government, Praised for Saving Jews From Holocaust

Jerusalem, 10 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Sofia (BTA) Saving over 50,000 Jews from extermination in 1943 also saved Bulgarian society from the shame of being complicit in a genocide, said Natalia Kiselova, the chairwoman of the left-wing group, in a declaration on behalf of the BSP-United Left parliamentary group on the occasion of Holocaust Day.

Bulgaria marks its Holocaust remembrance day on March 10 because it was on that date in 1943 when planned deportations of Bulgarian Jews to Nazi concentration camps were halted by public protest.

“We remember, we will not allow ourselves to forget the rescue of Bulgarian Jews,” the left said in the declaration.

In January 1943, on the orders of Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish section of the Gestapo, Theodor Dannecker, an expert on European affairs and captain of the protective squads, arrived in Sofia to organize and supervise the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps in Poland, Kiselova said.

“In the first tranche, 20,000, and then all the rest. In the Third Reich, the plan from the previous January, developed in deep secrecy at the so-called Wannsee conference, known for the adopted plan for the final solution of the Jewish question, was being implemented. The so-called Final Solution was actually a plan and schedule for the extermination of all European Jewry. In Bulgaria, it failed,” she added.

Regarding the fate of the Jews of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during the years of the Holocaust, several fundamental questions are raised in a socio-political, historical-political plan — who are the factors and personalities that decisively contributed to the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews, respectively, who is actually the savior — the Tsar, Dimitar Peshev, Bishops Stefan and Kiril, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Exarchate, the communists, the intelligentsia, the Jews themselves.

The specific answer to this question was found — the Bulgarian Jews were saved by the entire Bulgarian society, Kiselova emphasized.

But, she added, “the question is periodically raised as to how the failure to save the Jews from White Sea Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and Pirot should be assessed and who is ultimately to blame for this”.

“The specific definition of responsibility for this terrible act lies primarily with the government of Bogdan Filov — Filov himself personally and his interior ministers, first Gabrovski, and then Docho Hristov,” the declaration said.

“The basic truth is that Hitlerite Germany is the initiator and organizer of the deportations and extermination of Jews in the countries that fell under its rule,” Kiselova said.

According to her, demographic tables show that at the end of World War II, more Jews lived in Bulgaria than at its beginning. Jews from the Aegean Sea, Pirot and Vardar are considered in German documents as Greek and Yugoslav, and not as Bulgarian Jews.

“The fair answer is that in Bulgaria, the Jews were saved by Bulgarian society. However, the transportation of Jews from Vardar Macedonia, Aegean Thrace and Pirot was carried out under the leadership and supervision of senior officials from the Bulgarian Commissariat for Jewish Affairs and personally of Commissioner Alexander Belev,” the declaration stated.