The Power of Civil Society: The fate of in during

Bulgaria saves its Jewish community from the Nazis By Dr Albena Taneva, Centre for Jewish Studies, University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Besides its present, every people has its past. many train stations in various Bulgarian cities under a puzzling veil To create its present, it must know its past. of secrecy. Their destination, however, was not the usual. They had To have a future, it must understand its past. been ordered to deport thousands of defenseless civilians from Bulgaria so they could be murdered. Every single person born into This motto is the most synthesized expression for the need for the world as a Jew merely by fate, had suddenly become a victim mentioning and returning to the topic of the Holocaust and the of the murderous policies of Hitler and Nazi . historic rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria. What was actually happening? March 10, 1943 was a day like any other. The weather was typical At that time in Europe, ’s plan for the so-called Final for March: chilly and at times even cold. In some places it was Solution to the Jewish Question was being carried out in full force sleeting. A few days earlier, freight trains had begun arriving at –the murder of Jews wherever they could be found. At the infamous Wannsee Conference, the Nazis made a list that included the Jewish population of every country in Europe. This number in Bulgaria was 48,000. According to Hitler’s plan, not one person from that list was to escape extermination.

During World War II, Bulgaria, in view of historic circumstances, was allied with Nazi Germany, though it never fought on Germany’s side. Under Nazi pressure, in February 1943 the Bulgarian Government agreed to deport its Jewish population to Nazi concentration camps. The initial agreement included the of 20,000 Jews. Of those, 12,000 were Jews who lived in the so called “new territories” – Aegean Thrace and Vardar , put under Bulgarian administration, and promised to be returned to Bulgaria as compensation for being a Nazi ally. The other 8,000 were to be chosen from the Jewish population living within the old Bulgarian borders. To carry out the plot, a special secret organization was created. The Jews living in the so-called “new territories” did not receive Bulgarian citizenship because of the new racist laws; the territories themselves were considered German occupation zones. The Jewish population in the “new territories” fell victim to Hitler’s policies during the Holocaust. The Monument in the centre of Plovdiv, with the inscription: ‘To all who helped to save us , on 10 March, 1943. perpetrators of this horrific and shameful act were several From the grateful Jewish Community of Plovdiv’. representatives of the Bulgarian government. The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust

The concentration camps Treblinka and Maydanek were where 11,342 Jews from Aegean Trace and Vardar Macedonia ultimately lost their lives. Similar events unfolded throughout Europe. Forcefully and with unfathomable cruelty, Jews from all over Europe were murdered in multiple concentration and death camps.

However, the 48,000 Jews living within the old borders of Bulgaria, noted on the list made at the Wannsee Conference, managed to not only stay in their homeland, Plaque on the site where Kiril, Metropolitan Bishop of Plovdiv ("I won't leave you”), stood by the Bulgarian Jews. but even increase their number during the War. How was such an exception to the widespread apocalypse possible? special signs on their homes and businesses. They were no longer free to go wherever they wanted and they even had a curfew. The Government order to deport the remaining 8,000 Jews from different parts of Bulgaria was retracted at the last minute. Thus What happened then is a real lesson in human dignity. As the first deportation attempt of March 1943 failed. Then, a second early as 1940, the same year the Bulgarian government began to attempt to deport all 48,000 Jews in May of the same year also impose restrictions on the Jews, there was a huge upheaval in failed. Finally, the special police branch called the Commissariat on Bulgairan society against the government’s actions. Jewish Issues, headed by Bulgaria’s most infamous anti-Semite Alexander Belev, attempted to deport the Jewish population a Civil society protested against the anti-Jewish laws. Many third time. Again, the plan failed. professional guilds publicly denounced the anti-Semitic measures. These included writers, doctors, lawyers, artists, teachers, What undermined this plan and ultimately stopped it? After all, businessmen, shoemakers, hairdressers and journalists. Some Bulgaria and Nazi Germany were allies! The Bulgarian government government representatives, many intellectuals and youth had signed a secret agreement and was ready to carry out the organizations also joined the cause. Even illiterate villagers signed plan. Both the Bulgarian police and the were at the petitions against these policies by leaving their thumbprint in place authorities’ disposal; even before Bulgaria became allied with of a signature. Germany, the government had approved several laws restricting the rights of the Jewish minority. The authorities basically drove A very decisive and persistent supporter of the Jewish population the Jews to poverty. They took away their homes, they no longer was the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is worthy to note that not allowed them to work, and they collected a 20% tax on all their just a few separate priests voiced opinions against the possessions. In 1942, they had to wear yellow stars and put government, but rather the Church as a whole stood strongly united behind the same cause of averting the unjustified deportation and killing of the innocent Jewish minority.

Between 1940 and 1943, the repression was mainly political and economic and the opposition was mainly through petitions and written statements. Afterwards, things began to change. The secret pact between the Bulgarian government and the Germans for the deportation of Jews did not remain hidden. The Jews of were the first to find out the full extent of the plan to exterminate them. Concerned for their lives, Jews were joined by their Bulgarian compatriots in active opposition against the government. Four brave and selfless men stood out for their determination in this critical and dangerous time. Their names are Petar Mihalev, a parlimentarian from the majority; Ivan Momchilov, a lawyer and a former parlimentarian; Assen Souichmezov, a businessman; and Vladimir Kourtev – a teacher. They travelled to Sofia and on Monday, March 9, they met with Dimitar Peshev, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and through him succeeded in compelling the Bulgarian government to retract its orders for Jewish deportation.

King Boris III and Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia. 2 The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust

However, another dramatic event followed. In the town of Plovdiv, To summarize this story full of events, names, and facts, it is the second largest city of Bulgaria, local authorities had not worthy to mention that the opposition of Bulgarian society as a received the retracted order and began rounding up the Jewish whole was so active, energetic and successful, that in the end population in the middle of the night. To express their disgust with even the German ambassador, Beckerle, gave up. He wrote the these actions, the local Bulgarian population crowded around the following to his bosses at the German Foreign Ministry as an school where the Jews were being collected. The huge mass of excuse for his failure: “…I am thoroughly convinced that the Prime people that soon gathered began shouting anti-governmental Minister and his cabinet wish and aim to reach the ultimate and slogans and slogans in support of the persecuted Jews. irreversible solution to the Jewish problem. However, they have been affected by the mentality of the Bulgarian people, who lack As a result of the public’s opposition, Dimitar Peshev, Deputy the ideological clarity that we have. Growing up alongside Speaker of the National Assembly took a dignified and crucial Armenians, Greeks, and Gypsies, the Bulgarian finds no flaws in position. In order to prevent another attempt to deport the the Jews that justify in their minds measures against them…” In Jewish population, he decided to make the issue both public and reality, that was the end of the attempts for deportation of political. He wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister, Bulgarian Jews. and got 43 other parliamentarians from the majority to back him and sign the letter. Aside from those representatives, the Prime This incredible story tells us something very important. There is a Minister received written protests from a few opposition wise saying that people must know their history in order to avoid politicians, including Petko Staynov and Nikola Mushanov. making its mistakes. We are not immune to the emergence of xenophobia and other types of hatred among peoples. The story Because of this opposing action, the Bulgarian government fiercely of the saving of the Jews in Bulgaria shows us that the positive punished Dimitar Peshev and removed him from the post of results a society can achieve depend on the determination of Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in a scandalous plenary every one of its members. Today, therefore, we must not turn our session. However, his move had widespread political implications. heads away when we see hatred and racial and ethnic violence. Thanks to him, the rest of the National Assembly was informed of Our ancestors, whether Bulgarian, Jewish, or other, have given us the secret actions of the Filov cabinet. the gift of tolerance.

In May 1943, the Germans sent another request for the The lessons we should learn are as follows: deportation of the entire Bulgarian Jewish population, King Boris First, that there is no force that cannot be resisted, even . III agreed only to relocate the Jews of Sofia to the countryside. He did this under the pretext that he needed Jewish labour for Second, that anyone can influence what may seem like construction of roads. Some members of Parliament, however, predestined events, so long as he or she has the courage and including the most adamant anti-Semite and Commissar on Jewish morals to do so. Issues, Alexander Belev, thought that they would succeed in Third, that the forces of evil win when those who oppose them fail deporting Bulgaria’s Jews in this way. On May 24, 1943, when the to support each other, or remain indifferent and thus one by one King ordered the relocation of Sofia’s Jews to the provinces, many become victims. Jews were frightened thinking this was the beginning of the end. Fourth, that even in the darkest hour, there is the possibility of a No one knew the real intentions of the King and if there would be positive outcome, as long as more people actively seek it. further deportation beyond Bulgaria’s borders. As a result, both concerned Jews and Bulgarians once again protested in any way Find out more: they could. Beyond Hitler’s Grasp by Michael Bar Zohar, Adams Media Corp., MA, USA 1998; Film by same name. The third deportation attempt in June was the sole action of the The Power of Civil Society in a Time of Genocide: Proceedings of Commissar on Jewish Issues, Alexander Belev. He even ordered the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the Rescue freight ships to dock at several ports along the Danube and payed of the Jews in Bulgaria 1940-1944, Sofia University Press, 2005 an expensive fee, just so he could hand over to Hitler the website: www.centropa.org Bulgarian Jews. Yet he failed to outwit the Bulgarian public.

Republic of Bulgaria Embassy of Bulgaria Sofia University State Institute for Culture in Ireland Ministry of Foreign Affairs

3 The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust

Righteous Among the Nations

The story of the Righteous is the story of men and women during the Holocaust. That institution inaugurated the award who risked their lives and those of their families to help save of Righteous Among the Nations in 1963 to honour non- Jews during the Holocaust; people who, as Si Frumkin, a Jews who had saved Jews during the Second World War. survivor of the Kovno ghetto, tells us, “ignored the law, opposed popular opinion, and dared to do what was right”. Many of those who survived Nazi occupation in Europe In Jewish tradition there is a famous quotation from the between 1939 and 1945 owe their survival to non-Jews. In Talmud: For he who kills one life is considered as if he had every single case the decision to save a Jew could mean destroyed an entire world; and therefore he who saves one death. And not only death to the Righteous person, but life is regarded as if he had saved an entire world. (TB often to his family and sometimes his neighbours as well. Sanhedrin 4:5) This Talmudic quotation which is included in Death was the penalty for remaining human in the face of the diploma awarded to the Righteous Among inhumanity. Under German occupation the Righteous the Nations, should be treated literally; not only those Jews feared their neighbours as much as the authorities. A Jew who have been personally saved by the Righteous owe them in hiding was a potential threat to all those who lived their lives, but all their descendants as well. nearby. Hostile neighbours could be as dangerous as the Gestapo, often betraying both those in hiding and those What I did for the Jewish people...was but an infinitesimal contribution to what ought to have been who were hiding them. done in order to prevent this horrible slaughter... Father Marie-Benoit, France After the war, many Righteous encountered hostility from their fellow countrymen if their brave actions became The Righteous come from all levels of society, from different known. In the immediate post- war years, the Krakow backgrounds, ages, religions and ethnic groups. They are Catholic weekly newspaper, Tygodnik Powszechny began individuals such as simple villagers in occupied countries, publicising the heroism of Poles who had saved Jews. But families, groups of friends or members of organized efforts many Righteous named in articles called in to complain such as the Dutch Resistance, the village of Le Chambon sur saying that their neighbours were angry, telling them that Lignon in France, or Zegota(the Council for Aid to Jews) in their safety had been compromised to save detestable . They include well-known efforts such as that of Jews! Even today, many descendants of the Righteous businessman, , to assistance by diplomats refuse to accept the Yad Vashem award, for fear of such as the Swedish consul in Hungary, or antagonising their neighbours. the Japanese official Sempo Sugihara in . Find out more: Read the essay, ‘Righteous Among the In 1953 the State of Israel established Yad Vashem, the Nations, Holocaust Memorial Day booklet 2008 on the HETI Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in website: www.hetireland.org order to document and record the history of the Jewish people Righteous Among the Nations: www.yadvashem.org.il

Righteous Among the Nations - per Country & Ethnic Origin January 1, 2010 These figures are not necessarily an indication of the actual number of Jews saved in each country, but reflect the cases that were made available to Yad Vashem. Albania 69 Norway 45 Georgia 1 Latvia 123 Chile 1 Spain 4 Armenia 13 Poland 6,195 Germany 476 Lithuania 772 China 2 Sweden 10 Austria 87 Portugal 1 Great Britiain Luxembourg 1 Croatia 102 (Incl. Scotland) 14 Belarus 608 Romania 60 45 Macedonia 9 Czech Republic 108 Greece 306 Belgium 1,537 Russia 164 1 Moldova 79 Denmark* 22 Hungary 743 Bosnia 40 Serbia 131 Ukraine 2,272 Montenegro 1 Estonia 3 Italy 484 Brazil 2 Slovakia 498 USA 3 Netherlands** 5,009 France 3,158 Japan 1 Bulgaria 19 Slovenia 6 Vietnam 1 TOTAL 23,226 *The Danish Underground requested that all its members who participated in the rescue of the Jewish community not be listed individually, but commemorated as one group. 4 ** Includes two persons originally from Indonesia, but residing in the Netherlands. The Power of Civil Society:, The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust

The Kindertransports Geoffrey Phillips Following Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938, the British Geoffrey Phillips (originally government decided to accept Jewish children from Gunther Philipps) was born Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and, later, Poland, and in Wanne-eckel, Germany in offer them refuge from Nazi persecution. Funds were raised 1925. In December 1938, (a £50 bond was required for each child to finance their along with thousands of eventual return home) and block visas were issued. Children other German children, he Geoffrey Phillips, 1938 were accommodated in foster homes, boarding schools, was sent away to Britain on the Kindertransports. He didn’t know where he was farms and hostels. The Jewish communities in Germany, going. He had a small suitcase as well as another small together with non-denominational organisations abroad, bag with provisions, and a ticket to a foreign land. He organised the rescue operation. was 13 years old.

‘We heard that our synagogue had been set on fire by squads of Hitler Youth and that the same thing was happening all over the country. Before we had recovered from the shock of this terrible news, there was a knock on the door. Two plain-clothes policemen asked for my father, told him to pack a change of clothes, and took him away. We heard afterwards that my father had been taken to a concentration camp. A cousin of my father’s was the welfare officer of the Jewish community in a neighbouring town. From her we discovered that Britain was prepared to take in a limited number of young Jewish children. Our cousin urged my mother to register me for the transport.

I am here today; I never saw my parents again.’ Geoffrey Phillips, 2008

A child of the Kindertransports

During the nine months before the outbreak of the Second The outbreak of war forced the Kindertransports to end. World War, 10,000 Jewish children were transported to The last train left Germany on 1 September 1939. The last Britain from mainland Europe on special trains called transport ship left the Netherlands on 14 May 1940, the day Kindertransports. They ranged in age from young infants to that the Dutch army surrendered to Germany. teenagers of 17 years. Most of the Kindertransport children who arrived in Britain The first Kindertransport from Berlin departed on 1 December never saw their families again – they had perished in the 1938; the first from Vienna left on 10 December. Transports Holocaust. from Prague were hastily arranged after the German army entered Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and transports of Find out more: www1.uni-hamburg.de /rz3a035//kinder Polish Jewish children were arranged in February and August transport.html 1939. Transport trains crossed into the Netherlands and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Belgium, then the children continued to Britain by ship. available through www.amazon.com

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The Winton Children

While visiting a friend in Prague in 1938, Nicholas Winton became aware of the impending plight of Jews in the Sudentenland and Czechoslovakia and volunteered to see if he could help some of the children. Rumours of his activities spread, and desperate parents flocked to his improvised office in the dining room of his Prague hotel. After establishing the ‘Czech Kindertransport programme’, In the months before the outbreak of war, Winton arranged for eight Kindertransport trains to bring 669 children to safety in England.

Nicholas Winton For 50 years his story was unknown, but eventually it began to unfold. Since then, Winton has been reunited with energy in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entails going hundreds of the “Winton children”. In 1983, he was awarded out, finding and helping those who are suffering and in an MBE for his charitable work, in 1998 he was awarded the danger and not merely in leading an exemplary life, in a Freedom of the City of Prague, and in 2002, he received a purely passive way of doing no wrong. knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. We can understand Winton’s motives from a letter he wrote in 1939: There is a Find out more: difference between passive goodness and active goodness. Holocaust Memorial Day booklet 2006 on the HETI website: The latter is, in my opinion, the giving of one’s time and www.hetireland.org

The Quakers

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) are well known for their philosophy of helping their fellow-man. During the 1920s, 30s and 40s, they worked tirelessly to help those fleeing Nazi Europe. Between 1928 and 1939 the Quaker International Centre in Vienna handled over 11,000 applications for exit papers and re-settlement, affecting 15,000 people. The Centre managed to help more than 4,500 people settle in other countries and assisted 2,408 Jews to leave Austria. Several refugees were facilitated by Friends in Jewish doctors learning to do manual work at the Quaker Ireland who sheltered them in their private houses. Some of workcamp in Kagran in preparation for emigration to South America, August 1938 (Ruth Karrach) these refugees settled here and made Ireland their new home.

Irene Sendler

Irene Sendler was a young Polish woman who joined was part of an Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland. As operation that a social worker, Irene had a permit that allowed her access smuggled 2,500 Jewish to the Warsaw ghetto where she provided many Jews with children out of the medicines, clothing and money. Irene wore an armband Warsaw ghetto. with the Star of David, both as a sign of solidarity with the

Jews and in order not to draw attention to herself. Irene Irene Sendler 2008

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The Rescue of Denmark’s Jewish Population

The German occupation of Denmark began in April 1940. Eager to cultivate good relations with a population they regarded as fellow Aryans, the Nazi occupiers allowed the Danish government to continue running their own domestic affairs. The Danes even held elections and it is said that every day King Christian X rode his horse through Copenhagen, reassuring his people that the Danish establishment still continued. Photo: USHMM

The Danish–German Agreement of 1940 stipulated that found hardly anyone at home. The rescue operation Denmark’s 8,000 Jews were not to be deported. But in involved thousands of Danish people from all walks of life. August 1943, the Danish government resigned rather than yield to new German demands. Three and a half years of The Danish Jews were taken to the coast, where fishermen relatively benign occupation came to an end when the Nazis helped ferry 7,220 Jews and 680 non-Jewish family proclaimed a state of emergency. Reich plenipotentiary members to safety across the water to neutral Sweden. Werner Best drew up plans to deport the Danish Jews. The collective heroism of the Danes in rescuing its Jewish On 29 September, the day before the Jewish New Year, population from the Nazis is recognised all over the world. The Denmark’s Chief Rabbi, Marcus Melchior, warned his congregation main door of Copenhagen’s Danish Jewish Museum bears the to go into hiding immediately with their friends and relatives. sign with the Hebrew word ‘mitzvah’ (a good deed).

The Nazis acted on 1 October. Danish police refused to co- Find out more operate. German special units knocked on Jewish doors, but www.jewishvirtuallibraryorg/jsource/Holocaust/denmark.html

Individuals, groups of people, Arabs and Muslims, diplomats, businessmen – who saved Jews during the Holocaust

Magda and André Trocmé, Miep Gies, Amsterdam, looked Sempo Sughara of Japan, saved Stephan Mika, Poland, whose Le Chambon sur Lignon, France after Anne Frank and her family thousands of Lithuanian Jews family hid Jews and partisans

Raoul Wallenberg Swiss Khaled Abdelwahhab one of Paul Grueninger, Switzerland, Oskar Schindler, German diplomat in Hungary, saved many Arabs who saved Jews provided thousands of Jews industrialist, who saved some thousands of Hungarian Jews with false papers 12,000 Jews in Krakow 7 Many thousands of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation in example of intolerance that we witness. The challenge of our time Europe between 1939 and 1945, owe their survival to Righteous is not whether to remember but what to remember and how to gentiles.The heroism the Righteous displayed was limited in time; transmit our memory to our children and our children’s children. our gratitude, however, can know no limits. It will remain as long as the Jewish people exist. Through their compassion and valour, without regard for religious or ethnic differences, the Righteous upheld the honour of the The Righteous refute the notion that there was no alternative to human race and the conscience of the world. passive complicity with the enemy. The farmers, priests, nuns and soldiers, the believers and non-believers, the old and the young Their stories can be found in Holocaust Memorial Day booklet from every background in every land made the impossible 2009 on the HETI website: www.hetireland.org possible. Their altruism calls us to understand the different choices and on www.yadvashem.org.il. that individuals make, and to commit to challenging every The exhibition can be viewed online ?????????????????????????

HETI wishes to acknowledge the support of the Republic of Bulgaria State Institute for Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in producing this booklet. Clifton House, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. Telephone: +353-1-669 0593 Email: [email protected] www.hetireland.org Charity No. 16331 Tax Reference No. 49625701T © 2010 Jackson, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland 8 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.