Whether it was the average Bulgarian’s opposition to anti-Semitism or perhaps its king’s attempt to straddle the line, but Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews avoided the deadly fate of Jews elsewhere in Europe during World War II.
Rider University Associate Professor of History Lucien Frary outlined how the Bulgarian Jewish population survived the Holocaust intact, despite pressure on the small country from Germany and its Nazi leaders.
Frary spoke at the 10th annual Philip J. Albert Memorial Kristallnacht commemoration ceremony on Nov. 11. The talk was sponsored by Rider University’s Julius and Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center.
Kristallnacht – the Night of the Broken Glass – occurred 80 years ago on Nov. 9, 1938. All across Germany, the Nazis destroyed Jewish synagogues and businesses, broke storefront windows and looted the stores, ransacked Jewish homes and killed nearly 100 Jews in the span of a few hours.
Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, was surprised at the extent of the damage that occurred overnight on Nov. 9, and it would be easy to call it a turning point in what would lead to the Holocaust, Frary said.
Bulgaria, however, was different. It is a mountainous country, about the size of Tennessee, Frary said. It was a melting pot whose population included Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Gypsies and Romanians, he said. Jews had lived in Bulgaria for hundreds of years.
It was an open-minded and tolerant country because of its many minorities, Frary said. Jews could go to synagogue and they spoke Bulgarian. They were fairly well integrated into the community.
Bulgaria had aligned itself with Germany during World War I, and had kept contact with Germany after the war. Bulgaria was initially neutral at the outset of World War II, but it joined the Axis powers under pressure from Germany and in a move to prevent its invasion by Germany, Frary said.
By joining the Axis powers, Bulgaria was able to recover parts of the country that it had lost during World War I, Frary said. There were several thousand Jews living in Macedonia and Thrace, which Bulgaria had recovered.
As Germany “amped up” its pressure on the Jews in Germany, it also expected the same to occur in Bulgaria, Frary said. Bulgaria passed the Law for the Protection of the Nation, which imposed restrictions on its Jewish population.
But many Bulgarians opposed the growing marginalization of the Jews, including some government leaders and the Eastern Orthodox Church, Frary said. Speaking to Christians, church leaders said it was not for them to punish the Jews for killing Jesus Christ; it would be up to God.
Nevertheless, the Nazis continued to pressure Bulgaria to do something with its Jewish population. In 1943, the Bulgarian government agreed to expel the Jews who lived in Macedonia and Thrace, because they were foreigners. They were rounded up and sent to the death camps.
Opposition to sending Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps or death camps continued to grow, Frary said. Steps were being taken to round up the Jew, but King Boris III intervened after church leaders convinced him not to allow their expulsion.
Instead, the Bulgarian government told the Nazis that it needed the Jews as forced labor to build roads, Frary said. The expulsion did not take place. Most Bulgarians considered the Jews to be their countrymen, he said.
“(The average Bulgarian) looked at the Jews as real people. They knew the Jews. They probably had a meal with them. It’s a small country,” Frary said.
“It’s a horrible thing that the Jews were evacuated from Macedonia and Thrace. Could King Boris III have done better,” Frary asked rhetorically. Perhaps he thought it was better to collaborate and survive, even if it was morally wrong, the professor said.
As to the Bulgarian Jews, Frary said King Boris III probably reacted to popular opinion, which opposed killing the Jews. The king did not share his inner thoughts, “so we can’t be certain why he acted as he did,” Frary said.
