Bulgarian Society and the Jewry in the Interwar Period (Overview). (original) (raw)
Related papers
Jewry Related Discourse in Bulgaria Between the First and the Second World Wars
In: Radovi Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest, vol.45, 2013, 95-127, 2013
The article is dealing with the position of the Jewish minority in Bulgaria in the period between the First and the Second World Wars, which is not well presented issue in foreign and even the Bulgarian historiography. Most of the literature is dedicated to the Second World War but very little attention is paid to the problem of anti-Semitism in Bulgaria before 1941. The author of the article is trying to prove that the rescue of 50,000 citizens of Jewish origin in Bulgaria, which was a Nazi ally during the World War II was not a "miracle" but a result of a long-lasting tradition. The rare tolerance towards the Jews in Bulgaria over the centuries was reaffi rmed in the 20th century when in comparison to the anti-Semitic wave sweeping through Europe Bulgaria saved its Jews and prevented them from becoming victims of the "fi nal solution" during the Holocaust.
Jewry-Related Discourse in Bulgaria in the Interwar Period
In: The Balkan Jews and the minority issue in South-Eastern Europe, Collognia Balkanica, Warsaw-Bellerive-sur-Allier, 2020, vol.7, 87-106, 2020
Because of the unresolved national question after World War I, nationalism remained the dominant ideology in interwar Bulgaria. The Jews were a group in the country without any irredentist or separatist aspirations that could threaten the nation state in which they were living. Confl icts were rare, and the explanation can be sought in the liberal and tolerant government policy on minority issues, in the Jews' acceptance of the values of the Bulgarian national doctrine and their close integration into the Bulgarian nation. Also, Bulgaria had a relatively small Jewish minority (0.8% of the whole population of the country). Competition between Jews and Bulgarians in business, the professions, and for jobs was rare, and not a great cause of concern. Some Jews had a successful military career during the wars of 1912-1913 and 1914-1918, others published books, magazines, newspapers, built synagogues, schools, libraries, hospitals, founded Zionist organizations, etc. Jewish families were not isolated, either territorially or linguistically. Prominent representatives of the Jewish community occupied high positions in the state apparatus, others played an important role in the political and cultural life of the country, and were well represented in arts, science, and the professions. In the struggle for emancipation and in the subsequent eff ort to consolidate citizenship rights, many Jews, especially in Western and Central Europe, and in the Balkans began to adopt the nationality of the country in which they resided, thereby considering themselves, for example, Bulgarians of the Jewish faith. These integrationists maintained that Jews were adherents of a diff erent religion but not members of a separate nation. They considered themselves a part of the
Bulgaria, the Jews and the Holocaust
Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe, University of Rochester Press, 2023
A profoundly original historical inquiry, this work offers a critical reflection on the silences of the past and the remembrance of the Holocaust. During World War II, even though Bulgaria was an ally of the Third Reich, it never deported its Jewish community. Until recently, this image of Bulgaria as a European exception has prevailed—but at a cost. For it ignored the roundup of almost all the Jews living in the Yugoslav and Greek territories under Bulgarian occupation between 1941 and 1944, who were in fact deported to Poland, where they were murdered. In this new English translation of her work originally published in French, Nadège Ragaru presents a riveting, wide-ranging archival investigation encompassing 80 years and six countries (Bulgaria, Germany, the United States, Israel, North Macedonia and Serbia), in doing so exploring the origins and perpetuation of this heroic narrative of Bulgaria's past. Moving between legal and political spheres, from artistic creations to museum exhibits, from the writing of history to transnational public controversies, she shows how the Holocaust north of the Danube became a "rescue" to the river's south. She traces how individual merits were turned into "national" achievements, while blame for the deportations was planted squarely on Nazi Germany. And she illuminates how discussions on the Holocaust in Bulgaria were held hostage to Cold War dynamics before 1989, only to yield to political and memorial struggles afterwards. Ultimately, she restores Jewish voices to the story of their own wartime suffering.
A Guide to Jewish Bulgaria, 2021
This is the expanded and updated second edition of the famous Guide to Jewish Bulgaria first published in 2011 and now a collector's item. A Guide to Jewish Bulgaria was designed as a "journey through both time and territory." It contains introductory chapters on early Jewish history in the Balkans, life in the Ottoman Empire (1393-1878), Jewish going-ons in independent Bulgaria (1878-1944), Jewish decline under Communism (1944-1989), and Jewish life post-1989. A special section deals with the famous rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust "paid off" by Jews in Aegean Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and Pirot who were deported to Nazi-occupied Poland. Richly illustrated with superb photography, this book focuses on what remains of the Jewish presence in Bulgaria now: synagogues, old cemeteries, remnants of Jewish neighbourhoods in Sofia, Plovdiv, Vidin, Ruse, Varna, Burgas, Yambol, Samokov, Dupnitsa, Kyustendil, Gotse Delchev and elsewhere. This new edition contains a chapter about Jewish heritage in Bulgaria's neighbouring states: Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. A must for anyone interested in Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe in general and Bulgaria in particular.
d"a SAVING BULGARIA'S JEWS: A TRIUMPH OF NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
In this paper, I shall begin by presenting a necessarily brief account of the historical background, the events preceding the years of the Second World War. I shall then recount-again, briefly-the Shoah-related events of the war years in Bulgaria and, in a separate section, the story of how the proposed deportation of the Bulgarian Jews was stopped. Finally, I shall offer my assessment of the significance of the various contributors to the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews and the significance of their rescue in the peace process. "G*d was very weak at that time, because he [sic] had no friends in Germany. 1 2 According to the tradition, G*d has no other hands than ours, and during the Shoah, G*d was very alone." As we shall see, however, G*d did have friends in Bulgaria.
From salvation to Alya: the Bulgarian Jews and Bulgarian-Israeli relations (1948–1990)
Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2017
The basic aim of the present paper is to provide a historical overview of Bulgarian-Israeli relations from 1948 to 1990 (when diplomatic relations were re-established following their break off in 1967), and of Bulgarian state policy towards Jews in the country during the Second World War and the postwar Socialist period. The paper analyses the variety of factors that have affected that 'triangular relationship' , such as the positive historical legacy of Bulgarian-Jewish relations that contributed to the salvation of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust, and the role and place of Bulgaria and Israel in the cold war confrontation that dominated international politics from the end of the 1940s to 1989. In order to understand Bulgarian-Israeli relations, we must take into account a series of basic factors including: the historic roots of the relationship between Bulgarians and Jews and their tradition of tolerant coexistence ; the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews during the time of the Holocaust, as a European exception; and Bulgaria's participation in the Soviet sphere of influence after the Second World War and its role as the most loyal Soviet satellite during the cold war. For that reason, the present paper covers a number of key issues. These are the conditions and the mechanism concerning the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust; the division of the Bulgarian Jewish community during the first postwar years and the emigration of 90% of it to Israel; the fate of the remaining Jews in Communist Bulgaria and their relationship with the regime; Bulgarian-Israeli relations in the context of the cold war, and each state's role in global politics.
Südost-Forschungen, 2017
In recent years, much public controversy has surrounded the discussion of the Holocaust in Bulgaria during the Second World War. As is well known, whilst about 48,000 Bulgarian Jews from the "old" kingdom (Bulgaria's pre-1941 boundaries) were not deported and survived the war, an estimated 11,343 Jews in the territories of Yugoslavia and Greece occupied by Bulgaria in April 1941, were rounded up, deported and later exterminated in Poland. Key issues in these disputes over the past revolve around the pondering of Bulgaria and Germany's respective responsibilities in the deportations, as well as the reasons behind the diverging fate of the Jews in the "old" and "new" kingdoms 2. Several factors have conferred an extreme visibility upon these debates, including the changing place of the Holocaust in global memorial regimes 3 , the diversification of the social actors (lay his-1 The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers for their precious comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 2 For a standard account of Bulgaria's policies during the war, see Marshall Lee Miller, Bulgaria during the Second World War. Stanford/CA 1975. On occupation policies, including the legal status of the former Yugoslav and Greek territories ruled by the Bulgarians, see Björn Opfer, Im Schatten des Krieges.