Bulgaria commemorates 1943 prevention of deportation of Bulgarian Jews, handover of Jews from ‘new lands’ to Holocaust

At a ceremony on March 10, the 1943 prevention of the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews and the handover of Jews from Bulgarian-administered “new lands” in Yugoslava and northern Greece were commemorated.

In March 1943, with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, some ruling majority politicians, civil society, intellectuals and ordinary Bulgarians in the lead, an agreement between the monarchist government of the time and Nazi Germany for Bulgarian Jews to be sent to the death camps of the Holocaust was thwarted.

Addressing the 2026 ceremony, Dr Alina Levi, president of the Shalom Organisation of the Jews in Bulgaria, said: “Today we gather to remember one of the brightest and most profound moral events in our history – the salvation of Bulgarian Jews”.

Levi said that March 10 is also a day of remembrance for more than 11 000 Jews from Aegean Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and Pirot who were not rescued.

Their tragedy remains an unchanging part of our history, Levi said.

“This memory is especially important today – at a time when antisemitism is reappearing – sometimes openly, sometimes veiled. In a time of wars and uncertainty, when the principles of humanity are again questioned,” she said.

President Iliana Yotova, in a speech at the Monument of Salvation, said that this was a day of tribute to one of the brightest pages in Bulgarian history.

“Eighty-three years ago, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Tsar Boris III, politicians and citizens showed solidarity, empathy, love for their neighbor and did not allow nearly 50 000 Bulgarian Jews to leave for the death camps,” Yotova said.

Earlier, Yotova also participated in a ceremony of laying flowers in front of the memorial plaques of the rescuers of Bulgarian Jews next to the Basilica of St Sophia. (This monument pays tribute to Boris III, though the majority view among experts of the period does not accord a beneficial role to the then-tsar.)

Yotova said that Bulgaria’s feat of 1943 has not been forgotten, but more should be known about it.

“Bulgarian children should know this story, tell it to their peers from all over the world, because the days of salvation are light, enlightenment for peace even in the most impenetrable darkness. This feat sends a strong message today in a world burned by wars and terrorism,” she said.

Yotova also expressed her respect for the 11 343 Jews from territories governed by the then Bulgarian authorities, “whom Bulgaria could not protect”.

“The world today is once again torn apart by hatred, division and contradictions. It is as if we have not learned the lessons of the past, we do not remember the story of the Holocaust, which did not begin with Auschwitz, but with the deafening silence and the averted gaze,” Yotova said.

“Therefore, today our great responsibility is to face hatred head on, wherever it is,” she said.

She said that politicians who claim to be able to lead their countries and the world forward do not nip hatred in the bud.

“It is even more shameful when aggressive people, supposedly intellectuals or politicians, try to rewrite history and deny the existence of the Holocaust – the most sinister ideology since humanity can remember. If we do this, it means that we are desecrating the memory of over 6 million people and once again cutting their destinies,” Yotova said.

“Today, we want the air to resound with children’s laughter, not with the cries of mothers who have lost their children. We want more reason and dialogue. Our prayer, no matter what language and in what temple it is, is for tomorrow, which is also our responsibility to our children,” she said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Andrei Gyurov – who was not at the ceremony in Sofia because he was attending the Second Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris – said in a post on Facebook: “MPs clergy, intellectuals and ordinary citizens raise their voices to stop the deportation of thousands of Bulgarian Jews”.

Thanks to them, 50 000 lives have been saved, Gyurov said.

This story teaches us that the saviour is not always a hero. The saviour can be all society that says, ‘No!’,” he said.

And when a society defends its most vulnerable members, when different voices—religious, political and civic unite around the principle that every human being has value, then democracy shows its true power, Gyurov said.

The lesson of this story does not only belong to the past, he said.

“There are moments in every generation when we must choose between indifference and empathy, between convenience and justice,” Gyurov said.

“The people who saved the Bulgarian Jews remind us that history is changed not only by power but also by conscience. And that when enough people stand on the side of human dignity, even in the darkest times the light can be seen,” he said.

(Main photo via the Facebook page of Shalom)