> Nonetheless, the story remained unknown outside Israel, where most of
> Bulgaria's Jews immigrated after 1948.
>
> The true story was long suppressed, he says, in great part because
> the Communists, who came to power after the war, saw those who'd
> helped the Jews as enemies. After the fall of Communism in 1989,
> researchers could get to more materials. But because the little
> country remained unknown to most Americans, the story wasn't widely
> disseminated. ... The author of more than 20 works of fiction and
> non-fiction, Bar-Zohar knows this story has the right ingredients in
> the heroes -- from peasants to a king -- who risked everything to
> take a moral stand.
>
> <http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/20000321bulgaria1.asp> *****
>
> Is Bar-Zohar's explanation true? -- Yoshie
Only a bit.
"... the story remained unknown outside Israel" is a flat out falsehood.
For example everything that is in this summary of Bar-Zohar's account (and lots more) was in Frederick B. Chary, _The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution 1940-1944_ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972) that I am looking at right now. Also, for example, Raul Hilberg in the very widely read one volume original edition of his _Destruction of the European Jews_ (Quadrangle : Chicago, 1967) sets the story out at pp.473-484. I travelled on several occasions in Bulgaria before the destruction of "really existing socialism" there, both for tourism and in connection with legal representation of certain Bulgarian interests in the US. The story of the survival of the Bulgarian Jews was proudly told to me by many people.
"The true story was long suppressed, he says, in great part because the Communists, who came to power after the war, saw those who'd helped the Jews as enemies." This is another lie.
Hilberg (a pretty extreme anti-communist himself) quotes King Boris as telling Ribbentrop the story Bar-Zohar recounts about needing Jews from Old Bulgaria for road construction, except that Bar-Zohar leaves out part of the quote - Boris said he needed the Jews for road construction and that he intended to deport imediately "only a small number of Bolshevik-Communist" Jews (p.483). Guess that didn't fit Bar-Zohar's story.
Hilberg also gives the account of Horst Wagner, chief of the Ribbentrop Ministry's "Inland II" (responsible for Jews, and relations with the SS), as to why the Bulgarian government had refused to deport the Bulgarian Jews. Here's Hilberg's summary of this document (a report from Wagner to the SS chief Kaltenbrunner, hanged at Nuremburg): "Wagner then explained the true reason for the Bulgarian refusal to deport the Jews: the Bulgarians were afraid of the enemy...just as all anti-Bolshevik propaganda was prohibited in Bulgaria (particularly propaganda directed against the person of Stalin), so the Bulgarian government was not inclined 'to permit a continuation in the Jewish question'... on August 30, 1944, one year after Wagner had written his letter and on the eve of the Soviet invasion of Bulgaria, the morning newspapers in Sofia displayed in prominent headlines the Cabinet's decision to revoke all of the anti-Jewish laws."(p.484)
As Chary in _The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution 1940-1944_ sets out, a disproportionate number of Bulgarian Jews fought in the Communist led partisans, including one Violeta Jakova (live like her!) who killed General Hristo Lukov in 1943. Even in Bar-Zohar's own Kiustendil district, the chief of the Bulgarian Workers' (Communist) party and of the resistance was Emil Shekerdziiski - a Jew. (pp.48-49)
The reason for Bar-Zohar's dishonesty in these matters is not far to seek. After the liberation of Bulgaria, Jews became free to emigrate to Palestine (opposed, of course, by the British). A vigorous debate broke out between the Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews (including some leading Communists). Chary sets this story out also, at pp. 180-183. The lie that "the Communists, who came to power after the war, saw those who'd helped the Jews as enemies" is a product of this dispute. In fact the Communists took *credit* for saving the Jews, much to the annoyance of the Zionists - an annoyance that lasts to this day - see the Wiesenthal account <http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x04/xr0475.html>
Bulgaria is a very beautiful place. And my number one idol in the world is Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova whom I heard sing an absolutely amazing _Anna Bolena_ for Eve Queler's Opera Orchestra of New York last Sunday night at Carnegie Hall. Her aria "Al dolce guidami..." in the final scene made me cry.
john mage