[lbo-talk] the Bulgarian right

Julian Gollop gollop at bol.bg
Thu Mar 16 01:11:03 PST 2006


"I read some time ago that anti-semitism largely failed in WW2 Bulgaria because the people simply refused to buy into it. Many gentiles wore the yellow star themselves, in solidarity, while others went out of their way to be friendly to people wearing it. Is that accurate? And if so, what happened in the last 60 years? I don't imagine there was that much less corruption and poverty back then." Wendy, Funnily enough I am just reading 'Beyond Hitler's Grasp' by Michael Bar-Zohar which tells this story very well. However, it is probably a mistake to think that Bulgarians are less anti-semitic than anyone else. Before WWII the Jews in Bulgaria were very well integrated into Bulgarian society, and a disproportionate number of Jews fought and died in Bulgaria's various wars. However, anti-Jewish legislation was passed during the war with the connivance of most of the political elite and the king. The Jewish populations of Macedonia and Greecian Thrace were deported when they came under Bulgarian control. A very interesting result from last years inter-ethnic survey revealed that 16% of ethnic Bulgarians would be prepared to expel Jews from the country. Half of Bulgarians would not accept a Jew as a police chief, an army officer or a government minister. This is a high level of anti-semitism considering that there are less than 1500 Jews living in Bulgaria these days. I don't know whether anti-semitism has got worse or not since the war, but I suspect that given the nationalist demagoguery of the previous socialist regime it certainly hasn't improved.

Julian.



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