Clarifying 70 Years of Whitewashing and ... - Shelomo Alfassa

Page | 16
German railway would take us to Poland, A dreadful cry burst forth. The train moved out. Out of
the narrow windows of the wagons could be seen the fluttering hands. We, who stayed behind in
the building, burst into bitter tears… 100
A contemporary report from the World Jewish Congress, enlightened the world to the Bulgarian peril:
…We only know that the attitude of the Bulgarian authorities towards the Jews, and above all
towards those Jews of the Greek provinces that are provisionally being controlled by the
Bulgarians, has been inhuman and ferocious as that of the Nazi authorities themselves…Let’s on
this occasion remark once more that the measure of Jewish deportation to Poland has been
applied just as vigorously in Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace, which are being
administered, as we have already said above, by the Bulgarians. 101
On the morning of March 22, 1943, some 2,300 Macedonian Jews 102 from the Monopol were forced to
board a train consisting of 40 cattle cars. From the trains could be heard the cry in Judeo-Spanish,
“Ayudo, Agua” (Help, Water). 103 Families journeyed together, and the transport included at least 134
small children no more than four years old, and at least 194 children between the ages of four and 10. 104
The train arrived at Treblinka six days later, several people died enroute. The overwhelming majority of
these Jews were from Skopje. On March 25, German and Bulgarian soldiers loaded about 2,400
Macedonian Jews onto a train made up of freight cars. All the Jews from Shtip, who numbered 550, were
on this second transport, as were about 2,000 Jews from Skopje and Monastir. Each wagon carried
between 60 and 70 people with all their baggage. The people came out of the building carrying their
belongings on their backs. Everyone was carrying things, from the oldest person to the youngest. With
bowed heads, all approached the black train. In front of each wagon stood a German and a Bulgarian
policeman checking off a list. 105 It was impossible to sit down in the freight cars. As soon as the
‘livestock’ had been loaded into a car, it was locked and sealed. The last train carried around 2,400 Jews,
approximately 2,300 of whom were from Monastir. The Jews began boarding the freight cars at 6am on
March 29 and by noon the train was full and enroute to Treblinka. Not long after the deportation, an edict
from the Council of Bulgarian Ministers ordered the liquidation of the property left behind by the Jews,
this would include personal property as well as communal. 106
On March 22, 25, and 29, 1943, Jews from Thrace 107 were deported. The Jews had a Bulgarian police
escort to the port town of Lom on the Danube River 108 where they were then placed on boats for Vienna, a
100
Albert Sarfati’s testimony in Oren. 198
101
Letter by A.L. Molho, Cairo October 12, 1943; “Notes on the Present Situation of Greek Jewry” from a February 1944 WJC
Report, in Documents on the History of Greek Jews: Records from the Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
University of Athens: Kastaniotis: Athens, 1999. 283
102
Macedonia included: Skopje, Shtip. Veles, Prilep, Ohrid and Monastir (Bitola).
103
Kolonomos, Jamila Andjela. Monastir Without Jews. New York: FASSAC, 2008. 67
104
USHMM Website “The Holocaust In Macedonia”
105
From the testimony of Albert Sarfati
106
Cash and valuables were given to the Bulgarian national bank, and moveable assets were gathered in special warehouses. The
Jewish property was sold for pennies, and the money collected was handed over to the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs. (Yad
Vashem Website ‘Monastir During the Holocaust’)
107
Thrace included: Serres, Drama, Kavala, Xanthi, Komotini and Alexandroupolis
108
Yad Vashem. “Bulgaria” The Fate of the Jews Across Europe Murder of the Jews of the Balkans and Slovakia. 2010
www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/09/balkans.asp.
Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)