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

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as blatant denial of the Holocaust! According to official diplomatic correspondence between the
Bulgarian and German governments, the 170 Jewish Bulgarian citizens (from old Bulgaria)
living in France were abandoned and sent to Auschwitz!...It is indeed hard to believe that the 418
congressional representatives voted in favor of H.2 CON. RES.77, while completely ignoring the
aforementioned historical facts. 116
A further US resolution, telling only part of the truth, was passed on September 9, 2008: “…Whereas the
Bulgarian Parliament, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, King Boris III, politicians, intellectuals, and
citizens all played a part in the resistance to Nazi pressure to carry out the deportation of Jews living in
Bulgaria by preventing the deportation of 50,000 Jews to Nazi concentration camps’" 117
Prof. Borouchoffa, told Rep. Lantos that he had delivered a speech on May 1, 2003 for the 10th Annual
Federal Observance Program as part of the Holocaust Days of Remembrance at the Lincoln Theater in
Washington, DC. There, Ambassador Poptodorova also spoke, however Prof. Borouchoffa states what
Poptodorova said was far from being accurate:
…In addition to her repeating the false claim that the Jewish population in Bulgaria increased,
introduced a newly conceived tall tale that gentile Bulgarian people wore the Yellow Star of
David as a token of solidarity with us! Ms. Poptodorova was born in 1951. I was born in 1929
and was there, wearing the Yellow Star of David, and never saw, heard or read any evidence
about gentile Bulgarians, not even our closest friends, wearing it! I challenge any one to find
genuine historical evidence that this was indeed true. Nevertheless, it certainly shows the efforts
of the Bulgarian government, which has never apologized for the genocide, destruction of our
lives and pilfering of our properties as Hitler’s ally, to ingratiate itself in the eyes of
Americans. 118
The myth that Bulgaria’s population grew during the war years was repeated in 2007 by then UN Under-
Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor at the “Partners of Hope
Concert” at Carnegie Hall in New York: “...48,000 Bulgarian Jews were rescued from certain death, and
Bulgaria was the only country that fell under Hitler’s jackboots that emerged with a Jewish population
that was larger at the end of the war than it was at its beginning.” 119
Official Bulgarian publications continue to report the same single approach on how Bulgarian saved
‘50,000’ but make no other mention of the impact the Bulgarian government had on any other Jews:
“…The Jews of Bulgaria were saved during the war. Several forces within the country refused to
allow deportation to Auschwitz where they would undoubtedly been marched straight to their
116 Letter dated May 16, 2003 on file with the author of this paper.
117 H. Res. 1383 - Recognizing the 100th anniversary of the independence of Bulgaria. - Mr. WILSON of South Carolina (for
himself, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Ms. BORDALLO, Mr. MCINTYRE, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of
Texas, Mr. FORBES, Mr. DAVID DAVIS of Tennessee, Mrs. MUSGRAVE, Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, Mr. HAYES, Mr.
MILLER of Florida, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina, Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of
Florida, and Mr. CUELLAR)
118 Letter dated May 16, 2003 on file with the author of this paper.
119 un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2007/tharoor2.shtml
Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)