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

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‘New’ Bulgaria, the Thracian and Macedonian Jews. While he did not initiate these deportations, he did
nothing to stop them, even though he had the means to do so. 126 Boris seems to have been truly motivated
by what he believed was good for Bulgaria:
His actions were guided by self-interest, or rather, by what he saw as Bulgaria’s interests; for
someone like Boris, who identified completely with his country, the two were indistinguishable.
What motivated him was national interest as he understood it, not humanitarian principles. 127
A glimpse into the mind of King Boris may be seen from this forceful statement made in his name by
Premier Filov: “We should not be influenced by our feelings or sympathies or desires. We must remain,
before everything else, Bulgarians, and work only for Bulgaria, to be ready to make sacrifices only for
Bulgarian interests...” 128
In 1996, Bulgarian Jews living in the United States joined with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), to thank
King Boris for his role during WWII. They planted many trees in a rural area in Israel and wanted to call
it the ‘Forest of Boris,’ but this was met with resistance from Jewish Holocaust survivors, as well as Mr.
Zisman, chairman of the Knesset’s Israel-Bulgaria Parliamentary Friendship League. Eventually, a
forest was planted without the King’s name, and simply called “The Bulgarian Forest.”
There, several monuments were built, including those for King Boris and his wife Queen Giovanna of
Bulgaria. In 1999, after the erection of the memorials was publicized, a committee was established that
included some former Monastir residents, formerly persecuted Holocaust survivors. The committee
elected to have the monuments removed—there would be no honor for King Boris—for it was known
Boris knew Jews from Thrace and Macedonia were getting deported and would be exterminated, as it was
reported to him by Prime Minister Filov. 129
The JNF immediately responded by establishing a public committee to review the issue, headed by former
Chief Justice Dr. Moshe Beiski. 130 A protest began against King Boris deserving a monument began, and
resulted in a July 2003 decision by the committee to remove the memorials to King Boris and his wife. 131
126 Todorov. 20
127 Todorov. 23
128 Bogdan Filov in a speech at Russe on the Danube, in which he voiced the sentiments of King Boris; “World War: Lowlands of
1941.” Time Magazine January. 20, 1941
129 Steinhouse Carl L. Wily Fox: How King Boris Saved the Jews of Bulgaria from the Clutches of His Axis Ally Adolf Hitler.
AuthorHouse: Bloomington, 2008. 215-216
130 Ofer, Dalia. “Tormented Memories: The Individual and the Collective.” Israel Studies 9:3, 2004. 137-156 (This article sets
out to probe the public debate that evolved in Israel over the dedication of a forest to the memory of King Boris III of Bulgaria. It
will also address the image of Bulgaria in Israel’s collective memory in relation to the rescue of Bulgarian Jews and to the
deportation of the Macedonian and Thracian Jews to the death camps.)
131 Before its removal, the marble memorial for King Boris was vandalized and covered in tar. (Raikin 130)
Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)