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

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Background Page | 6 Until World War II, there were several organized Jewish communities, some quite large and some quite small, spread throughout the various towns and cities of Bulgaria, 13 as well as all of the geographic area that made up the Balkan Peninsula from today’s Albania in the west to Turkey-in-Europe to the east. These communities were made up of both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews, but primarily the overwhelming majority were Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) speaking Jews that had settled in the Ottoman- Balkans after Spain expelled them, subsequent to the implementation of its Inquisition in the 15 th century. 14 These Jews remained proud of their Spanish roots yet were quite devoted to their Turkish traditions and culture, which were established living over three centuries among the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire. In the 1820’s, after Greece fought its war of independence and became liberated from the Ottoman Empire, the Jews quickly demonstrated they could now live in the Balkans, among Greek Orthodox (Christian) society. Introduction During World War II, Boris III, King of Bulgaria (1893-1943 15 ), felt that the war could be used to expand his country’s geographical borders, which had been diminished after humiliating losses during WWI. 16 Expecting the Germans to win the war, Boris agreed to enter into a pact with Hitler. 17 As a result of this Pact, the Jews of Bulgaria suffered a most humiliating and degrading existence, with many of them dying directly as a consequence of Bulgarian governmental anti-Jewish laws, deportation to slave labor camps and all the dread that is associated with the latter. In ‘New’ Bulgarian-occupied territory (land Bulgaria pompously claimed was their ancient homeland) Jews were sorrowfully led to their death by Bulgarian officials who put them into the hands of the German army, very often after torturing the Jews first. 18 13 The Jewish population of Bulgaria, prior to the war, was said to be about 50,000. 14 After falling almost completely under Turkish rule in the end of the 14 th century, the Bulgarian state ceased to exist as an independent entity and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries until 1908 (though de-facto independent was declared from 1878) 15 After a stormy meeting with Hitler he returned to Bulgaria and died on August 28, 1943, he was possibly poisoned. 16 Humiliated in WWI, Bulgaria lost Aegean Thrace to Greece, the southern Dobrudzha to Romania and was burdened by crippling war reparations of $400 million U.S. dollars (~roughly five billion dollars in 2009 value {Consumer Price Index}) after the Treaty of Neuilly in 1919. The results of this Treaty is popularly known in Bulgaria as the ‘Second National Catastrophe.’ (The ‘First National Catastrophe’ was the defeat of Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War in 1913, in which a good deal of territory from southern Dobrudzha was annexed to Romania. Furthermore, it ceded a great deal of the Aegean coastline, including Bulgarian ports to Greece. 17 Tripartite Pact - March 1, 1941 (The Kingdom of Bulgaria had been on the losing side in World War I, losing territory to Serbia and Greece. During World War II, Germany needed military access through Bulgaria in order to capture Greece. Hitler promised King Boris III, that Bulgaria would receive all the territory it had lost in return for Bulgaria joining the Axis. Boris agreed and Bogdan Filov, the Prime Minister, entered into the Pact. (Boris died in 1943 leaving the Prime Minister, Bogdan Filov, as the effective ruler of Bulgaria. 18 Paldiel, Mordecai. Churches and the Holocaust: Unholy Teaching, Good Samaritans, and Reconciliation. Ktav: Jersey City, 2005. 306 Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)
Bulgaria Officially Partners with the Nazis Page | 7 On March 1, 1941, pro-fascist Bulgarian Prime Minister Bogdan Dimitrov Filov (1883-1945), a 58 year old former archaeologist and art historian who was educated in Germany, signed a pact with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946), 19 a hard-line Nazi and former journalist who once lived in New York City. With the stroke of a pen, Bulgaria and Germany were formally united. 20 The signing of this pact would have iniquitous ramifications that would lead to the destruction of the lives of well over 13,000 Jewish people and would completely extinguish a thriving and unique culture that had grown out of religious, intellectual and cultural seeds carried with Jewish refugees from the Iberian Peninsula some 450 years earlier. Almost immediately after signing the pact with Germany, Nazi soldiers entered Bulgaria. 21 Soon after, the Germans transferred 120 22 airplanes into Bulgaria and within a short time there were 355 23 bombers and dive-bombers in the country. 24 During this period, all telephone service in the country was cut, and calls only came and went through military phone connections. 25 On April 6 of that year, the Luftwaffe launched from Bulgarian bases, striking Belgrade in a massive attack which inflicted up to 25,000 casualties. 26 Simultaneously, the Germans took control of the air space over the whole of Yugoslavia 27 and Greece. From the same Bulgarian bases, the Nazis then spread over Skopje and Monastir to Salonika, plundering the homes and destroying the lives of the Jews in those cities. The Germans were able to do this with the whole-hearted support of the Bulgarians. In Sofia, a second Kristallnacht occurred, with members of the fascist Bulgarian group the Legioneri 28 attacking Jewish institutions, smashing windows and painting swastikas and obscenities on Jewish homes. 29 19 He was hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials. 20 Bulgaria was formally an ally of Germany—it was the only country that was a full ally in all of Europe. (See Chary, Frederick B. The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution, 1940-1944. Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1972. 129-132 for details on a conversation between Filov and Swiss ambassador Redard who told Filov the Jews were going to their death if they went to Poland, and Filov responded that they were only going to “work.”) This is mentioned in Rosen 255 21 Tasovac, Ivo. American Foreign Policy and Yugoslavia, 1939-1941. Eastern European Studies No. 11., College Station, Texas, 1999. 98 22 Tantum, William; Hoffschmidt, E.J. The rise and fall of the German Air Force, 1933 to 1945. WE, Inc., 1969. 123; Dear. 80 23 Mitcham, Jr., Samuel W. Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in World War II. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, 1988. 115 24 The New York Times March 7, 1941 25 The New York Times March 7, 1941 26 Tamir, Vicki. Bulgaria and Her Jews: The History of a Dubious Symbiosis. Sepher-Hermon Press for Yeshiva University Press: New York, 1979. 165 (Also see: UK Air Ministry. The Rise and fall of the German Air Force, 1933-1945. (formally restricted publication #248) re-published by St. Martin’s Press, 1987. 120-123 27 In Yugoslavia the Ustasha, a Muslim-Catholic alliance of Nazi killers murdered almost all of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Hirsch, Herbert. Anti-Genocide: Building an American Movement to Prevent Genocide. Praeger: Westport, CT: 2002. 77) Holocaust expert and author Edwin Black describes them: “[the Ustasha were] so beastly that even Nazi officials in Berlin were horrified. The Ustasha and three related crack divisions of Arab-Nazi Waffen SS comprised of tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers and terrorized people of all faiths in Yugoslavia. 27 In large measure, these murder machines emerged through the efforts of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. The grand mufti was on a mission to accelerate the extermination of all Jews everywhere.” (“The Holocaust's Most Vicious Killers” The Jewish Press. January 19, 2011 ) [For more on the Ustasha see Black’s Farhud. Dialog Press: Hilton Head Island, 2010.] 28 The Union of Bulgarian National Legions (Saiuz na Bulgarskite Natsionalni Legioni ‘SBNL’), or the Legionnaires’ Association, a nationalist Nazi style organization, was established about 1933. 29 Tamir. 166 (In the former Greek lands of Thrace and Macedonia, Bulgarian fascism was ruthless) Judaic Studies Academic Paper Series / Library of Congress ISSN No. 2156-0390 © Shelomo Alfassa (shelomo@alfassa.com)
Page 1 and 2: Clarifying 70 Years of Whitewashing
Page 3 and 4: Contents Abstract 4 Background 6 In
Page 5: Page | 5 partnership with the Nazis
Page 9 and 10: Bulgarian Jews Made Slave Laborers
Page 11 and 12: Page | 11 These Bulgarian Jews were
Page 13 and 14: Page | 13 their excitement and thei
Page 15 and 16: Page | 15 property was looted and s
Page 17 and 18: Page | 17 journey of great torment.
Page 19 and 20: Page | 19 deaths. These 50,000 Bulg
Page 21 and 22: The Bulgarian Government Propaganda
Page 23 and 24: Page | 23 obtain foreign economic a
Page 25 and 26: Page | 25 Jews of Bulgaria suffered
Page 27 and 28: Appendix 1. Suggested Redress for t
Page 29 and 30: Newspaper Clippings Appendix 2. Pag
Page 31 and 32: Page | 31 Judaic Studies Academic P
Page 33 and 34: Page | 33 Judaic Studies Academic P
Page 35 and 36: Skopje, Yugoslavia, Jews rounded up
Page 37 and 38: Lom, Bulgaria, Bulgarian officials
Page 39: This paper resides at http://www.al

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

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