“the power of civil society: the fate of jews in bulgaria”.

The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945, The National Museum of Denmark
and The Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Copenhagen
request the pleasure of your company to the opening of the exhibition
“THE POWER OF CIVIL SOCIETY: THE FATE OF JEWS IN BULGARIA”.
The exhibition will be opened on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 at 16:00 h.
at the Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945, DK-1263 Copenhagen K
by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Nickolay Mladenov
and the Minister of the Interior and Health of the Kingdom of Denmark Mr. Bertel Haarder.
The opening will be followed by a glass of Bulgarian wine.
The world knows that during the dark times of Nazi
rule some small brave nations in Europe showed
high moral standards and true humanity and
saved their Jewish citizens. In our home country
Bulgaria owing to the active stance of the civil
society: a series of petitions, individual letters of
protest and public demonstrations against anti-
Semitic measures, to the high moral values of some
politicians and Orthodox church leaders and, quite
importantly, to the brave decision of the then
Bulgarian king Boris III the Bulgarian Jewish
population of 50,000 people was saved. It is not
a story about one individual saving another; it is
a story of a civil society defending the universal
norms of justice and humanity in the face of a
powerful political and repressive machine.
A unique series of events unfolded in Bulgaria in
the spring of the year 1943. These events led to
the salvation of the entire Jewish population of
approximately 50,000 people from Bulgaria’s pre
WW-II territories. Unlike many other countries in
Europe, Bulgaria stopped the Nazis of annihilating
its Jewish citizens. Various groups in the Bulgarian
society, including Orthodox Church representatives
like Metropolitans Kiril and Stefan, many
professional organizations and ordinary citizens,
Members of Parliament led by the Deputy Speaker
of the Parliament Dimitar Peshev and, decisively,
King Boris III stopped the Nazi machine that was
firmly resolved to implement the “final solution”
of the Jewish question.
Most Bulgarians never viewed or view the act of
saving their Jewish friends as an extraordinary
event; anti-Semitism has never had roots in
Bulgaria – Jewish people were and are an integral
part of the Bulgarian society, as were many
other ethnic and minority groups. The first signs of
Jewish settlers, the Romaniots, on Bulgarian
territory date as far as the 1 century AD. Ever since
the Jews have been an integral part of the Bulgarian
society, sharing its tragic and glorious moments,
participating actively in its political, social, business
and cultural life.
The Bulgarian Culture Institute in cooperation
with the Centre for Jewish Studies at the Sofia
“St. Kliment Ohridski” University is the author of
a documentary exposition that commemorates
those events. The exhibition includes 21 posters
with photographs, original document
copies and texts following the complex
historic background and the unfolding of
events, of social and political processes in
Bulgaria and the world.