eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Prominent U.S. scholars, activists and members of the Jewish community will gather
to call on the government of Bulgaria to halt their continued whitewashing
of the truth relating to their interaction with Jews during the era of the Holocaust
NEW YORK, NY (February 10, 2011) An address on the continued erroneous honesty of the Bulgarian government and its interaction with Jews during the era of the Holocaust, will take place on March 1, 2011 at 7pm, (exactly 70 years to-the-day, of the pact uniting Bulgaria with Germany as Axis partners, March 1, 1941). The program will be held at The Sephardic Temple (775 Branch Blvd. Cedarhurst, NY 11516), before an audience of community members, activists, scholars and Holocaust survivors. Media and members of the press are encouraged to participate in a pre-event press conference which will take place at 6pm. Svetlana Stoycheva-Etropolski, Charge d’affaires of the Bulgarian Consulate General in New York City is among the list of invitees.
On this day, a Special Report will be released to the public by Sephardic historian, author and independent scholar, Shelomo Alfassa, who has documented how during WWII, the Bulgarian government was complicit in the dispossession, torture and murder of thousands of Jews-and-how the Bulgarian government continues to whitewash this fact.
«These were primarily Ladino speaking
Jews of Greek and Ottoman-Turkish descent.»
While it is frequently retold that the Bulgarian government elected not to deport some 50,000 Jews from Bulgaria to German death camps in Poland-what is generally not revealed, is that Bulgaria was directly complicit in the murder of some 13,000 other Jews from their lands of Bulgarian Thrace and Macedonia-mostly, Judeo-Spanish speaking Jews of Greek and Ottoman-Turkish descent.
Mr. Alfassa said, «The Bulgarian government continues to pompously promote the fact that they «saved» (did not deport) one group of Jews (50,000), while not disclosing the fact they indeed deported another group of Jews (13,000). The latter group was sent to their deaths at Treblinka, a subject which is historically well documented. These were primarily (Ladino) speaking Jews of Greek and Ottoman-Turkish descent. «
The March 1, 2011 event will launch a campaign, which will be subsequently followed by a Northeast Regional Colloquium, that will be convened to discuss remedies to the Republic of Bulgaria’s continued historic whitewashing of their direct role in the murder of some 13,000 Jews. The colloquium, expected to be held in June 2011, will be entitled, «Ending 70 Years of Whitewashing and Inaccuracies: the Bulgarian Government and its Treatment of Jews During the Holocaust.»
Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, President of the Association of Friends of Greek Jewry said,«These 13,000 Jews, which have been too often overlooked by history, suffered horrible deaths with the direct participation and knowledge of the Bulgarian government in their alliance and volunteer partnership with the Nazis-it is time for Bulgaria to set the record straight.»
There is no charge for this program, sponsored by the International Committee for Bulgarian Holocaust-Era Truth, in cooperation with the Association of Friends of Greek Jewry, National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, Kahal Kedosha Janina, The Sephardic Temple and the International Sephardic Leadership Council.
Please join us on March 1, 2011 at 7pm
The Sephardic Temple 775 Branch Blvd. Cedarhurst, NY 11516
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: alfassa.com/bulgaria.html
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I am a Jew from Sofia, Bulgaria. I was deported (as a 5 years boy) with my family from Sofia to a small town Provadia. So I am in position to comment the initiative of Mr. Alfasa for throwing accusations on Bulgaria. First of all the number of the Jews deported by the Bulgarian government from Aegean region, Macedonia and the town Pirot is not 13 000 but 11343. Bulgaria never denied this fact. In the very center of Sofia behind the Parliament and in front of the municipality of Sofia there are two monuments about this tragic event. There are also monuments in the town of Plovdiv and in the town of Lom, where the Jews from Aegean region were embarked on the ships on the river Danube.
Can Mr. Alfansa point out another way of behavior of the government of Bulgaria at that time? With the beginning of the war for two years Bulgaria declared neutrality, but it was forced at March 1941 to become an ally to Germany, as at the same time the Soviet Union was also an ally to Germany. These new territories that Hitler gave to Bulgaria were only to be governed. So the Jews of the new territories were not Bulgarian citizens and Bulgaria fulfilled only the orders of Germany.
What would have happened in case that Bulgaria refused to fulfill the German’s orders? You can see what happened to Yugoslavia. There was a Serbian king with policy similar to that of Bulgaria, but the communist made coup d’etat and Germany entered in Yugoslavia.
So it is very easy to Mr. Alfansa to criticize Bulgaria, but he can’t specify another way of behavior of the government of Bulgaria during the time of the war.
With its policy the Bulgarian government managed to save the Jews from the territories of kingdom, the Jews from the territory “Dobrudja” that Bulgaria received from Romania.
The Israel’s author Michael Bar Zoar in his book “Beyond the Hitler’s grasp” described what happened in Bulgaria and it doesn’t coincide with the opinion of Mr. Alfansa. The same is and with the book of Vicky Tamir , the book of Cherry, Benadjamin Ardity etc.
So I object to the calumnies of Mr. Alfansa toward Bulgaria. The fact that I am alive is due to the moderate policy of the government of Bulgaria during the period of the Second World War.
Leon Benatov, from Sofia, Bulgaria
Thank you, mr. Benatov for the great comment. This is what I just wanted to answer. But nobody can represent the truth better than a witness of the events.