Today marks 80 years since the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews

March 2023 marks the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews in the old borders of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from the Nazi death camps. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Exarch Stefan, Patriarch Kirill, public figures, individual politicians such as Dimitar Peshev, the protests of our civil society had an active role in it.

Along with these events, we honor the memory of the Jews who died in the death camps, were deported from the territories administered by the Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1943 - Belomorska Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and the town of Pirot. Of the 11,343 Jews were put on the trains to the concentration camps "Auschwitz" and "Treblinka", 12 survived.

A ceremony on the occasion of the cancellation of the deportation of Plovdiv Jews in 1943 and a ceremony with the laying of flowers and paying tribute to Exarch Stefan and Patriarch Kirill for their role will be held today by the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria "Shalom".

Today's ceremony on the occasion of the cancellation of the deportation of Plovdiv Jews in 1943 will be in front of the Salvation Monument in Plovdiv. Later in the day, a tribute to Exarch Stefan and Metropolitan of Plovdiv, later Patriarch Kirill, will be paid at the Bachkovo Monastery.

An anti-Semitic policy began to be promoted in the Kingdom of Bulgaria before our country joined the Tripartite Pact, when it officially became an ally of Nazi Germany. In 1940, the National Assembly passed the anti-Jewish Law for the Protection of the Nation. Anti-Jewish legislation prohibited intermarriage, prohibited Jews from practicing certain professions and from owning shares in businesses. Jews were required to wear yellow Stars of David and were subject to curfews and restrictions on grocery shopping hours. Jews were...