The rescue of 50 000 Bulgarian Jews - the last great secret of the Holocaust era

By: Svetlana Dicheva, Bulgarian National Radio

As many other political and social issues in Bulgaria the issue about the rescue of 50 000 Bulgarian Jews during World War II is a ground of contradiction. The recent versions of some historians, underline the role of King Boris III, the Orthodox church and the non communist members of parliament. Others emphasize the special participation of Dimitar Peshev, Deputy Chairman of National Assembly, who signed a petition against the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews. Peshev had a dramatic destiny - after the war he was exiled and died forgotten by everybody. On January 2005 Emil Kahlo, chairman of the Organization of Bulgarian Jews "Shalom" took part in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary since the liberation of the concentration camp of Oswiecim-Birkenau in Poland. He thinks that the most important part in the rescue process in 1943 in Bulgaria, was played by the clergy, the intellectuals and the people as a whole. In an interview by Svetlana Dicheva from the Bulgarian National radio, he surprisingly spoke of signs of antisemitism in these days in Russia and Western Europe.

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