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During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported from the Balkan states to labor and extermination camps in Germany and Poland. Bulgaria, with a Jewish population of only 50,000, sided with Hitler's government early on, its king having become convinced that only with German aid could he successfully press his territorial claims to land lost to Greece and Romania. Yet, in the face of constant German demands, Bulgaria's government refused to deport the nation's Jewish citizens. Instead, as the Bulgarian-born Israeli politician Michael Bar-Zohar writes in this fine contribution to Holocaust studies, "the Bulgarian Jews became the only Jewish community in the Nazi sphere of influence whose number increased during World War II." Bar-Zohar attributes the Bulgarian government's successful resistance to a general absence of anti- Semitism among the populace: most Bulgarian Jews were of the working class and had long since been culturally assimilated; even many of the ardent fascists in the government opposed their being murdered. To be sure, Bar-Zohar writes, the Jews of Bulgaria were persecuted--yet thanks to the efforts of leaders like the parliamentarian Dimiter Peshev and the cleric Metropolitan Stefan, they were spared the terrible fate of so many other Jews in the region. Bar-Zohar's book recounts an almost unknown episode of World War II history through a well-told, fast-paced narrative. --Gregory McNamee
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From Publishers Weekly
Having lived through the events in this book, Bar Zohar (Suez Top Secret) is motivated by his desire to commemorate the Bulgarians who saved his family and Bulgaria's nearly 50,000 Jews from deportation during WWII. Much of the documentation of this rescue mission was sealed during the country's Communist rule?in part to grab all credit for Communist partisans?but Bar Zohar was able to search the archives and interview survivors after 1991. What emerges is a complex story of heroism mixed with fear. Although the historically weak-willed King Boris III hoped to regain lost territories by collaborating with the Germans, he feared the alliance and played a dangerous game of equivocation until his death under mysterious circumstances in 1943. Boris's part in the rescue of the Jews has been a matter of some contention; Bar Zohar makes a reasoned attempt to restore credit to the king, without denying the heroism of others. Bulgarian politicians, business leaders and clergymen protected the country's Jewish citizens long enough for the tide of the war to turn against the Germans, ensuring the Jews' safety. Although dismayed that Bulgaria did nothing to stop the extermination of Thracian Jews, Bar Zohar recognizes that the ultimate costs of open resistance might have been total annihilation. Ultimately, this is a moving history of many individuals whose heroism was discredited during the Communist regime.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
