Call to Action for World Jewry: In the Midst of Bulgarian Domestic Turmoil, Jews all over the World should Show Support for the Bulgarian People!!
Unbeknownst to most people in the world, the Bulgarian people [population—9million] have been protesting the high rise of electricity imposed by the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
Like many Central European countries, Bulgaria confronts many serious challenges in trying to preserve it’s tenuous relationship with the EU. In particular, Bulgaria is unable to meet the severe EU-sanctioned financial austerity policies. As a result, the price of gas, oil, and electricity has arisen quite dramatically.
This extreme price hike has been accompanied by protests and riots all over the major cities of Bulgaria.
Quite truthfully, no one is really at fault here. The Russians who supply the natural gas to Bulgaria have been very tempered in their approach to Bulgaria’s perceived problem. Russia wants to insure that the construction of the South Stream Natural Gas Pipeline continues therefore it does not want to create any form of political instability. Russia may even offer Sofia [the capital] short-term natural gas contracts in order to alleviate this problem. However, this would only be a temporary solution.
Similarly, Prime Minister Borisov has dissolved his government in order to respond to the demands of his citizens. Such a dismissal is also temporary in nature. What Bulgaria really is experiencing is symptomatic of the problems characteristic of the all the Central European country allied with the EU--- a stalling economic growth and increasing unemployment.
So what do the Jews around the world have to do with Bulgaria’s problem which is not really related to any Manichaean, good-guy, bad-guy scenario?
For one thing, Jews should/can invest in the Bulgarian economy. We can encourage construction of new plants and fund as ‘angel investors’ multiple start-ups .
The Bulgarians are quite youthful, knowledgeable and sophisticated in business. They all know English and are conversant with several languages.
How do I know about Bulgaria or why do I care about it?
SIDEBAR: I had invested in real estate there ten years ago for the reasons you will see below. CERTAINLY NOT FOR PROFIT!!!
I am a Diaspora Jew, I became acquainted with a very little known story about the bravery and courage of the Bulgarian people during World War II and how this Nazi ally helped save 50,000 Bulgarian Jews in complete defiance of Hitler and his Wehrmacht Army.
At the time of WWII, Bulgaria was a country of 7million people who descended from a proud dynasty of Thracians from the Second Century AD.
But during this time, Bulgaria unfortunately aligned itself [as it did in WWI] with the Germans/Nazi in a strategic attempt to reconstitute it’s previous hegemony over Macedonia [from Yugoslavia] and Thrace [from Greece] which had been taken away from the Bulgarians after WWI.
In 1940, Bulgaria instituted according to the Nuremberg Laws, legal, social and moral restrictions on it’s fifty thousand Jewish Population. Bulgaria had also deported non-Bulgarian Jews in those territories of Macedonia and Thrace.
Then in 1943, the Nazis and Hitler in particular had informed King Boris III that the Bulgarian Jews would have to be deported to Poland and to their inevitable extermination.
As the deportation date grew closer, the people of Bulgaria, consisting mainly of other minority groups (Armenians, Turks, Greeks and Gypsies) along with the majority of Bulgarian Orthodox Christians rose up in spontaneous protest against their Nazi ally and refused to help the Nazis round-up the Jews. This moral uprising DID NOT happen in the rest of Christian Europe and Scandinavia.
Parliamentary leader Dimitar Peshev led a coalition of forty-three Bulgarian Legislators who registered their official protest at very great risk to their lives.
Simultaneously, the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan actively worked against the deportation and issued FAKE BAPTISM CERTIFICATES in an attempt to save all the jews.
The Bulgarian newspapers consistently denounced the deportation, and worked underground to popularize their protest.
Bishop Cyril, who headed the Church in Plovdiv, threatened to lie down on the railroad tracks and promised the Jews, “WHEREVER YOU GO, I WILL GO WITH YOU!!”
Believe me there was not one Christian nation in all of Europe that ever defied and resisted en masse the dictats of their Nazi allies and subsequently saved over fifty thousand jews.
Finally under public pressure, King Boris III forbade the DEPORTATION in literally a FACE-TO-FACE confrontation with Hitler.
As a result, fearing an unnecessary redeployment of personnel and military assets, Hitler succumbed to the demands of King Boris III and allowed the Bulgarian jews to survive.
Interestingly, over forty thousand Bulgarian Jews emigrated to Israel. One of those Jews was an Israeli war hero, General Bar Lev. In addition, several major members of the Israeli Knesset were part of that act of Bulgarian defiance. One of those parliamentarians was Michael Bar Zohar, who later wrote a book called, Beyond Hitler’s Grasp.
Now many of you may say very nice but France, Denmark, Sweden and of course Holland saved a lot of jews in their own way.
True and NOT TRUE!!
Let me go over the history of anti-semitism and the misbegotten narratives created by conspiratorial pro-Nazi governments in order to hide their nefarious deeds of deportation of the Jews, Christians, Gypsies, Slavs, Homosexuals and political prisoners.
Let me go over the history of anti-semitism and the misbegotten narratives created by conspiratorial pro-Nazi governments in order to hide their nefarious deeds of deportation of the Jews, Christians, Gypsies, Slavs, Homosexuals and political prisoners.
First, let me explain why the world had not heard of the quiet HONORABLE DEEDS of the BULGARIAN CHRISTIAN NATION.
For decades, the Communists regime that had vanquished the Nazis in Bulgaria had kept this story secret in order to prevent the deification of King Boris III, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and Non-Communist parliamentarians.
So one system of government created a tarpaulin of silence and denial while other governments flaunted their non-existent heroism during the Nazi occupation. Their so-called resistance to Jewish or other minority deportation was revisionist at best.
Let’s closely examine the records of each of the European countries that basked in their vainglorious false narratives of ersatz bravery.
On top of my list of liars, has to be Holland. No one can top the quickly contrived story of Anne Frank and the so-called Dutch defiance of Hitler.
When the Nazis invaded Holland it was very easy for the Germans to come into the country, German and Flemish are very similar languages and 25% of the SS Nazi Elite Unit were Dutch soldiers.
But in a far more evil and nefarious scheme, the Nazis allowed German jews to escape into Holland promising them a ‘safe route’. But that was a lie. The Dutch were so efficient in their systemic execution of their own and German Jews that they came in second (after Poland) for exterminating the majority of their Jewish population.
So this cowardly nation along with it’s Queen Beatrix had concocted with the help of British Intelligence a false narrative about a poor girl named Anne Frank who hid in an attic etc. This “story” was disseminated around the world to deflect any attention or inspection into the nefarious past of Holland.
The American jews in their inevitable ignorance bought the story and flogged it all over the theater, movies. They created memorials, plaques and nonsensical tributes when all the while the true heroes—The Bulgarians were denied their moment in the sun for their selfless bravery.
Next on my list is France. My father served in the French Army as a Captain, where his first and last orders were to RETREAT! In order to counteract the image of French collaboration with the Nazis, Charles DeGaulle created a mythical figure called Jean Moulin who died as a resistance fighter. In reality, the French police and military under Petain rounded up close to 74,000 innocent men, women and children and sent them to deportation camps, without Nazi orders! (See the movie: "Sarah's Key", earlier post)
Then we have the popular narrative that the King of Denmark wore a jewish star and rode a horse in public in order to show his defiance of the NAZI soldiers. The truth of the matter was that an agent of the Abwehr Intelligence unit was told by Canaris to inform the Prime Minister of Denmark on the Eve of Rosh Hashannah that the 8000 jews would be deported and exterminated. The Danish Prime Minister refused to help the jews. So the NAZI INTELLIGENCE AGENT went to the high rabbi on that holiday and in turn the Rabbi organized Danish physicians to spirit the 8000 Danish Jews out of Denmark onto Swedish Fishing Boats in order to escape across the water into Sweden.
It’s important to remember that everyone of the fishermen had requested and receive BLOOD MONEY for their assistance.
Let’s talk about Sweden, shall we…
The famous Swedish industrialist family, the Wallenbergs, gave major financial and personal backing to the Nazi party. Yes, the same Wallenbergs who saved the Hungarian Jews. However, the truth is a bit different than what we’ve read about or seen in the movies. In reality, the OSS had ordered Raoul Wallenberg to go down to Hungary and try to save the remaining jews who were being deported late in WWII by giving them false visas. This act of “heroism” was part of a cover up of the war crimes of the collaborationist government of King Gustav V and the Wallenbergs in particular. Sweden also allowed 400,000 Nazi soldiers to cross their "neutral" border in order to slaughter the Norweigans. (I wrote a book called Active Measures its the fictionalized truth of Sweden's hidden dark side)
Did I mention Switzerland yet? The Swiss claimed neutrality during WWII but they did so in order to profit from both the Nazis and the allies. They sold munitions, weapons and helped finance the Nazi war machine through Swiss numbered bank accounts. Even Nestle that sweet corporation flew the Nazi flag in front of its headquarters until the end of the war.
Last but not least, is my own country---USA.
How did we react to the ongoing slaughter of innocent civilians in Europe?
FDR (had he lived longer) would have had to confront the fact that we refused to let thousands of Jewish refugees into the country. My parents had to wait seven years to get into the USA, spending all their money on countless fake visas and eventually waiting it out in Cuba. I blame a Princeton grad named Breckinridge Long who was assistant sec of state at the time. He developed a “delay tactic” for U.S. visas that would effectively stop immigration- that was the plan!
After this brief WWII /Jewish history lesson, you can understand why I think its time we, Jews, recognize BULGARIA for their courage and their humanity. It’s a beautiful country and its people are strong and smart. C’mon, lets help them out! They deserve it! It’s the least we can do for a country that saved 50,000 Jews especially when other nations took a more cowardly, greedy path.