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CAP
GOWN

Detroit
Jewish News

411'N

minister and the entire cabinet, the
powerful prelate forcefully demanded
to the king that the Jews be spared.
It all came to a head on the nation-
al holiday of May 24. As thousands of
students thronged Sofia's streets hon-
oring the two monks who invented
the Cyrillic alphabet, the city's Jews
gathered outside synagogues on this
expected day of their deportation.
They tried to have a patriotic march
toward the Royal Palace to beg the
king to let them die in their home-
land. But mounted police and Belev's
agents blocked and beat them, arrest-
ing hundreds.
But no one knew that four days
earlier, in utmost secrecy, the king had
informed the interior minister,
Gabrovski, that no Jews would be
deported. He did agree, however, to
sending them to the interior of the
country.
Once again, the Jews were saved at
the last moment.
The drama had one last chapter.
Four months later, Berlin again
ordered its ambassador to demand the
deportations. But he refused. The
Bulgarians, he bitterly wrote, would
do no such thing.
That month, King Boris mysteri-
ously died after returning from another
meeting with Hitler. Rumors flew that
he had been poisoned as the Rihrer
feared the monarch would sign a peace
pact with the Allies. Boris' six-year old
son, King Simeon, was crowned and a
regents' council governed the nation.
Somehow, Bulgaria's government
maintained its independence. On Sept.
9, 1944, when the Soviet army crossed
the Danube River and liberated the
country, not one Bulgarian Jew had
been sent to Poland. I, and 50,000
other Jews, their children and grand-
children, will never forget the heroic
Bulgarians who saved our lives.

labor gangs were treated well.

Cott rtevy liar-Lollar arch iveN

King Boris III with Metropolitan Stefan,
who was an important church leader and
defender of Jewish civil rights in Bulgaria.
con ■
Michael Bar-Zohars family is shown with
C
new Bulgarian friends in Gorsko Slivovo, a
mountain village. The government relocated
Sofia's Jews to such villages to impede a
Nazi roundup.

Issue Date: May 14, 1999
Advertising Deadline: May 7, 1999

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rresy Rar-/aihar archives

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Our GCS°d•rifrk
Special Section \\*m

" rats 138":'
The German map, first published in the
Berlin magazine "Das Reich," shows Thrace
and Macedonia as linder Bulgarian administration."

(:ourteNy Adams Media ( :tirp.

Applegate,

News

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" MtVi- Mkt\U,
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A Most Jewish workers in forced Bulgarian

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I

I

n 1948, a 10-year-old
Michael Bar-Zohar and his
family arrived in Jaffa, •
Israel, with about 40,000
other Bulgarian Jews.
In 1956, he began a military
career that would see him serve in
Air Force
Intelligence and
the Paratroopers.
Today, the
Ph.D. in politi-
cal science and
international
relations is the
author of 25 fic-
tion and non-
fiction books, including spy
thrillers, and on the Arab-Israeli
conflict and the Holocaust.
In 1966, Bar-Zohar became
the official -biographer of David
Ben-Gurion, Israel's legendary
first prime minister. Bar-Zohar
served with the Labor Party in
Israel's parliament from 1981-84
and 1988-92. He was a close
adviser to former prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin. A few months
ago, Bar-Zohar joined the new
Centrist Party.
Today he splits his year
between Israel and the United
States, where he serves as a
research fellow at Emory
University and a popular lecturer
throughout the U.S.
This article is adapted from
his book, Beyond Hitler's Grasp
(Adams Media Corp., 1998).
The book is available via e-mail
at adamsonline.com or by call-
ing (781) 767-8100. E

On the Cover:

Slades

4/9
1999

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