58 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

continued from page 57

At the start of the 20th century, 
Bulgaria contained a mix of religious 
and ethnic groups that had arrived 
as invaders, immigrants or refugees. 
The majority group, Eastern Orthodox 
Christians, lived in relative peace with 
Greeks, Turkish Muslims, Roma, Jews 
and others. The Jewish population 
also came from different waves of 
immigration: As Jewish life in other 
countries had deteriorated, the ancient 
Jewish community that spoke Yavanic 
(a Jewish language based on Greek) 
was joined by Ladino-speaking Jews 
from Spain and Portugal, and Yiddish-
speaking Ashkenazi Jews from the 
north.
Located at a crossroads, Bulgaria, 
had some independent times but also 
was controlled over the centuries by 
the dominant Byzantine and Ottoman 
empires before it was liberated in 1878.
In the immediate pre-war period, 

the king wanted to regain control of 
Macedonia (from Yugoslavia), Thrace 
(from Greece) and Dobruja (from 
Romania), and any other territory 
that had belonged to Bulgaria in past 
centuries. A deal with Nazi Germany 
gave him that opportunity.
As the Nazi party grew and came to 
power in Germany, sympathizers in 
Bulgaria started their own National 
Socialist movement. 
When the Germans invaded Poland 
in 1939, Bulgaria was officially 
neutral, but King Boris III had already 
committed to purchasing German arms 
and training its officers. 
In March 1941, Bulgaria officially 
joined the Axis and allowed Germany 
to use its territory to attack Greece 
and Yugoslavia in April. The victorious 
Germans gave Bulgaria these territories, 
which were annexed in 1941.
The Jews in these territories were 

first counted as part of the Jewish 
population in the unified kingdom 
but were later denied the right to stay 
where they were born and were not 
granted Bulgarian citizenship — and 
were deported later. 

THE JEWS IN BULGARIA
Beginning in 1941, Bulgaria instituted 
the classical list of Nazi anti-Jewish legis-
lation. The new laws successively denied 
Jews their rights as citizens, their occupa-
tions, their freedom of movement. They 
were assigned special taxes and required 
to wear the yellow star, and then confined 
to ghettos. All Jewish males ages 20-40 
were sent to Bulgarian slave labor camps. 
The Bulgarian government and the 
1942-established Commissariat for Jewish 
Affairs planned the next step: deporta-
tions to German death camps. 
On Feb. 22, 1943, Bulgaria and 
Germany signed a (unique) agreement 
to ship 20,000 Jews from cities 
throughout Bulgaria. The deportations 
began on March 3. Between March 
3-12, the Bulgarian army, Gendarmerie 
and special forces rounded up some 
12,000 Jews from the newly annexed 
territories and deported them to 
Treblinka, where they were annihilated. 
The other 8,000 Jews destined for 
deportation were spared due to frantic 
efforts of the Jewish community, 
who succeeded in getting help from 
politicians and the church to delay the 
deportation. 
Comforty details the efforts that the 
Jewish community made to intervene. 
Somehow, these efforts resulted in 
postponing — but not cancelling — the 
transport of Jews from inside Bulgaria. 
They got off the death trains. Dimiter 
Peshev, vice president of the National 
Parliament in Sofia, apparently 

LEFT TOP: The Jewish forced labor 
camp celebrates in December 1942. The 
first snow meant that soon they will be 
sent home for the winter. Jacky’s father, 
Bitush Comforty, is on the right.
LEFT BOTTOM: Ika (the author’s mom) 
and Vicki Ovadia in Pleven 1943.

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW