page_title: The Holocaust in Bulgaria
hierarchical_section_title: The Holocaust in Bulgaria
caption_attribution_description: English: Gan Haam Habulgari - Garden of the Bulgarian People, Jaffa, in honor of the Bulgarian people for saving the Bulgarian Jews during the holocaust
context_page_description: The Holocaust in Bulgaria refers to the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1939 and 1944 in the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War II, arranged by the Nazi Germany-allied government of Tsar Boris III and prime minister Bogdan Filov. The persecution began in 1939, intensified after early 1941, and culminated in deportations of Jews from Bulgaria to German concentration camps. The arrest and deportation of Jews began in March 1943. Almost all — 11,343 — of the Jews living in Bulgarian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia and Greece were deported by the Bulgarian authorities, and sent on through Bulgaria to Treblinka extermination camp in German-occupied Poland.
  The planned deportation of the Jews from within Bulgaria's pre-war borders was never carried out. Bulgarian public figures protested against the deportation - among them Bulgarian Orthodox Church bishops Stefan of Sofia and Kiril of Plovdiv, members of parliament led by Dimitar Peshev, leaders of professional organisations, and others - and persuaded the Tsar first to stop the deportation temporarily in March 1943, and two months later to postpone it indefinitely.
context_section_description: The Holocaust in Bulgaria refers to the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1939 and 1944 in the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War II, arranged by the Nazi Germany-allied government of Tsar Boris III and prime minister Bogdan Filov. The persecution began in 1939, intensified after early 1941, and culminated in deportations of Jews from Bulgaria to German concentration camps. The arrest and deportation of Jews began in March 1943. Almost all — 11,343 — of the Jews living in Bulgarian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia and Greece (in the regions of Macedonia, Thrace and Pomoravlje) were deported by the Bulgarian authorities, and sent on through Bulgaria to Treblinka extermination camp in German-occupied Poland.
  The planned deportation of the Jews from within Bulgaria's pre-war borders was never carried out. Bulgarian public figures protested against the deportation - among them Bulgarian Orthodox Church bishops Stefan of Sofia and Kiril of Plovdiv, members of parliament led by Dimitar Peshev, leaders of professional organisations, and others - and persuaded the Tsar first to stop the deportation temporarily in March 1943, and two months later to postpone it indefinitely. The Jews whose deportation from Bulgaria was halted, including all Sofia's 25,743 Jews, nonetheless had their property confiscated, were forcibly relocated within the country, and all Jewish males between the ages of 20 and 40 were sent into forced labour battalions until September 1944. The events that prevented the deportation to extermination camps of about 48,000 Jews in spring 1943 is termed the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. Although most Jews who were deported perished, the survival rate of the Jewish population in Bulgaria was one of the highest in Axis Europe.
caption: Garden of the Bulgarian People, Jaffa.
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