Dimitar Peshev - Context of Bulgaria During World War II

Context of Bulgaria During World War II

King Boris of Bulgaria joined in an alliance with Adolf Hitler in 1940 agreeing to follow his anti-Semitic course. On September 7, 1942, Romania and Bulgaria, under the auspices of Germany, signed the "Law for protection of the nation", which was modeled upon the Nuremberg Laws. These laws depicted the Jews as the country's most vile enemies and defined as a Jew anybody who had at least one Jewish parent. Under the law, Jews were no longer eligible for Bulgarian citizenship, had to change their last names if they resembled anything Bulgarian and could not intermarry with non-Jews. A strict quota of less than 1% was instituted dictating how many Jews could study in universities, and Jews could not hold employment in the majority of occupations. The majority of Bulgarians, including many members of parliament, the Orthodox Church, writers, artists, lawyers and other members of the intelligentsia opposed the law.

The Bulgarian government signed an agreement declaring that, on March 10, 1943, all of Bulgaria's 48,000 Jews would be deported from the Kyustendil railway station and sent to death camps in German-occupied Poland. This deportation was organized under the leadership of Theodor Dannecker, an SS officer very close to Eichmann. Jews in the Bulgarian territories of Thrace and Macedonia would also be rounded up and deported.