Bulgar terror in Macedonia

[Crn Volk]

North Macedonian Jews: Bulgaria has moral obligation to admit responsibility for WWII atrocities
December 11, 2020

The Jewish Community of North Macedonia has reaffirmed its position in an open letter regarding the role of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in the Holocaust and the deportation of the Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia.

You can read the open letter below:

In view of the continuous attempts to impose only one “historical truth” in relation to historical events that happened on the territory of today’s Republic of North Macedonia during World War II, the Jewish Community in the Republic of Macedonia and the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia remind everyone of the indisputable and accepted historical facts regarding the role of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in the Holocaust and the deportation of the Jews from today’s North Macedonia, and reaffirm their position:

1. During World War II, around 8,000 Jews lived on the territory of today’s Republic of North Macedonia and was under the direct occupation of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Italy, which were allies in the Axis. The Jewish population living in Macedonia during World War II was under Bulgarian occupation. The Bulgarian pro-Nazi occupying authorities immediately implemented the antisemitic Law on the Protection of the Nation against the Jews, which deprived the Jews of all civil rights, dehumanized them, introduced the Law on One-off Property Tax, which “legally” robbed the Jews, required them to wear the Star of David, Jewish houses were tagged, shops were closed, businesses and money confiscated.

2. The Bulgarian pro-Nazi government, led by Bogdan Filov and Tsar Boris III, consented to signing an agreement for deportation of the Jews from the territories occupied by Bulgaria, but also from Bulgaria itself. On the 22nd of February 1943, Alexander Belev, as Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, and Theodor Dannecker, representative of Nazi Germany, signed the Agreement that first envisaged expulsion of 20,000 Jews from the occupied territories and from Bulgaria. According to this Agreement, on the 11th of March 1943 the Bulgarian pro-Nazi army and police forcibly evicted the Jews from their homes in Skopje, Bitola, Shtip,… and transported them to the temporary camp, which served as a transit camp, at the Tobacco Factory in Skopje – commonly known as the Monopol. A total of 7,144 Jews, which was 98% of the Jewish population of that time, in three separate transports (22, 25 and 29 March 1943), organized by the Bulgarian occupying authorities and the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs, with logistics of the Bulgarian railways, were deported and handed over to the Nazis at the Treblinka killing center. None of the deported Jews returned alive.

3. The Jewish community and the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia hold the Bulgarian pro-Nazi authorities of that time directly responsible for the violent eviction of Jews from their homes, the looting of movable and immovable property, the deportation of Jews from the present-day North Macedonia, East Macedonia and Thrace in modern Greece, and the city of Pirot in today’s Serbia during World War II. More than 11,300 Jews from the occupied territories were forcibly deported into their death by the Bulgarian pro-Nazi government at the time.

4. The Jewish community and the Holocaust Fund recall with gratitude, appreciation and respect the Macedonian citizens of different ethnicities, known and unknown, who risked their own lives and the lives of their families in order to save Jews from certain death, and were declared righteous among the nations:

Aliparmak Boris and Vaska
Ribarev Trajko and Dragica
Siljanovski Stojan
Todorov Aleksandar and Blaga
Hadzi-Mitkov Todor and Pandora
Chekada Smiljan

The Jews from North Macedonia also pay due respect to the Bulgarian Church, the anti-fascist public, the 43 parliamentarians led by Dimitar Peshev and other intellectuals who, with their efforts, managed to stop the deportation and protect the Jews from Bulgaria – but not from the occupied territories — from the pro-Nazi Bulgarian regime.

5. During World War II, the Jews actively participated in the national liberation and anti-fascist war together with their fellow Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Roma, Vlachs, Serbs and Bosnians. Many Jews gave their lives fighting for liberation from the Bulgarian occupation. One of them is Estreja Ovadia Mara, who was killed in 1944 fighting against the Bulgarian occupying army, was later proclaimed a national hero.

6. The current government in the Republic of Bulgaria has a moral obligation to admit the guilt of its predecessor and take responsibility, following the example of many European countries that were on the wrong side during World War II, for the atrocities committed by their predecessors, the pro-Nazi government, against the Jewish population in the occupied territories during World War II.

The Republic of Bulgaria, by repealing the verdicts in 1996 adopted by the People’s Court in 1945 and by abolishing the perpetrators of crimes of World War II, is deliberately whitewashing its dark history and thus distorting the truth about the Holocaust committed by their predecessors against the Jewish population in the occupied territories. This is in complete contradiction with the IHRA definition of Holocaust denial and distortion.

7. We publicly call on the Government (or the officially elected political authorities – Prime Minister, President, Speaker of Parliament) of the Republic of Bulgaria to face the truth about the Holocaust against the Jews in the occupied territories for which the pro-Nazi government in the Kingdom of Bulgaria at that time was directly responsible, and to apologize and accept responsibility. The sooner democratic Republic of Bulgaria faces the painful and dark moments of its past, a reconciliation will be possible, because the denial of crimes is the first step towards their repetition.

8. This standpoint must not be in any way interpreted as anti-Bulgarian towards the democratic Republic of Bulgaria today and its people.

https://eurojewcong.org/news/communi...ii-atrocities/

[PAGANE]

Where was the "Macedonian people" that did not rise to the defense of their Jews, as did the Bulgarian people called by you "fascists"? Where was your Orthodox clergy to stand up for the Jewish population, as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, led by the Bulgarian Patriarch, did? Where were your anti-fascists to stand up for the Jewish population? Look for the causes in you first, not in others. After the people succeeded in "fascist Bulgaria", why didn't you follow their example? Bulgaria had not occupied you, Bulgaria only administered this territory, that is, it did not make decisions. The decisions were made by Frau Merkel's state.

[Crn Volk]

Where was the "Macedonian people" that did not rise to the defense of their Jews, as did the Bulgarian people called by you "fascists"? Where was your Orthodox clergy to stand up for the Jewish population, as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, led by the Bulgarian Patriarch, did? Where were your anti-fascists to stand up for the Jewish population? Look for the causes in you first, not in others. After the people succeeded in "fascist Bulgaria", why didn't you follow their example? Bulgaria had not occupied you, Bulgaria only administered this territory, that is, it did not make decisions. The decisions were made by Frau Merkel's state.

They were fighting Bulgarian occupation together with surviving Jews
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhi.../partisans.asp

[Hrant Dink]

They were fighting Bulgarian occupation together with surviving Jews
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhi.../partisans.asp

Nice story. Too bad those handful of partisans "gloriously helping the Jews" were grossly outnumbered by your people in Vardar who volunteered for the Bulgarian Army (and civil authourities) in 1941. Unlike my people, who were repressed by the Bulgarians and Germans, yours helped them hunt down Jews.

Luckily for you, the commies in Skopje made that all go away by pretending those Vardar Bulgarian Army veterans were partisans. Now, history barely remembers that there is as much Jewish blood on local hands for Vardar Holocaust victims as there is on the Bulgarians. Good thing I remember.

[Crn Volk]

Nice story. Too bad those handful of partisans "gloriously helping the Jews" were grossly outnumbered by your people in Vardar who volunteered for the Bulgarian Army (and civil authourities) in 1941. Unlike my people, who were repressed by the Bulgarians and Germans, yours helped them hunt down Jews.

Luckily for you, the commies in Skopje made that all go away by pretending those Vardar Bulgarian Army veterans were partisans. Now, history barely remembers that there is as much Jewish blood on local hands for Vardar Holocaust victims as there is on the Bulgarians. Good thing I remember.

Are these your people?

[Crn Volk]

Or these people?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellen...%E2%80%931944)

[Hrant Dink]

Are these your people?

No, yours. The Bulgarian occupation of Serres required Bulgarian colonists to both staff the occupying government and change local demographics. Your Bulgarians were so brutal that 1/3 of Greeks in the Bulgarian occupation zone escaped to the German zone.

That wasn't necessary in Vardar since your brother Bulgarians there eagerly volunteered to join the military and civil services. The idea that people in Vardar were gung-ho for the partisans is, of course, simply a propagandic myth. Tito henchman Vukmanovic-Tempo (one of your secret heroes?) constantly complained about this lack of interest, and how those that were left-wing were far more attached to Bulgaria. But Tempo was an effective rat bastard, and used all totalitarian methods at his disposal to enforce Yugoslav policy. Just like in 1912, your friends the Serbs got you to where you are today.

I'm not here to fully defend Greeks who served in the Nazi puppet government, but one mitigating factor is that more people likely would have died if no Greeks served. 300,000 died of starvation during the first winter of Nazi occupation due to German food requisitioning before the situation slowly improved. The Germans also fired at least two heads of the government, so things did not run as smoothly as most other puppet governments in Europe.

Funny that you use Bulgarian propaganda when you think it serves your purposes. You just can't stay away from your true motherland.

[Crn Volk]

No, yours. The Bulgarian occupation of Serres required Bulgarian colonists to both staff the occupying government and change local demographics. Your Bulgarians were so brutal that 1/3 of Greeks in the Bulgarian occupation zone escaped to the German zone.

That wasn't necessary in Vardar since your brother Bulgarians there eagerly volunteered to join the military and civil services. The idea that people in Vardar were gung-ho for the partisans is, of course, simply a propagandic myth. Tito henchman Vukmanovic-Tempo (one of your secret heroes?) constantly complained about this lack of interest, and how those that were left-wing were far more attached to Bulgaria. But Tempo was an effective rat bastard, and used all totalitarian methods at his disposal to enforce Yugoslav policy. Just like in 1912, your friends the Serbs got you to where you are today.

I'm not here to fully defend Greeks who served in the Nazi puppet government, but one mitigating factor is that more people likely would have died if no Greeks served. 300,000 died of starvation during the first winter of Nazi occupation due to German food requisitioning before the situation slowly improved. The Germans also fired at least two heads of the government, so things did not run as smoothly as most other puppet governments in Europe.

Funny that you use Bulgarian propaganda when you think it serves your purposes. You just can't stay away from your true motherland.

Funny how you support the bulgarian position after what they did to greek civilians in multiple wars

[Hrant Dink]

Funny how you support the bulgarian position after what they did to greek civilians in multiple wars

I support truth. If that means I have to support Bulgarians in some cases, so be it.

You're deflecting.

[Linebacker]

We should do it again sometime, sounds like a ton of fun.