"The Bulgarian people used to live side-by-side for centuries with Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews - we were part of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years. There was never a negative image of the Jews in the Bulgarian historical textbooks," explains historian Dr. Rumiana Marinova-Christidi, who goes on to state that, "all Bulgarian Jews, almost 50,000 survived the Holocaust. This is really a European exception."
The survival of the entire Bulgarian Jewish community – almost 50 thousand people - is an amazing phenomenon. While the Danish saved over 99% of their Jewish citizens during the holocaust, Denmark was an occupied state, where Bulgaria was an ally to Nazi Germany.
RELATED:Video: Time to clown aroundBulgarian teacher to be honored posthumously at Yad VashemAccording to Dr. Marinova- Christidi one root cause of the heroic
efforts of Bulgarian people to save the Bulgarian Jews during WWII is
the country’s history of “co-existed for centuries with other religions”
- giving it a unique multi-cultural and multi-ethnic history. As a
result, "as seen in German documents, there was no comprehension of the
Jewish question in Bulgaria."Following end the war, between 1948 and
1950, 90% of Bulgarian Jews left to Israel, primarily because of the
“Bulgarian support for the new born state."
Today massive efforts are underway to revive the Bulgarian Jewish
community. According to Oscar, President of the Sophia Jewish community
“From the very beginning we have actively been supported by the American
Jewish Joint Distribution committee - the main partner in our Jewish
community; they support us financially, logistically, and giving us the
best advice we can receive. Additionally, other Jewish organizations,
the World Jewish Relief, European Jewish Congress act as serious
partners of our organization."