This exhibition tells the story of how the Bulgarian Jews survived the Holocaust. In February 1943, Bulgaria and Germany signed an agreement to deport Bulgarian Jewry to camps in Poland. Over 1,000 Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, then under Bulgarian administration, were detained and handed over to the Germans who sent them to death camps. Then Bulgarian Police proceeded to round up 9,000 Jews within Bulgaria itself. An intense public reaction ensued. Significant and public protest involving key political leaders and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church moved King Boris III to cancel the deportation on the very day of its planned execution. While expelled from their homes and persecuted, Bulgaria’s 48,000 Jews nonetheless escaped total destruction with the help of civic society.
