site.btaProf Bar-Zohar Shares Thoughts on the Rescue of Bulgarian Jews

The Israeli historian, writer and politician Michael Bar-Zohar Sunday said he would keep telling the world about the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. A street in the village of Gorsko Slivovo was named after Bar-Zohar by a decision of the Municipal Council. Bar-Zohar's family lived in a house in that street in 1942-1944 after they were deported from Sofia.

Bar-Zohar said he had a wonderful life in the village. The priest gave him a special gift, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. "Years later I think about this - a priest from a small village (...) spent his own money on books for a Jewish child because he was proud that the child lives in his village and knows how to read. Did anything like this happen elsewhere in Europe?," he said.

In his words, the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews shows three things. "First, the good Bulgarians triumphed over the bad ones and the Jews were saved. The second thing is a sad conclusion: if there had been another nation with the same principles and had behaved in the same way towards the Jews, we could have saved not 50,000 but half a million, a million. The third thing is meant for the young generation: when you see someone violating human rights, violating the lives of others, don't say, 'They are strong, what can I do?', but get up and fight. This is what Bulgaria did - a small David defeated a huge Goliath."

The Mayor of Letnitsa Municipality, Krasimir Dzhonev, said Gorsko Slivovo takes a small part of the credit for the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. He recalled that in 1942, two families of doctors were given a warm welcome in the village after they were deported from Sofia.

President Rumen Radev attended the street-naming ceremony. Also attending were Lovech Regional Governor Viktor Stoychev, municipal mayors and councillors and Brigadier General Yulian Radoiski, Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force Academy.

March 10 has been marked as the Day of the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews and of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust and of the Crimes against Humanity since 2003.