Monument to Commemorate Bulgarian Lawyers Who Played Role in Rescue of Bulgarian Jews

The Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria hope that a new monument that will commemorate Bulgarian lawyers who played a role in the rescue of Bulgarian Jews from the Nazi death camps, will be ready by September 2023. Building the monument is a joint initiative of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria and the Chamber of Prosecutors in Bulgaria.

The project was unveiled in September 2022.

In a BTA interview, Elin Alexov of the Association of Prosecutors, says that the process of the Jews' rescue started in the southern town of Kyustendil, at the local bar association. It was picked up by other bar associations, with many writing letters to the authorities to denounce the planned deportations.

"The very legal profession is about protection of the weak from persecution, from humiliation, for protection within the law. At one point a law was passed [The Protection of the Nation Act] that segregated a group in society who had already been accepted for centuries by the Bulgarians as part of them, a number of lawyers, the plurality stood up against it," said Alexov.  

He admits that fewer prosecutors spoke out in defence of the Jews, against this Protection of the Nation Act and against their deportation - as compared to other legal professions. "This is easily explained because they are in government servants. They had to enforce the law, even bad laws, as they say in Roman law. […] But, overall, the enforcement of criminal sanctions under the Protection of the Nation Act was very much relaxed by prosecutors," says Alexov.  

The Association and the Chamber believe that the monument will be a token of the gratitude of Bulgarian people for the lawyers who played a role in the rescue of Bulgarian Jews, for standing up for humanism, tolerance, justice and national dignity.

The monument is currently pending Culture Ministry approval. 

Bulgaria will be marking the 80th anniversary of the salvation of Bulgarian Jews in 2023.

The anniversary raises many historical and historiographical questions about who the rescuers were, what made this great humanitarian act possible and why it happened in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), in partnership with the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Center, set itself the task of answering these questions with the help of prominent scholars, public figures, and experts on the subject with a series of articles to recall the events of the past and the participants in them, and to present the importance of the rescue and the rescuers. Bulgaria and Denmark are believed to be the only countries that did not allow their Jewish citizens to be deported to Nazi death camps. Nearly 50,000 lives were saved in Bulgaria. According to information on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center, Bulgaria had 50,000 Jews before World War II and zero victims. It is the only country with zero victims.