Out of reach of the Nazis
10/07/24
New podcast
The fate of the Bulgarian Jews
In 1943, the Jews in Bulgaria were on the verge of deportation and extermination, but the disaster was prevented - and Bulgaria thus became the only country in Europe where no Jews died in the Holocaust. The story of the Bulgarian miracle is relatively unknown - but the miracle is also muddy, because in the areas occupied by the Bulgarians, virtually all Jews were killed. In three sections, historian and author Simon Kratholm Ankjærgaard tells the full story of what happened before, during and after the war for the Jews in Bulgaria - and in the occupied territories.
With a new podcast series in three episodes, the Danish Jewish Museum together with historian Simon Kratholm Ankjærgaard focuses on the story of the fate of the Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War. It is the culmination of a larger collaboration together with the Bulgarian embassy in Denmark, which took place in parallel with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the escape and rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943.
Because just like in Denmark, the vast majority of the Bulgarian Jews were also saved from the Nazis' mass murder during the Holocaust, although it happened in a completely different way and with different consequences than in Denmark.
The story is generally very little known in Denmark. It has also only in recent decades become part of Bulgarian historiography. The story helps to put the Danish history of escape and rescue into perspective in a larger context. Because even though there are large and significant differences in the history of Denmark and Bulgaria, there are also some similarities that invite reflection on the outcome in Denmark, which was formally occupied, and Bulgaria, which was part of the Axis powers, respectively.
The podcast has been created in collaboration between the Danish Jewish Museum, the Bulgarian Embassy in Copenhagen and Simon Kratholm Ankjærgaard.
The graphic is an extract from Kristian Bay Kirk's illustrations for the Danish Jewish Museum's exhibition 'Flight and persecution in the 20th century'.
You can read the entire press release here
Listen to all the episodes here
Section 1: The Covenant
Bulgaria had very few friends in Europe when the war broke out. In fact, there was only the option of turning against the Third Reich. When Bulgaria joined the Axis Pact, the country's anti-Semites seized the opportunity and introduced violent anti-Jewish legislation.
Episode 2: The Miracle and the Tragedy
In the wake of the anti-Jewish legislation in Bulgaria, the infamous Belev-Dannecker agreement was concluded. It charted the deportation and extermination of the Jews both in Bulgaria and in the territories occupied by Bulgaria. In this section, the story of the miracle in Bulgaria - and the tragedy in Serbia, Thrace and Macedonia - is told.