NEWS

President Radev: The Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews Reveals the Moral Strength and the Humanity of Our People

Head of State Rumen Radev took part as a keynote speaker in the final plenary session of the sixth Global Forum for combating anti-Semitism, which took place in Jerusalem. Before an audience of over 600 people representing governments and NGOs from the whole world, President Rumen Radev was presented as the Head of State of a people which rescued its whole Jewish community during World War II. 

President Radev told the participants in the forum about the challenge of summarizing the centuries-old Bulgarian history in a short statement when he prepared his address for the opening ceremony of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council.  “And then I decided to highlight one of the brightest pages in our history – the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during the darkest period of European history. It reveals the moral strength and the humanity of my people,” the Head of State said.

In 1943, the Bulgarians saved their fellow Jewish citizens but, in fact, they also saved themselves, they saved their own corner of civilization, they saved their dignity, Rumen Radev said. In his words, this is the way our people stood up for the dignity of Europe, which was a scene of unmatched tragedy - the mass extermination of people. “Bulgaria was also dragged into a situation which did not allow is to save in the same way 11 343 Jews from neighboring countries, which were not Bulgarian citizens. Today all of us, the people of Bulgaria, deeply mourn for them and for all victims of the Holocaust,” Rumen Radev said.

“The shadow of anti-Semitism, xenophobia and hatred continues to threaten our societies,” the President said and highlighted that the sensitivity to pain and compassion and the emotional culture of suffering act as an insurance against this horror happening again.

Rumen Radev noted that namely due to the difficult historical experience the Bulgarian people had not a single Jew, citizen of Bulgaria, was deported to the camps of death. “We can explain this bright rebellion of our people against the darkness that had fallen on the whole of Europe not only with the courage of the righteous, but also with the living memory of the Ottoman rule. The personal experience of injustice is one of the reasons why racial theories crashed into the firm human decency of the Bulgarians of that time,” the President emphasized.

Rumen Radev pinpointed intellectual and social backwardness as another reason for the contemporary threat of anti-Semitism. “In the increasingly polarized world of today, anti-Semitism takes deep roots in the socially disadvantaged groups, including those in Europe. This is why it is worth considering how to cure social disharmony, which facilitates the work of those who preach anti-Semitism,” the Bulgarian Head of State said.

Rumen Radev further noted the role of anti-Semitism as an ideology and added that this is the moment when “ignorance and hatred towards humanity become dressed up as knowledge.” This point of view is not only a threat to Israel. It is destructive for all ethnicities and is dangerous for the global peace, the Bulgarian President said and called for fighting anti-Semitism not only with the arguments of history but also with the arguments of universal humanism. “We should see the victims not as persecuted Jews but as our brethren. Israel should not only be seen as a state but also as a sacred land for billions of people all over the world whose faith has a strong connection to this place,” Rumen Radev said.

Earlier President Rumen Radev visited the Yad Vashem memorial complex, dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust and the rescuers of the Jews. In front of the exhibition dedicated to Bulgaria, which shows that not a single Jew with Bulgarian citizenship has died, the Head of State donated to the museum exposition the portraits of four Bulgarians who have assisted in the rescue of Jews on the territory of Macedonia. The photographs are of Ana Surchadzhieva, Ana Popstefanova, Nadezhda Svetoslav Hadzhivasileva and Dr. Pavel Gerdzhikov. The photos will add to the museum’s collection the names and faces of the people declared to be righteous, who have assisted in rescuing the Jews.

In the Yad Vashem memorial complex President Radev took part in the ceremony of lighting the eternal flame in the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

On mount Hertzl the Bulgarian President paid tribute to the victims of the sunk Salvador ship.  More than 350 Jews set off with the boat from Varna, but after a shipwreck in the Sea of Marmara, 119 of them survived. “We pay tribute not only to the memory of the dead, but also to the aspiration of all Jews to reach their Promised Land and also to the assistance the Bulgarian people offered them,” Radev said.