In Europe, not enough is known about what Bulgaria did to save Bulgarian Jews, President Rosen Plevneliev told Bulgarian journalists in Paris. “This was a unique feat by the Bulgarian people and a true expression of Bulgarian civil society. My greatest ambition is to show it in a dignified way to the world,” said the President, who is on his first working visit abroad since the beginning of the year.
President Plevneliev said that international support for this unique achievement by the Bulgarian nation would depend on how the country would be able to show history as it was 70 years ago, “without equivocation and without half-truths, and history as it was”. The President expressed regret that for 70 years, Bulgaria had not shown clear evidence regarding the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews and the documentation related to it. “The truth is clear and it shows that Bulgaria was in no position to save the lives of Jews in Vardar Macedonia and Thrace. From another perspective, however, Bulgaria had managed to achieve something extraordinary that no other country had done, to more than 48 600,” the President said. He said that at the same time, Bulgarian consulates in Europe – including in Paris – had issued more than 15 000 transit visas, which had saved even more human lives.
“Our country will command the respect of the world when we can show it the facts as they are, and we should not keep silent about one or another aspect of the truth. That which the world has long known, we must raise and set out in a proper way,” President Plevneliev underlined.
At the Holocaust Memorial in Paris, the President and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova paid their respects to the victims.
Earlier, at a meeting with Director-General Bokova, President Plevneliev put forward Bulgaria’s proposals for items for inclusion on UNESCO’s list of protected intangible cultural heritage. These include the two-part singing in the town of Nedelino, Chiprovtzi carpets and the Surva national festival in Pernik. Bulgaria is to propose including in the register of the organisation of best practices in the field of intangible cultural heritage the National Folklore Festival in Koprivshtitsa and Bulgarian reading rooms. The Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library in working with the Vatican in the preparation of a dossier on the Evangeliarium Assemani for inclusion in the Memory of the World register, it emerged after the meeting between President Plevneliev and Director-General Bokova.
In Paris, the President will meet French President Francois Hollande and will take part in a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.