a. The Preliminary Phase
Bulgaria was part ally, part satellite of Germany.
In September, 1940, it acquired southern Dobrudja from Roumania.
In March, 1941, the German army was admitted to Bulgaria. The Germans took
Macedonia from Yugoslavia, Thrace from Greece, and handed them over to
Bulgaria. <180>
The number of Jews in Bulgaria at the end of 1939 amounted to 50,000.
Approximately 15,000 more were added to the Bulgarian power sphere in the
newly won territories. [413]
The "Law for the Protection of the Nation'; containing provisions for the definition, expropriation and concentration of the Jews, was adopted by a majority of the Parliament at the end of December 1, 1940, and promulgated on January 21, 1941. In August, 1942, wearing the yellow star was made compulsory for the entire Jewish population. At the same time Belev was appointed as Bulgarian Commissioner for Jewish Affairs.
On November 15, 1940, the "Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church" sent a letter
of Protest to the Prime Minister (Filov), with a copy to the Speaker of the
Parliament. The letter was signed by the Deputy Chairman of the Holy Synod,
Metropolitan Neophyte. It read as follows:
"The Bulgarian Church has always kept a faithful and watchful eye on the destiny of the Bulgarian people throughout its existence. She has always had an unbroken link with its destiny, and shared in its wishes and longings, its joy and sorrow, its pain, its misfortunes and ideals. This concern of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the Bulgarian people was strongest in days of trial and danger. In such days she did everything in her power to prevent the nation from making big mistakes, as it was capable of doing, and to protect it from the dangers and calamities that threatened it. And whenever the warning voice of the national Church was heeded our people was kept from major disasters. On the other hand, when it ignored the warning voice of the Church, our people underwent danger and suffering. The Bulgarian Church follows with great satisfaction the efforts of our people and those of the Bulgarian authorities to protect the people and the fatherland from dangers that lie in wait for them from different quarters. Therefore, now too, the national Church is very glad to note that the Government is preparing a 'Law for the Protection of the Nation', to protect our people and everything Bulgarian from such dangers. The Church considers it her duty, however, precisely for the benefit of the nation, to draw the attention of the competent authorities to several defects in the proposed law, which could have bad consequences, and which also touch the Church as a divine institution, whose duty it is to watch over all her spiritual children and cause the will of God to rule in the cause of righteousness and mercy among human beings and the nations… <181> Let no account be taken of laws against the Jews as a national minority, but let purposeful steps be taken against all the real dangers to the spiritual, cultural, economical, public and political life of the Bulgarian people, from whatever direction these dangers come." [414]
It is typical of this letter that most of its contents could also have been written by any anti-fascist political, party, instead of by a Church.
Early in 1941, it became known that the "Law for the Protection of the Nation" was going to be ratified. Metropolitan Stephan then called for a plenary session of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church, which passed a resolution agreeing to send a letter of protest to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which it was pointed out that:
"… The principle of racialism which is the basic idea on which the above mentioned law is founded, has no justification from the point of view of the teachings of Jesus… The principle of racialism which encourages persecution and denies the rights of people, merely because of their race, in this case the Jewish race, has no justification, and therefore one cannot base the 'Law for the Protection of the Nation' on the principle of racialism. One cannot turn the 'Law for the Protection of the Nation' into a means of oppression and persecution of the Jewish minority in the land." [415]
On September 9, 1942, the Metropolitan of Sofia, Stephan, preached a sermon,
probably in preparation of the "Feast of the Exaltation of the Honourable and
Life-giving Cross". This feast of the Orthodox Church falls on September 14.
The Metropolitan declared that:
"… God had punished the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus in that He had expelled them from their country and had not given them a country of their own. And thus, God had determined the destiny of the Jews. <182> However, men had no right to exercise cruelty towards the Jews and to persecute them. Especially Christians ought to see their brothers in Jews who had accepted the Christian religion and to support them in every possible way. He stressed several times in his sermon that truly it is in God's hands to punish twice and three times, but it is forbidden for Christians to do such a thing." [416]