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Metropolitan Bishop Stephan of Sofia
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Metropolitan Bishop Kiril
of Plovdiv
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Metropolitan Bishop Stephan, the Head of the Sofia Church, and
the highest ranking Bulgarian Church official during the Holocaust, and
Metropolitan Kiril, the Head of the Church in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv,
vigorously opposed the anti-Jewish policies of the Bulgarian regime, and took
active steps against the deportation of Bulgaria’s Jews to the death camps.
Towards the end of
1940 Bulgaria, the aspiring Axis member made known its intention to pass the
"Law for the Protection of the Nation". The Laws meant to strip away the human
rights of the Bulgarian Jewish citizens. The planned law received condemnation
from wide circles in Bulgarian Society. The Holy Synod, headed by Metropolitan
Stephan, sent a letter to the Bulgarian Prime Minister demanding to postpone
the proposed law. The law was passed by the Bulgarian Parliament, and was
signed by King Boris III into effect on January 23, 1941. More severe
persecutions followed, professional restrictions, property confiscation,
taxations, curfew, and forced labor. Metropolitan Stephan continued to speak
out against the persecution of the Jews. Leaflets by Otez Paisi, Fascist
Party, called for the elimination of Stephan "the sooner the better!"
Bulgaria joined
the Axis on February 28 1941. A few days after, the German army used Bulgarian
soil to attack and defeat Greece and Yugoslavia. Shortly after, Germany handed
over authority in these territories to Bulgaria, freeing German troops to
fight in the east front. The Bulgarian public was ecstatic about the “new old
territories” that were part of the historical “Great Bulgaria” and were lost
to the neighboring countries following the Balkan Wars and WWI. Bulgaria
annexed Thrace and Macedonia, and had the full administrative control in these
territories and a few additional towns. A Bulgarian governments’ decree from
June 10, 1942 announced that all people living in these territories would
become Bulgarian Citizens on March 1 1943. Those refusing to become Bulgarian
citizens and all others who were not Bulgarian citizens could not stay there
after on March 1, 1943. The Jews in these territories were denied the option
to become Bulgarian Citizens. This decree set the legal base for the
deportation of the Jews who lived in these territories.
In February 22,
1943, Bulgaria signed with Nazi Germany a top-secret agreement: 20,000 Jews
from both Bulgaria and its occupied territories were to be deported to death
camps in Poland. On March 3,
Bulgarian police rounded up 4,000 Jews from the Bulgarian-occupied territories
in Greece. The cattle cars brought the deportees to the tobacco warehouses
inside Bulgaria were they were held for about 3 weeks. During one of his tours
to the Rila Monastery Metropolit Stephan saw with his own eyes the
deportations of the Greek Jews. Unaware of the full extent of the atrocity and
the deadly destination of these trains, he wrote the King asking to give human
transportation conditions to those inside the trains. On March 10, the next
group was to be deported: 8,500 Jews from within the “old Bulgarian borders”.
The deportation of 7,500 Jews from occupied Yugoslavia was planned for two
days later.
Information of
the secret deportation plans leaked from various sources. Dimiter Peshev, vice
president of the Parliament confronted the minister of Internal Affairs and
pressured him to stop the deportations. In the capital Sofia, cattle cars
were waiting at the train station to deport the first 800 Sofia Jews. The Head
of the Sofia Jewish Community, Abraham Alphasy, asked for Metropolitan
Stephan's intervention. Stephan immediately went to the King's Palace and
asked to meet him. The King, trying to evade pressure was nowhere to be found.
Stephan demanded the deportations be stopped and he threatened to instruct all
churches and monasteries to open their doors to Jews, and give them a place to
hide. His and other public figures protest brought an official decision to
delay the deportations.
However, the next
morning on March 10, thousands of Jews throughout Bulgaria were awakened by
police and taken to deportation centers. Among them were 1,500 Jews from the
city of Plovdiv. Local Bishop Metropolitan Kiril was determined to halt the
deportation. He visited the schoolyard where the Jews were held and promised
to go with them if they were to be taken. Kiril sent a personal telegram to
the King begging for his mercy towards the Jews, and threatening with civil
disobedience. He also threatened the local police head that he would lie
across the railway tracks in order to stop the deportation. The pressure by
the Metroplits Kiril and Stephan, and by others resulted in postponement of
the deportation of the Jews from within Bulgaria. The lives of the 11,363
rounded up Jews from the Bulgarian occupied territories in Trace, Macedonia
and the city of Pirot were not spared. They were handed over to the Nazis and
deported to Treblinka.
In April 1943 the
Holy Synod called for the cancellation of the deportation restrictions against
the Jews and for the protection of converted Jews. The decision was sent to
the Bulgarian Prime Minister with a copy to the King. In response, on April 15th,
the king arranged a meeting of the Holy Synod at his palace. At the meeting
the King tried to persuade the Holy Synod to support the anti Jewish policy
and the deportations plans. He used anti-Semitic arguments, and said that
other countries dealt the same way with the “Jewish Problem”. He called upon
the patriotism of the Church to accept the laws enacted by the parliament. His
words were received with wide disagreement by the Holy Synod, lead by
Metropolits Stepan and Kiril.
In May 1943
Sofia’s Jews received deportation orders to the countryside. The Jewish
community's two Chief Rabbis, Daniel Zion and Asher Hannanel asked
Metropolitan Stephan to shelter them and pleaded for the cancellation of the
deportation order. Stephan sent a number of messages to the King, who again
was ‘absent”. The letters included a plea to have mercy on the Jews and a
caution "Do not persecute so that you yourself will not be persecuted. Your
measures shall be returned to you. I know Boris that from heaven God will keep
watch over your actions".
The Ministry of
the Interior and the Prime Minister's office informed Metropolitan Stephan
that the country would not recognize the Church's conversion ceremonies and
that those citizens were to be considered Jews and eligible for deportation.
Bulgaria's Attorney General opened an investigation into Stephan's suspected
handing out of certificates of baptism to all who requested them, and the
police raided his office confiscating all Jewish requests for conversions.
Despite Stephan
and other public leaders' ignored protests, the second part of the deportation
plan did not take place. The sudden death of King Boris in September 1943
stopped the deportation attempts once and for all, the allied invasion of
Italy, and the fear of an invasion of the Balkans all played role in sparing
the 50,000 Bulgarian Jews from being handed over to the Nazis. In September
1944, with the Red Army closing in on Bulgaria's borders, the new Bulgarian
government declared war on Germany.
Metropolit Stephan
passed away in 1957 and Metropolit Kiril in 1971. In 2003, Yad Vashem,
recognized both as Righteous Among the Nations.
Text
is based on Yad Vashem’s information
Edited and put in context by Jacky Comforty
