site.btaBulgaria Highly Appreciates Prof. Bar-Zohar's Contribution to Defending Historical Truth, Popularizing Rescue of Bulgarian Jews - President

Bulgaria highly appreciates the contribution of Prof. Michael Bar-Zohar for defending and confirming the historical truth about the devotion of the Bulgarian people and state to save their fellow Jews 80 years ago, President Rumen Radev said at a meeting with the Israeli writer, historian, public figure and politician prof. Michael Bar-Zohar, Radev's press secretariat said Tuesday. This act of tolerance and humanism was unique for Europe during the Second World War and should be popularised before the world, Radev added. 

The Head of State pointed out that generations of Bulgarians are deeply grateful for the efforts of prof. Bar-Zohar to preserve the memory and of how Bulgaria did not allow the deportation of its Jewish community to the death camps. The Bulgarian Jewish community grew in numbers during the Second World War, and its rescue was the result of the joint efforts of society and institutions. 

According to Radev, there are undignified attempts to distort the past and to replace the bright page of Bulgarian history with an undeserved guilt. He added that the country's institutions should resist such an approach.   

Prof. Bar-Zohar briefed the President on his participation in various initiatives related to the 80th anniversary of the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews, which is marked in 2023. There are documents, eyewitness accounts and information that should be made available not only to the younger generations, but also to politicians, cultural figures and public figures around the world, Bar-Zohar said. He added that the Bulgarian state and the scientific community should work more actively to establish the historical truth. 

In March, the anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews was solemnly marked in the country with a number of processions, exhibitions and ceremonies.