site.bta Oleg Calderon: Saving Bulgarian Jews Should be Taught More at School

The rescue of Bulgarian Jews should be talked about more in school - from primary to secondary education, said Shalom chairman Oleg Calderon on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews Thursday in Varna. According to him, talking about the issue will not only contribute to the preservation of the historical memory of our people, but will help young people to be proud of their roots, of being Bulgarians.

Oleg Calderon's ancestry was directly affected by the persecution of Jews during World War II. His father, Elia Nissim Calderon, was sent together with his parents to the "Kaylaka" Jew concentration camp near Pleven. Elia Calderon was born in January 1931 and was only 13 years old when he was forcibly imprisoned there, Oleg Calderon said.

Calderon stressed that the conversations with his father became much more detailed when my father began to age, perhaps after he turned 80, Calderon recalls. He adds that in their home "the Jewish subject" was touched upon, albeit on other occasions. His father, he says, faced anti-Semitism in his daily life, even though he was an officer. It was not a question of state policy or the attitude of society, but of the personal sentiments of individuals, Calderon explained, adding that he himself had also been the victim of such treatment.

Oleg talked openly and in detail about the experience of his mother Elia Calderon and his relatives who lived in Yambol at the time. The family began to experience difficulties after the Law for Protection of the Nation came into force in 1941. Then Jews were forced to put the yellow star on their clothes, children were expelled from school, parents from work. Restrictions were imposed on them even to walk freely around the city and none of them were allowed to enter the city garden, for example. They were then also put under a curfew - they had to be home at 10pm and not go out until 6am.

The worst for the Yambol Jews happened in 1944. In April the families, together with another group from Haskovo, were loaded onto a train and taken to Pleven. They were first housed in an inn; the young men were forced to build a barrack, which was later declared a concentration camp, "Kaylaka," Calderon pointed out.

After about three months, one night the shack caught fire on all sides. The policemen blamed the one Jewish family that had a sick child and the parents lit a candle at night to look after him. "That wasn't the reason, because the shack caught fire suddenly and from all sides, years later Angel Wagenstein told me that the archives have information about who set it on fire," Calderon added. The fire killed 10 people. The survivors were then taken to a nearby school, and returned to Yambol in the summer.

Asked how his father managed to overcome his experience, Calderon replied that the only explanation was that there were Bulgarians who never turned their backs on the family. According to him, his father never thought of going to live in Israel or any other country. The same applies to himself. "When I am asked, I always say that I am a Bulgarian Jew, not a Jew in Bulgaria", Calderon said. "I'm a former military, Bulgarian officer, I've kissed the national flag and sworn an oath in front of a huge number of people," Calderon clarified, adding that he has been to Israel several times, had the opportunity to live in Germany as well, but stressed that his roots are in Bulgaria, and he will stay with them.

Asked whose responsibility it is to preserve the memory and pass on the story of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews to the younger generations, Calderon said it is not only the Jewish community, but it should be the main pillar, because in the end it is about their fathers, grandfathers, relatives. He said there was a need to talk more to children about the issue, especially at school.

Bulgaria is marking the 80th anniversary of the salvation of Bulgarian Jews in 2023.

The anniversary raises many historical and historiographical questions about who the rescuers were, what made this great humanitarian act possible and why it happened in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), in partnership with the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Center, set itself the task of answering these questions with the help of prominent scholars, public figures, and experts on the subject with a series of articles to recall the events of the past and the participants in them, and to present the importance of the rescue and the rescuers. Bulgaria and Denmark are believed to be the only countries that did not allow their Jewish citizens to be deported to Nazi death camps. Nearly 50,000 lives were saved in Bulgaria. According to information on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center, Bulgaria had 50,000 Jews before World War II and zero victims. It is the only country with zero victims.