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Friends_of_America
Here since: Dec 27, 2008
Male, 60
manager
Lovech
Languages: bulgarian, polish, english,

Kazvam se Gencho Lazarov i predstavliavam nepravitelstvenata organizacia "Friends of America 2006".

Sdruzhenieto e osnovano prez 2006 godina, registrirano spored bulgarskite zakoni v Loveshki Okrazhen Sad i e vpisano v Nacionalnia registar na NPO. Vsichki sdruzhiteli imat rodnini v US, bili sa malko ili mnogo v Amerika ili prosto simpatizirat na US i imat priateli americantsi.

Edna ot celite na organizatsiata e da pooshtriava satrudnichestvoto v oblastta na obrazovanieto, kulturata i turizma s ogled doprinasiane na ustoichivo razvitie na kontaktite i obmena mezhdu bulgarskite i americanski grazhdani.

Addressat na registracia i upravlenie e: 10 "Todor Kirkov" sq.; Lovech 5500; P.O.Box 88; Bulgaria; tel./fax: 00359 68 600997; e-mail: saf_2006_lovech@abv.bg, www.societyofaf.hit.bg.

 

VESELI PRAZNITSI I SHTASTLIVA NOVA 2009 GODINA!

Hannah Arendt and a Bit of Bulgarian History

The following is an excerpt from "Eichman in Jerusalem, a report on the banality of evil" by Hannah Arendt.

"Bulgaria had more cause than any other of the Balkan countries to be grateful to Nazi Germany, because of the considerable territorial aggrandizement she received at the expense of Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Greece. And yet Bulgaria was not grateful, neither her government nor her people were soft enough to make a policy of "ruthless toughness" workable. This showed not only on the Jewish question. The Bulgarian monarchy had no reason to be worried about the native Fascist movement, the Ratnizi, because it was numerically small and politically without influence, and the Parliament remained a highly respected body, which worked smoothly with the King. Hence, They dared to refuse to declare war on Russia and never sent a token expeditionary force of "volunteers" to the Eastern front.

But most surprising of all, in the belt of mixed populations where anti-Semitism was rampant among all ethnic groups and had become official governmental policy long before Hitler's arrival, the Bulgarians had "no understanding of the Jewish problem" whatever. It is true that the Bulgarian army had agreed to have all the Jews--they numbered about fifteen thousand--deported from the newly annexed territories, which were under military government and whose population was anti-semitic; but it is doubtful that they knew what "resettlement in the East" actually signified. Somewhat earlier, in January, 1941, the government had also agreed to introduce some anti-Jewish legislation, but that, from the Nazi viewpoint, was simply ridiculous: some six thousand able-bodied men were mobilized for work; all baptized Jews, regardless of the date of their conversion, were exempted, with the result that an epidemic of conversions broke out; five thousand more Jews--out of a total of approximately fifty thousand--received special privileges; and for Jewish physicians and businessmen a numerus clausus was introduced that was rather high, since it was based on the percentage of Jews in the cities, rather than the country at large. When these measures had been put into effect, Bulgarian government officials declared publicly that things were now stabilized to everybody's satisfaction.

Clearly, the Nazis would not only have to enlighten them about the requirements for a "solution of the Jewish problem," but also to teach them that legal stability and a totalitarian movement could not be reconciled. The German authorities must have had some suspicion of the difficulties that lay ahead. In January, 1942, Eichmann wrote a letter to the Foreign Office in which he declared that "sufficient possibilities exist for the reception of Jews from Bulgaria"; he proposed that the Bulgarian government be approached, and assured the Foreign Office that the police attache in Sofia would "take care of the technical implementation of the deportation." (This police attache seems not to have been very enthusiastic about his work either, for shortly thereafter Eichmann sent one of his own men, Theodor Dannecker, from Paris to Sofia as "adviser.") It is quite interesting to note that this letter ran directly contrary to the notification Eichmann had sent to Serbia only a few months earlier, stating that no facilities for the reception of Jews were yet available and that even Jews from the Reich could not be deported.

The high priority given to the task of making Bulgaria judenrein can be explained only by Berlin's having received accurate information that great speed was necessary then in order to achieve anything at all. Well, the Bulgarians were approached by the German embassy, but not until about six months later did they take the first step in the direction of "radical" measures--the introduction of the Jewish badge.

For the Nazis, even this turned out to be a great disappointment. In the first place, as they dutifully reported, the badge was only a "very little star"; second, most Jews simply did not wear it; and, third, those who did wear it received "so many manifestations of sympathy from the misled population that they actually are proud of their sign"--as Walter Schellenberg, Chief of Counterintelligence in the R.S.H.A., wrote in an S.D. report transmitted to the Foreign Office in November, 1942. Whereupon the Bulgarian government revoked the decree.

Under great German pressure, the Bulgarian government finally decided to expel all Jews from Sofia to rural areas, but this measure was definitely not what the Germans demanded, since it dispersed the Jews instead of concetrating them. This expulsion marked an important turning point in the whole situation, because the population of Sofia tried to stop Jews from going to the railroad station and subsequently demonstrated before the King's palace.

The Germans were under the illusion that king Boris was primarily responsible for keeping Bulgaria's Jews safe, and it is reasonably certain that German intelligence agents murdered him. But neither the death of the monarch nor the arrival of Dannecker, early in 1943, changed the situation in the slightest, because both Parliament and the population remained clearly on the side of the Jews. Dannecker succeeded in arriving at an agreement with the Bulgarian Commissar for Jewish Affairs to deport six thousand "leading Jews" to Treblinka, but none of these Jews ever left the country. The agreement itself is noteworthy because it shows that the Nazis had no hope of enlisting the Jewish leadership for their own purposes. The chief rabbi of Sofia was unavailable, having been hidden by metropolitan Stephan of Sofia, who had declared publicly that "God had determined the Jewish fate, and men had no right to torture Jews, and to persecute them" (Hilberg)--which was considerable more than what the Vatican had ever done.

Finally, the same thing happened in Bulgaria as was to happen in Denmark a few months later--the local German officials became unsure of themselves and were no longer reliable. This was true of both the police attache, a member of the S.S., who was supposed to round up and arrest the Jews, and the German Ambassador in Sofia, Adolf Beckerle, who in June, 1943, had advised the Foreign Office that the situation was hopeless, because "The Bulgarians had lived for too long with peoples like Armenians, Greeks, and Gypsies to appreciate the Jewish problem"--which, of course, was sheer nonsense, since the same could be said mutatis mutandis for all countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It was Beckerle too who informed the R.S.H.A., in a clearly irritated tone, that nothing more could be done.

And the result was that not a single Bulgarian Jew had been deported or had died an unnatural death when, in August, 1944, with the approach of the Red Army, the anti-Jewish laws were revoked. I know of no attempt to explain the conduct of the Bulgarian people, which is unique in the belt of mixed populations."

HARRISS
Here since: Aug 30, 2009
How Humans Populated the Planet Earth...

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

ety
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Faith
Here since: Aug 14, 2008
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Network engineer
Fremont, CA
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vitojosy
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donka06
Here since: Apr 20, 2012
pariy
Here since: Oct 20, 2008
Male, 58
Yambol, Bulgaria
Languages: bulgarian

Az sam uchitel po istoria ot Bulgaria.

RalitsaAleksandrova
Here since: Sep 8, 2009
Казвам се Ралица Александрова и съм мама на 3 деца. С моя съпруг живеем в България, но тази година спечелихме от лотарията за зелена карта. Дано всичко мине добре и ние попаднем на това място.Не знаем какво би ни предстояло на американска земя.Занимаваме се със собствен бизнес - произвеждаме рекламни табели ,организираме събития -изложения и изработваме всякакъв вид печатни материали и реклама. Мисля ,че и двамата със съпруга ми сме ентусиазирани и работливи - това доколкото знам доста помага при интеграцията. Аз вярвам, че човек може да е на всякъде по света ,но трябва да работи за запазването на своята национална идентичност. Много бих се радвала да имам връзка с български общности в Америка. Аз съм народен музикант и свиря професионално на кавал, мога да бъда корепетитор на български детски хор, и да обучавам деца да свирят и пеят народна музика :) Разбира се музиката никога не ми е плащала сметките, но веднъж започнеш ли да пееш народни песни никога не можеш да спреш - чувството те следва цял живот. В България децата не обичат народна музика - слушат предимно ЕМИНЕМ.   Какво ли обичат българчетата в Америка :) ?! 

 

loveubabe95
Here since: Sep 20, 2009
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Las Vegas BG Info
Here since: Oct 24, 2009

Informacia za balgari ,biznesi ,magazini v Las Vegas !

Pitayte ,shte vi bade otgovoreno !

Gergana_Velichkova
Here since: Dec 15, 2008
Female, 35
CA

Az se radvam i valnuvam mnogo da vidia 4e po niakakav na4in se poddarja balgarskoto po sveta i  4e nashite deca makar i dalech ot rodinata si shte se dokosnat do neq.
Ako imate nujda ot prepodavateli az sum na sreshta!
Pozdravqvam vsichki bulgari zaeli se s tazi zadacha vav Vegas!

Моарейн
Here since: Nov 11, 2009

:)

kak
Here since: Jan 25, 2011
Female, 45
София
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Пише се "възврЪщаемост". Виж речник.
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Yangster
Here since: Feb 3, 2011
EVROPA Delicatessen
Here since: Jul 16, 2008
24
Bulgarian Deli
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Diana159
Here since: Jan 7, 2012
Female, 42
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Nicosia, Cyprus
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hetera
Here since: Jul 31, 2008
Female, 27
operator
Sofia
Languages: bulgarian,french,english

Обичаш и мразиш,плачеш и се смееш, страх те е, радваш се, крадеш и даряваш, искаш, но се притесняваш, мислиш, отново и отново, но не знаеш, къде, как, кога и защо, тук си, а сякаш те няма, хаос, еуфория, любов...