Last year, 2017, the National History Museum received as a donation several valuable photographs from Mr. Neil Goldstein Glick, a public figure from the city of Washington, USA. They are from a memorable event that happened in 2013: the renaming of a square in Washington that already bears the name of Dimitar Peshev. In addition to the author of the initiative, our ambassador to the USA at the time, Mrs. Elena Poptodorova, and the American documentary maker of Jewish origin, Mr. Jackie Conforti, who was born in Bulgaria and is the author of the film "The Optimists" about the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. Among them can be seen a copy of a letter of thanks from H.V. Simeon of Saxe-Coburg to Neil Glick.
After the accession of Bulgaria to the Tripartite Pact /March 1, 1941/, the Bulgarian government was forced to follow the anti-Jewish policy of its ally, Nazi Germany. Already in the Law "For the Protection of the Nation", adopted in January 1941, a whole series of restrictive provisions regarding persons of Jewish origin in Bulgaria were provided. In February 1943, the Belev-Daneker agreement was signed, the clauses of which specified not only the number of Jews to be deported, but also the settlements from which this should be done. Not only the newly administered lands from Vardar Macedonia and White Sea Thrace, but also cities from the Kingdom of Bulgaria are affected. After the deportations began, information about what was happening reached the general Bulgarian public, and this caused a strong reaction of indignation among many prominent Bulgarian public, religious and political figures. At the head of the protest against the government's anti-Jewish policy is the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Dimitar Peshev.
Dimitar Yosifov Peshev (13.06.1894 – 20.02.1973) is a Bulgarian MP, born in Kyustendil, graduated in law. Minister of Justice in the first government of G. Kyoseivanov (1935-36). Name representative in XXIV (1938 – 39) and XXV (1940 – 44) National Assembly and vice-chairman. On March 17.03.1943, 42, he drew up a letter of protest to the government, signed by 15 deputies, against the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews. Sentenced by the People's Court to 12.04.1996 years in prison, rehabilitated by a decision of the Supreme Court dated XNUMX. Honorary citizen of Israel.
In his letter to the authorities in Bulgaria, he sharply criticized the deportations and demanded that they be stopped. Faced with such opposition and following instructions from Tsar Boris III, Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and Interior Minister Petar Gabrovski stopped the trains. A total of 11343 people were deported from Macedonia and Thrace, because according to the Clodius-Popov agreement, the Bulgarian state has only formal administrative authority in these territories, the final accession of which is left to be decided after the end of the war. But 48398 Jews from the territory of the Kingdom of Bulgaria were saved from the death camps.
