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The history of Bulgaria during World War II encompasses an initial period of neutrality until 1 March 1941, a period of alliance with the
Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were N ...
until 8 September 1944, and a period of alignment with the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
in the final year of the war. Bulgarian military forces occupied with German consent parts of the kingdoms of Greece and Yugoslavia which
Bulgarian irredentism Bulgarian irredentism is a term to identify the territory associated with a historical national state and a modern Bulgarian irredentist nationalist movement in the 19th and 20th centuries, which would include most of Macedonia, Thrace and ...
claimed on the basis of the 1878
Treaty of San Stefano The 1878 Treaty of San Stefano (russian: Сан-Стефанский мир; Peace of San-Stefano, ; Peace treaty of San-Stefano, or ) was a treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-187 ...
. Bulgaria resisted Axis pressure to join the war against the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941, but did declare war on
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and the United States on 13 December 1941. The Red Army entered Bulgaria on 8 September 1944; Bulgaria declared war on Germany the next day. As an ally of Nazi Germany, Bulgaria participated in the Holocaust, contributing to the deaths of 11,343 Jews, and though 48,000 Jews survived the war, they were subjected to forcible internal deportation, dispossession, and discrimination. However, during the war, German-allied Bulgaria did not deport Jews from the core provinces of Bulgaria. Bulgaria's wartime government was pro-German under
Georgi Kyoseivanov Georgi Ivanov Kyoseivanov ( bg, Георги Иванов Кьосеиванов) (19 January 1884, Peshtera – 27 July 1960) was a Bulgarian politician who was Prime Minister from 1935 until 1940. Kyoseivanov came to power on 23 November 1935 ...
,
Bogdan Filov Bogdan Dimitrov Filov ( bg, Богдан Димитров Филов; 10 April 1883 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian archaeologist, art historian and politician. He was prime minister of Bulgaria during World War II. During his tenure, Bulgar ...
,
Dobri Bozhilov Dobri Bozhilov Khadzhiyanakev () (June 13, 1884 – February 1, 1945) was Prime Minister of Bulgaria during World War II. Biography Born in Kotel, Bulgaria, Bozhilov attended the Higher Commercial School in Svishtov before starting work as a ...
, and
Ivan Bagryanov Ivan Ivanov Bagryanov ( bg, Иван Иванов Багрянов) (17 October 1891, in Razgrad – 1 February 1945, in Sofia) was a leading Bulgarian politician who briefly served as Prime Minister during the Second World War. Biography After a ...
. It joined the Allies under
Konstantin Muraviev Konstantin Vladov Muraviev ( bg, Константин Владов Муравиев) (5 March 1893, Pazardzhik – 31 January 1965) was a leading member of the Agrarian People's Union who briefly served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria near the e ...
in early September 1944, then underwent a coup d'état a week later, and under
Kimon Georgiev Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov ( bg, Кимон Георгиев Стоянов; August 11, 1882 – September 28, 1969) was a Bulgarian general who was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1934 to 1935 and again from 1944 to 1946. Life an ...
was pro-Soviet thereafter.


Initial neutrality (September 1939 – 1 March 1941)

The government of the Kingdom of Bulgaria under Prime Minister
Georgi Kyoseivanov Georgi Ivanov Kyoseivanov ( bg, Георги Иванов Кьосеиванов) (19 January 1884, Peshtera – 27 July 1960) was a Bulgarian politician who was Prime Minister from 1935 until 1940. Kyoseivanov came to power on 23 November 1935 ...
declared a position of neutrality upon the outbreak of World War II. Bulgaria was determined to observe it until the end of the war; but it hoped for bloodless territorial gains in order to recover the territories lost in the Second Balkan War and World War I, as well as gain other lands with a significant Bulgarian population in the neighbouring countries. Bulgaria had been the only defeated power of 1918 not to have received some territorial award by 1939. However, it was clear that the central geopolitical position of Bulgaria in the Balkans would inevitably lead to strong external pressure by both World War II factions. Turkey had a
non-aggression pact A non-aggression pact or neutrality pact is a treaty between two or more states/countries that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. Such treaties may be described by other names, such as a tr ...
with Bulgaria. This recovery of territory reinforced Bulgarian hopes for resolving other territorial problems without direct involvement in the War. Bulgaria, as a potential beneficiary from the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939, had competed with other such nations to curry favour with Nazi Germany by gestures of antisemitic legislation. Bulgaria was economically dependent on Germany, with 65% Bulgaria's trade in 1939 accounted for by Germany, and militarily bound by an arms deal. Bulgarian extreme nationalists lobbied for a return to the enlarged borders of the 1878
Treaty of San Stefano The 1878 Treaty of San Stefano (russian: Сан-Стефанский мир; Peace of San-Stefano, ; Peace treaty of San-Stefano, or ) was a treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-187 ...
. The Bulgarian officer class were mainly pro-German while the population at large was predominantly Russophile. On 7 September 1940, after the Second Vienna Award in August,
Southern Dobruja Southern Dobruja, South Dobruja or Quadrilateral ( Bulgarian: Южна Добруджа, ''Yuzhna Dobrudzha'' or simply Добруджа, ''Dobrudzha''; ro, Dobrogea de Sud, or ) is an area of northeastern Bulgaria comprising Dobrich and Silis ...
, lost to Romania under the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, was returned to Bulgarian control by the
Treaty of Craiova The Treaty of Craiova ( bg, Крайовска спогодба, Krayovska spogodba; ro, Tratatul de la Craiova) was signed on 7 September 1940 and ratified on 13 September 1940 by the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under its te ...
, formulated under German pressure. A citizenship law followed on 21 November 1940, which transferred Bulgarian citizenship to the inhabitants of the annexed territory, including to around 500 Jews, alongside the territory's
Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, Greeks, Turks, and Romanians. Bulgaria had earlier briefly re-acquired Southern Dobruja between 1916 and 1918. In October 1940 the '' Law for the Protection of the Nation'' was introduced to parliament. The bill made legislative progress through the winter of late 1940, with parliament reviewing it on the 15, 19, and 20 November. The week before the debates over the bill continued to second reading on 20 December 1940, a ship carrying 326 Bulgarian Jewish and other Jewish refugees heading to British-administered
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...
, the ''Salvador'', was wrecked in the
Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the B ...
on 14 December with 230 lives lost. Of the 160 seats in the National Assembly, a majority of between 115 and 121 members voted with the government. The parliament ratified the bill on
Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipatio ...
, 1940. It received
royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...
from
Tsar Boris III Boris III ( bg, Борѝс III ; Boris Treti; 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier) , was the Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1918 until hi ...
on 15 January the following year, being published in the ''State Gazette'' on 23 January 1941.''Dăržaven vestnik'' tate gazette D.V., 16, 23.01.1941. The law forbade the granting of Bulgarian citizenship to Jews as defined by the ''Law.'' The ''Law'''s second chapter ordered measures for the definition, identification, segregation, and economic and social marginalization of Jews. The law had been proposed to parliament by
Petar Gabrovski Petar Dimitrov Gabrovski () (9 July 1898 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian politician who briefly served as Prime Minister during the Second World War. Gabrovski was a lawyer by profession. He was also a member of the Grand Masonic Lodge of ...
, Interior Minister and former ''Ratnik'' leader in October 1940. His ''protégé,'' government lawyer and fellow ''Ratnik'',
Alexander Belev Alexander Belev ( bg, Александър Белев; 1898, Lom, Bulgaria – 9 September 1944, Bulgaria) was the Bulgarian commissar of Jewish Affairs during World War II, famous for his antisemitic and strongly nationalistic views. He played a ...
, had been sent to study the 1933 Nuremberg Laws in Germany and was closely involved in its drafting. Modelled on this precedent, the law targeted Jews, together with
Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
and other intentional organizations deemed "threatening" to Bulgarian national security. The ''Law'' introduced restrictions on foreign Jews as well. In late 1938 and early 1939 Bulgarian police officials and the Interior Ministry were already increasingly opposed to the admittance of Jewish refugees from persecution in Central Europe.CDA F 176K, o 11, ae 1775, l.10 In response to a query by British diplomats in Sofia, the Foreign Ministry confirmed the policy that from April 1939, Jews from Germany, Romania, Poland, Italy, and what remained of Czechoslovakia (and later Hungary) would be required to obtain consent from the ministry to secure entry, transit, or passage visas. Nevertheless, at least 430 visas (and probably around 1,000) were issued by Bulgarian diplomats to foreign Jews, of which there were as many as 4,000 in Bulgaria in 1941. On 1 April 1941 the Police Directorate allowed the departure of 302 Jewish refugees, mostly underage, from Central Europe for the express purpose of Bulgaria "freeing itself from the foreign element". After April 1941, the ''Law'''s jurisdiction was extended beyond Bulgaria's pre-war borders to territories in Greece and Yugoslavia occupied by the Bulgarian army and claimed and administered by Bulgaria. Bulgaria had been mooted as a possible member of the Soviet sphere in the Molotov-Ribbentrop discussions in November 1939; the significance of Bulgaria's position increased after the British Empire intervened in the Balkans campaign and Hitler's plans to invade the Soviet Union progressed. Pressure built on Boris to join the Axis, but he vacillated, and the government committed to joining – but at an unspecified date. In the planning of
Operation Marita The German invasion of Greece, also known as the Battle of Greece or Operation Marita ( de , Unternehmen Marita, links = no), was the attack of Greece by Italy and Germany during World War II. The Italian invasion in October 1940, which is ...
, the Germans sought to cross Bulgaria to invade Greece. Bogdan Filov travelled to Vienna to sign the Tripartite Pact at the beginning of March.


Axis Powers (1 March 1941 – 8 September 1944)

After the failure of the Italian invasion of Greece, Nazi Germany demanded that Bulgaria join the Tripartite Pact and permit German forces to pass through Bulgaria to attack Greece in order to help Italy. The Bulgarian prime minister signed the pact on 1 March 1941; German forces crossed the Danube into Bulgaria the same day. The threat of a possible German invasion, as well as the promise of Greek and Yugoslavian territories, led the tsar and his government to sign the Tripartite Pact on 1 March 1941. Tsar Boris III and prime minister Bogdan Filov were also both known to be fervent admirers of Adolf Hitler. With the Soviet Union in a non-aggression pact with Germany, there was little popular opposition to the decision, and it was recognized with applause in the Parliament a couple of days later.


Annexation of Eastern Thrace, most of Macedonia and part of Pomoravlje

On 6 April 1941, despite having joined the Axis Powers, the Bulgarian military did not participate in the invasion of Yugoslavia or the invasion of Greece, but were ready to occupy their pre-arranged territorial gains immediately after the capitulation of each country. The Yugoslav government surrendered on 17 April; on 19 April, the
Bulgarian Land Forces The Bulgarian Land Forces ( bg, Сухопътни войски на България, Sukhopŭtni voĭski na Bŭlgariya, lit=Ground Forces of Bulgaria) are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The Land Forces were established ...
entered Yugoslavia. The Greek government surrendered on 30 April; the Bulgarian occupation began the same day. Bulgaria's contribution to Operation Marita and the Axis conquest of Greece was relatively minor; the Bulgarians and a '' Wehrmacht'' division guarded the left flank of the invasion. After Greece and Yugoslavia's capitulation, three Bulgarian divisions from the Second and Fifth Armies deployed to Thrace and Macedonia to relieve pressure on the Germans. In words chosen by Tsar Boris, Bulgaria announced the occupation of Macedonia and Thrace "to preserve order and stability in the territories taken over by Germany". Bulgarians, elated by the ''de facto'' unification of lost national irredenta, named Boris "King Unifier". Bulgaria occupied most of
Yugoslav Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...
, Pomoravlje, Eastern Macedonia and
Western Thrace Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, �υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a geographic and historic ...
, which had already been captured by the forces of the Germans and their allies and which had been lost to Bulgaria in 1918. The Bulgarians occupied territory between the Struma River and a line of demarcation running through
Alexandroupoli Alexandroupolis ( el, Αλεξανδρούπολη, ), Alexandroupoli, or Alexandrople is a city in Greece and the capital of the Evros regional unit. It is the largest city in Western Thrace and the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. It h ...
and Svilengrad west of the
Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( bg, Марица ), also known as Meriç ( tr, Meriç ) and Evros ( ell, Έβρος ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,Komotini Komotini ( el, Κομοτηνή, tr, Gümülcine, bg, Комотини) is a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Rhodope. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope-Evros super-p ...
(), Serres (), Xanthi (), Drama () and Kavala () and the islands of
Thasos Thasos or Thassos ( el, Θάσος, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate re ...
and
Samothrace Samothrace (also known as Samothraki, el, Σαμοθράκη, ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,859 (2011 ...
in Greece, as well as almost all of what is today the
Republic of North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of ...
and much of South-Eastern Serbia, then in Yugoslavia. In the region of Macedonia, the majority initially welcomed union with Bulgaria as relief from Yugoslavian
Serbianization Serbianisation or Serbianization, also known as Serbification, and Serbisation or Serbization ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", srbizacija, србизација or sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=none, separator=" / ", posrbljavanje, посрбљавање; ...
, where
pro-Bulgarian Bulgarophiles ( bg, българофили; Serbian and Macedonian бугарофили or бугараши ; ; ro, Bulgarofilii) is a term used for Slavic people from the regions of Macedonia and Pomoravlje who are ethnic Bulgarians. In Bulga ...
sentiments there still prevailed. After 1918, more than 1,700 Bulgarian churches and monasteries had been converted to Serbian or Greek Orthodoxy, and some 1,450 Bulgarian schools closed. Bulgarian had been forbidden in public life.
Bulgarization Bulgarisation ( bg, българизация), also known as Bulgarianisation ( bg, побългаряване) is the spread of Bulgarian culture beyond the Bulgarian ethnic space. History A number of government policies are considered to be exa ...
was seen as necessary to strengthen Bulgaria's claim on the territory after a projected Axis victory, since Germany had not definitively indicated Bulgaria would keep it and no international treaty recognized Bulgaria's claims; "the Bulgarian nature of the territories had to be incontrovertible by the end of the war". Consequently, a university - Macedonia's first - bearing Boris III's name was instituted in Skopje, more than 800 new schools were built between 1941 and 1944, Macedonian schools were integrated into Bulgaria's education system, and
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...
teachers were retrained in Bulgarian. The
Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...
sought the integration of Bulgarian-ruled Macedonia with the Exarchate of Bulgaria. It was hoped the "national reunification" might lead to a restored Bulgarian Patriarchate representative of all Bulgarian communities, but Tsar Boris, wary of any new power-base in his kingdom, opposed the plan. At Easter in Skopje Cathedral the service was officiated by a Bulgarian cleric. Priests were encouraged out of retirement to preach in Macedonian parishes. The government in Sofia preferred to appoint Bulgarian bishops loyal to the Exarchate to sees in Macedonia than local candidates, a policy which disappointed Macedonians and Bulgarians alike. By 1944, Sofia's government was as unpopular in Macedonia as Belgrade's had been before the occupation, each government alienating Macedonians with over-centralization. In Thrace, more opposition was encountered. Before June 1941 and the
German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship The German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship (german: Türkisch-Deutscher Freundschaftsvertrag, tr, Türk-Alman Dostluk Paktı) was a non-aggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey on 18 June 1941 in Ankara by German ambassador to Turke ...
, the Germans did not allow Bulgarian civilian administration for fear of antagonizing Turkey with Bulgarian expansion; separate Greek, German, and Bulgarian occupation zones prevailed until August 1941. Thereafter, pressure was applied to Turkish inhabitants of the region to emigrate. The demographics of western Thrace had been changed by the 1921 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, with the arrival of many Greeks from East Thrace in the Turkish Republic and the departure of many Turks. Most villages were assigned to the Nevrokop diocese of the Bulgarian Church as part of a wider Bulgarization policy in education and religion. The Bulgarian school system was introduced in September 1941 and by 1942's end there were 200 new primary schools and 34 gymnasia established for ethnic Bulgarians alone; Turks and Greeks had separate schools, and despite protests of Muslim teachers, children of
Pomaks Pomaks ( bg, Помаци, Pomatsi; el, Πομάκοι, Pomáki; tr, Pomaklar) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting northwestern Turkey, Bulgaria and northeastern Greece. The c. 220,000 strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is ...
were sent to Bulgarian schools organized on Orthodox Christian lines. Also in September 1941, the suppression of the Drama uprising against Bulgarian rule on the night of the 28-'9 September resulted in the deaths of around 1,600 people. The Bulgarian government hoped in Thrace to remove ethnic Greeks who had arrived in territory ceded to Greece after 1918, at which time Bulgarians had been the demographic plurality. Bulgarization was encouraged by a new law on internal migration and consolidation in June 1941, by a new land directorate to facilitate Bulgarian settlers set up in February 1942 with plots of land distributed to officials, and by incentives for ethnic Bulgarians from southern Macedonia to move to replace departing Greeks in Thrace. There was also a bias towards Bulgarians in the cooperative bank established to assist farmers there. By March 1942, resettlement permits issued to Bulgarians in Thrace numbered 18,925. After 1942, Allied victories and Greek and Turkish threats of reprisals caused a decrease in the rates of Bulgarians emigrating to Thrace. Because food was brought in from metropolitan Bulgaria, Bulgarian-occupied western Thrace was spared the famine that affected German and Italian occupation zones in Greece, even though Thrace was less developed than either Bulgaria or the rest of Greece. Although Bulgarian citizenship had been granted ''jus soli'' to residents of newly annexed South Dobruja, the ''Law for the Protection of the Nation'' forbade to granting of citizenship to Jews in the subsequently occupied territories, and no action was taken to determine the status of any of the inhabitants at all until 1942. Jews were merely issued with identity cards in a different colour to non-Jews'. A decree-law issued on 10 June 1942 (''Nerada za podantstvo v osvobodenite prez 1941 godina zemi'') confirmed that the "liberated" territories' Jewish residents were ineligible for Bulgarian citizenship. This effectively made them stateless.


Occupation of most of Serbia

In Nedic's Serbia to secure the railroads, highways and other infrastructure, the Germans began to make use of Bulgarian occupation troops in large areas of the occupied territory, although these troops were under German command and control. This occurred in three phases, with the Bulgarian 1st Occupation Corps consisting of three divisions moving into the occupied territory on 31 December 1941. This corps was initially responsible for about 40% of the territory (excluding the Banat), bounded by the
Ibar river The Ibar ( sr-cyrl, Ибар, ), also known as the Ibër and Ibri ( sq, Ibër, Ibri), is a river that flows through eastern Montenegro, northern Kosovo and central Serbia, with a total length of . The river begins in the Hajla mountain, in Ro� ...
in the west between Kosovska Mitrovica and Kraljevo, the West Morava river between Kraljevo and Čačak, and then a line running roughly east from Čačak through Kragujevac to the border with Bulgaria. They were therefore responsible for large sections of the Belgrade–Niš–Sofia and Niš–Skopje railway lines, as well as the main Belgrade–Niš–Skopje highway. In January 1943, the Bulgarian area was expanded westwards to include all areas west of the Ibar river and south of a line running roughly west from Čačak to the border with occupied Montenegro and the NDH. This released the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division ''Prinz Eugen'', which had been garrisoning this area over the winter, to deploy into the NDH and take part in
Case White Case White (german: Fall Weiss), also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive ( sh, Četvrta neprijateljska ofenziva/ofanziva), was a combined Axis strategic offensive launched against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia during ...
against the Partisans. Many members of the Volksdeutsche from Serbia and the Banat were serving in the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division ''Prinz Eugen''. This division was responsible for war crimes committed against the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July 1943, the Bulgarian occupation zone expanded northwards, with a fourth division, the 25th Division taking over from the 297th Infantry Division in the rest of the territory (excluding the Banat) that did not share a border with the NDH. From this point, German forces only directly occupied the immediate area of Belgrade, the northwest region of the territory that shared a border with the NDH, and the Banat.


International situation

Bulgaria did not join the German invasion of the Soviet Union that began on 22 June 1941 nor did it declare war on the Soviet Union. Bulgarian propaganda refrained from criticism of Stalin. The personal secretary to Tsar Boris noted that the country's strategy was to "conciliate Germany by making many comparatively unimportant concessions". Tsar Boris's position was that the Bulgarian army was not equipped properly or modernised sufficiently to face the Red Army, with conscript soldiers who would not fight effectively far from home against Bulgaria's former Russian allies. Moreover, Bulgaria's military was positioned to thwart any potential threat to the Axis from Turkey or an Allied landing in Greece. Boris resisted German pressure to allow Bulgarian soldiers or volunteers join the fight against the Soviets. Involvement by the navy was limited to escorting Axis convoys in the Black Sea. However, despite the lack of official declarations of war by both sides, the
Bulgarian Navy The Bulgarian Navy ( bg, Военноморски сили на Република България, Voennomorski sili na Republika Balgariya, lit=Naval Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria) is the navy of the Republic of Bulgaria and forms part of ...
was involved in a number of skirmishes with the Soviet
Black Sea Fleet Chernomorskiy flot , image = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet , dates = May 13, ...
, which attacked Bulgarian shipping. Besides this, Bulgarian armed forces garrisoned in the Balkans battled various anti-Axis resistance groups and partisan movements. Additionally, in 1941 and 1942 the Bulgarian government sent multiple delegations of high-ranking officers that traveled to the occupied USSR; an instrumental role in this action was played by the Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army, Lieutenant-General Konstantin Ludvig Lukash, who had kept a diary during the most important trip of November-December 1941. Although essentially symbolic gestures, these trips by senior officers provided a channel for intelligence but most importantly demonstrated Bulgaria's "investment" in Hitler and the Axis. On 5 March 1941, after the start of
Operation MARITA The German invasion of Greece, also known as the Battle of Greece or Operation Marita ( de , Unternehmen Marita, links = no), was the attack of Greece by Italy and Germany during World War II. The Italian invasion in October 1940, which is ...
, Britain severed diplomatic relations with Bulgaria but neither side declared war. To show support for the Axis, the Bulgarian government declared a token war on the United Kingdom and the United States on 13 December 1941, an act which resulted in the bombing of Sofia and other Bulgarian cities by Allied aircraft from 1941. The Bulgarian military was able to destroy some Allied aircraft passing through Bulgarian airspace to attack Romania's oilfields. The first were on the return flight of
Operation Tidal Wave Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part o ...
air raid on
Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commun ...
on 1 August 1943, part of the oil campaign; bombers flying back to airbases in North Africa over Bulgaria were intercepted by fighters of the
Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force ( bg, Военновъздушни сили, Voennovazdushni sili) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard an ...
and aircrew that reached the ground alive were interned as prisoners of war under the 1929
Geneva Convention upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
. Most POWs were from the United States Army Air Forces and the Royal Air Force, with American, British, Canadian, Australian, Dutch, Greek, and Yugoslav airmen were all interned at a prisoner-of-war camp opened on 25 November 1943 under the control of the Bulgarian Army's garrison at Shumen and commended by an officer of
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
rank. Downed aircrew were usually captured and imprisoned locally, interrogated in the prison in Sofia, and then moved to the POW camp at Shumen; one American airman was liberated from a local jail by the Communist partisans, with whom he thereafter evaded capture. Allied POWs were ultimately interned at Shumen for ten months. The few Soviet POWs were interned at a camp at Sveti Kiri, together with over a hundred Soviet citizens resident in Bulgaria, under the authority of the State Security section of the Police Directorate (DPODS).Sage, page 3 When Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941 (Operation BARBAROSSA), the underground
Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...
launched a guerrilla movement, which was repressed severely by the government. After BARBAROSSA failed to defeat the USSR, and the US joined the Allies, it seemed that the Axis might lose the war. In August 1942, the Communist Party, the
Zveno Zveno ( bg, Звено, lit=link), ''Politicheski krŭg "Zveno"'', officially Political Circle "Zveno" was a Bulgarian political organization, founded in 1930 by Bulgarian politicians, intellectuals and Bulgarian Army officers. It was associate ...
movement, and some other groups formed the Fatherland Front to resist the pro-German government. Partisan detachments were particularly active in the mountain areas of western and southern Bulgaria. Two weeks after a visit to Germany in August 1943, Bulgarian Tsar Boris III died suddenly on 28 August aged 49. There was speculation that he was poisoned - a recent meeting with Hitler had not been cordial - but no culprit was found. A motive for an assassination is difficult to establish: it would have been a great risk for Germans, Soviets, and British; it was uncertain who might replace Boris at the centre of the Bulgarian state. A post-mortem in the 1990s established that an infarction in the left side of the heart was the direct cause of death. According to the diary of the German attache in Sofia at the time, Colonel von Schoenebeck, the two German physicians who attended to the tsar – Sajitz and
Hans Eppinger Hans Eppinger Jr. (5 January 1879, in Prague, Royal Bohemia, Austria-Hungary – 25 September 1946, in Vienna) was an Austrian physician of part-Jewish descent who performed experiments upon concentration camp prisoners. Early years Hans Eppi ...
– both believed that Boris died from the same poison Dr. Eppinger had allegedly found two years earlier in the postmortem examination of the Greek prime minister
Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...
. His six-year-old son Simeon II succeeded to the throne. Because of Simeon's age, a regency council was set up, headed by Prime Minister
Bogdan Filov Bogdan Dimitrov Filov ( bg, Богдан Димитров Филов; 10 April 1883 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian archaeologist, art historian and politician. He was prime minister of Bulgaria during World War II. During his tenure, Bulgar ...
, who gave up that office on 9 September. The new Prime Minister from 14 September 1943,
Dobri Bozhilov Dobri Bozhilov Khadzhiyanakev () (June 13, 1884 – February 1, 1945) was Prime Minister of Bulgaria during World War II. Biography Born in Kotel, Bulgaria, Bozhilov attended the Higher Commercial School in Svishtov before starting work as a ...
, was in most respects as pro-German. Boris had begun to seek Bulgaria's escape from war, and the regency, which lacked his authority abroad and at home, made similar designs. Bozhilov intensified negotiations with the western Allies, fearing the fate of
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's government. On 19 November 1943 the first heavy bombing of Bulgarian cities by the Allies took place. After further raids and an even heavier attack on Sofia on 30 March 1944, many inhabitants fled the city. Major Frank Thompson of the
Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
was parachuted in to rendezvous with the Bulgarian Resistance, but was captured and executed for espionage in June 1944. After April 1944, the Soviets increased pressure on Bulgaria to abandon the Axis alliance. Bulgaria had maintained diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union while being a member of the Axis Powers. On 1 June 1944 Filov sacked Bozhilov, in the hope of placating internal opposition and the Allies. Filov had reluctantly decided the alliance with Germany should end.
Ivan Bagryanov Ivan Ivanov Bagryanov ( bg, Иван Иванов Багрянов) (17 October 1891, in Razgrad – 1 February 1945, in Sofia) was a leading Bulgarian politician who briefly served as Prime Minister during the Second World War. Biography After a ...
took over as prime minister. Filov tried to play for time, hoping that an Allied landing in the Balkans would allow Bulgaria to join the Allies without the loss of the new territories in Thrace and Macedonia, and avoid the German occupation of Bulgaria that would follow an immediate change in sides. But the invasion of Normandy on 6 June ended any possibility of a major western Allied offensive in the Balkans. Meanwhile, Soviet westward offensives continued apace. Also at this time, German forces were being withdrawn from Greece, and Bulgaria had lost its strategic significance to the western Allies.Crampton (2008), p 278 Bagryanov had sympathies for the West, and hoped to disengage Bulgaria from the war before Soviet forces reached the Danube, thus avoiding Soviet occupation. By the middle of August, American diplomatic pressure and a report of the International Committee of the Red Cross which had detailed hardships of the inmates had caused conditions at the POW camp at Shumen to be improved; before this, the Allied POWs were allowed only limited water and suffered from malnutrition. Bagryanov repealed the antisemitic legislation of his predecessors on 17 August.Crampton (2008), p 279 He had success in negotiating the withdrawal of the German forces from Varna on the grounds that their presence invited an Allied attack, and blocked the arrival of any more German troops in Bulgaria. But his plans went awry. On 20 August 1944, Soviet forces broke through Axis defenses in Romania, and approached the Balkans and Bulgaria. On 23 August, Romania left the Axis Powers and declared war on Germany, which and allowed Soviet forces to cross its territory to reach Bulgaria. On 27 August, the Bulgarian government announced neutrality; Bagryanov handed over to the Germans 8,000 railway wagons to accelerate their withdrawal. The Fatherland Front, which had demanded full neutrality, decried this assistance. On the same date the Fatherland Front made the decision to incite an armed rebellion against the government. On 30 August, Joseph Stalin declared the USSR would no longer recognize Bulgarian neutrality. Soviet pressure to declare war on Germany was intense. Bagryanov assured the Soviets that foreign troops in Bulgaria would be disarmed, ordered German troops to leave the country, and began to disarm German soldiers arriving in Dobruja, but refused to violate Bulgaria's own newly-declared neutrality by declaring war on Germany. But this was not enough. On 2 September, Bagryanov and his government were replaced by a government of
Konstantin Muraviev Konstantin Vladov Muraviev ( bg, Константин Владов Муравиев) (5 March 1893, Pazardzhik – 31 January 1965) was a leading member of the Agrarian People's Union who briefly served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria near the e ...
and those opposition parties which were not in the Fatherland Front. Muraviev initially opposed war with Germany, arguing this would be used as pretext for a Soviet occupation of Bulgaria.Crampton (2008), p 280 Support for the government was withheld by the Fatherland Front, which described it as pro-Nazis attempting to hold on to power. On 4 September, the Fatherland Front organized popular strikes. On 5 September, Muraviev decided to break off diplomatic relations with Germany, but delayed announcing the move for two days at the urging of War Minister Lieut. Gen. Ivan Marinov to enable Bulgarian troops to withdraw from occupied Macedonia. When all German troops had left the country on the afternoon of 7 September, Bulgaria declared war on Germany, but earlier on the same day the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria, without consultation with either the USA or Britain, "to liberate Bulgaria". On 8 September Bulgaria was simultaneously at war with four major belligerents of the war: Germany, Britain, the USA, and the USSR. Soviet forces crossed the border on 8 September. They occupied the north-eastern part of Bulgaria along with the key port cities of Varna and
Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...
by the next day. By order of the government, the Bulgarian Army offered no resistance .


Holocaust

During Bulgaria's alliance with Nazi Germany, the Bulgarian government introduced measures and legislation targeting Jews and other minorities; in September 1939 all Jews regarded as foreign nationals - some 4,000 - were expelled. Most fled eventually to Palestine, arriving there after considerable difficulty. Interior Minister
Petar Gabrovski Petar Dimitrov Gabrovski () (9 July 1898 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian politician who briefly served as Prime Minister during the Second World War. Gabrovski was a lawyer by profession. He was also a member of the Grand Masonic Lodge of ...
, and
Alexander Belev Alexander Belev ( bg, Александър Белев; 1898, Lom, Bulgaria – 9 September 1944, Bulgaria) was the Bulgarian commissar of Jewish Affairs during World War II, famous for his antisemitic and strongly nationalistic views. He played a ...
, having studied the Nuremberg Laws, introduced in 1940 the Law for Protection of the Nation, in force from January 1941. By this means, Jews under Bulgaria's control were excluded from most professions, universities, and trades unions, from all government service, and from certain public areas. Moreover, Jews were required to carry special identity cards, were forbidden to bear "non-Jewish" names or marry Bulgarians. The Bulgarian irredentist seizure in 1941 of coveted territory from Greece and Yugoslavia and the formation of the new oblasts of Skopje, Bitola, and Belomora increased Bulgaria's Jewish population to around 60,000. These were forbidden to have Bulgarian citizenship under the ''Law for the Protection of the Nation''. From early in the war, Bulgarian occupation authorities in Greece and Yugoslavia handed over Jewish refugees fleeing from Axis Europe to the '' Gestapo''. In October 1941 Bulgarian authorities demanded the registration of 213 Serbian Jews detected by the ''Gestapo'' in Bulgarian-administered Skopje; they were arrested on 24 November and 47 of these were taken to
Banjica concentration camp The Banjica concentration camp (german: KZ Banjica, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Бањички логор, Banjički logor) was a Nazi German concentration camp in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, the military administration of the Third Rei ...
in Belgrade, Serbia and killed on 3 December 1941. The ''Law'' ''for the Protection of the Nation'' was followed by a decree-law (''naredbi'') on 26 August 1942, which tightened restrictions on Jews, widened the definition of Jewishness, and increased the burdens of proof required to prove non-Jewish status and exemptions (''privilegii''). Jews were thereafter required to wear yellow stars, excepting only those baptized who practised the Christian
eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...
. Bulgarian Jews married to non-Jews by Christian rite before 1 September 1940 and baptized before the 23 January 1941 enforcement of the ''Law for the Protection of the Nation'', rescinding the exemptions allowed to such cases allowed by the ''Law''. Exemptions for war orphans, war widows, and the disabled veterans were henceforth applicable only "in the event of competition with other Jews", and all such ''privilegii'' could be revoked or denied if the individual were convicted of a crime or deemed "anti-government" or "communist". In February 1943 SS-'' Hauptsturmführer''
Theodor Dannecker Theodor Denecke (also spelled Dannecker) (27 March 1913 – 10 December 1945) was a German SS-captain (), a key aide to Adolf Eichmann in the deportation of Jews during World War II. A trained lawyer Denecke first served at the Reich Security ...
and Belev - appointed by Gabrovski in 1942 to head the new "Office of the Commissar of Jewish Affairs" within the interior ministry - signed the Dannecker-Belev Agreement, in which Bulgaria agreed to supply Germany with 20,000 Jewish captives. Bulgaria is the only nation to have signed an agreement with Germany to supply Jews in this way; Bulgaria agreed to meet the cost of their expulsion and the document explicitly noted that Bulgaria, knowing their fate in German hands, would never request the Jews' repatriation. The ''Law for the Protection of the Nation'' stipulated that Jews fulfil their
compulsory military service Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day ...
in the labour battalions and not the regular army. Forced labour battalions were instituted in Bulgaria in 1920 as a way of circumventing the
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (french: Traité de Neuilly-sur-Seine) required Bulgaria to cede various territories, after Bulgaria had been one of the Central Powers defeated in World War I. The treaty was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuilly ...
, which limited the size of the Bulgarian military and ended
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
into the regular military. The forced labour service (''trudova povinnost'') set up by the government of
Aleksandar Stamboliyski Aleksandar Stoimenov Stamboliyski ( bg, Александър Стоименов Стамболийски; 1 March 1879 – 14 June 1923) was the prime minister of Bulgaria from 1919 until 1923. Stamboliyski was a member of the Agrarian Union, ...
supplied cheap labour for government projects and employment for demobilised soldiers from the First World War. In the first decade of its existence, more than 150,000 Bulgarian subjects, "primarily minorities (particularly Muslims) and other poor segments of society" had been drafted to serve. In the 1930s, in the lead-up to the Second World War, the ''trudova povinnost'' were militarised: attached to the War Ministry in 1934, they were given military ranks in 1936. After the start of war, in 1940 "labour soldiers" (''trudovi vojski'') were established as a separate corps "used to enforce anti-Jewish policies during World War Two" as part of an overall "deprivation" plan. In August 1941, at the request of Adolf-Heinz Beckerle - German Minister Plenipotentiary at Sofia - the War Ministry relinquished control of all Jewish forced labour to the Ministry of Buildings, Roads, and Public Works. Mandatory conscription applied from August 1941: initially men 20-44 were drafted, with the age limit rising to 45 in July 1942 and 50 a year later. Bulgarians replaced Jews in the commands of the Jewish labour units, which were no longer entitled to uniforms. On 29 January 1942, new all-Jewish forced labour battalions were announced; their number was doubled to twenty-four by the end of 1942. Jewish units were separated from the other ethnicities - three quarters of the forced labour battalions were from minorities: Turks, Russians, and residents of the territories occupied by Bulgaria - the rest were drawn from the Bulgarian unemployed. The Jews in forced labour were faced with discriminatory policies which became stricter as time went on; with increasing length of service and decreasing the allowance of food, rest, and days off. On 14 July 1942 a disciplinary unit was established to impose new punitive strictures: deprivation of mattresses or hot food, a "bread-and-water diet", and the barring of visitors for months at time. As the war progressed, and round-ups of Jews began in 1943, Jews made more numerous efforts to escape and punishments became increasingly harsh. In March 1943 Bulgarian troops and military police rounded up the Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Greek Macedonia and Vardar Macedonia in Yugoslavia - 7,122 from Macedonia and 4,221 from Thrace, and sent them to via transit concentration camps to the Bulgarian Danube port of Lom, where they were embarked and taken upriver to Vienna and thence to Treblinka; nearly all were killed. This was arranged by request of the German foreign ministry in spring 1942 to surrender all Jews under Bulgarian control to German custody, to which the Bulgarian government acceded, creating the "Jewish Affairs" commissariat under Belev to organize the genocide called for at the Wannsee Conference. By March 1943 Jewish Bulgarians were being concentrated at schools and train stations by the Bulgarian authorities within the country's pre-war borders. Subsequently, in spring 1943, protests led by parliamentarian
Dimitar Peshev Dimitar Peshev ( bg, Димитър Пешев; 25 June 1894 – 20 February 1973) was the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and Minister of Justice (1935–1936), before World War II. He rebelled against the pro-Nazi cabinet an ...
M.P. A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...
and the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...
, concerned over the welfare of Jewish converts to Christianity as well as of a "national minority" generally, succeeded in first delaying, and then in May in finally preventing Belev's plan to meet the 20,000 figure by deporting some 8,000
Bulgarian Jews The history of the Jews in Bulgaria goes back almost 2,000 years. Jews have had a continuous presence in historic Bulgarian lands since before the 2nd century CE, and have often played an important part in the history of Bulgaria. Today, ...
from Sofia, Kyustendil, and elsewhere to Nazi extermination camps in Poland, including all southwest Bulgaria's Jews; they were instead dispossessed of all their property, deported to the provinces, and the men aged 20–40 conscripted into forced labour, as were Jews from Stara Zagora and Kazanlak. On 21 May 1943 the Council of Ministers voted that Jews were to be expelled from Sofia to the countryside in three days' time. Belev ordered the expulsion on 24 May of Jews from the capital: 19,000 Sofia Jews were deported to specific rural areas and towns. Special trains were arranged and the Jews were assigned specific departures, separating family members. A maximum of 30 kg of property per person was allowed; the rest they were forced leave behind, to sell at "abusively low" prices, or which was otherwise pilfered or stolen. Bulgarian officials and neighbours benefited from the proceeds. In April 1943
Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
enquired of King Boris why more Jews had not been sent for extermination by Bulgaria; the response came that Boris would deport “only a small number of Bolshevik‐communist elements from Old Bulgaria ulgaria's pre-1941 bordersbecause he needed the rest of the Jews for road construction.” In May 1943, Bulgaria imprisoned prominent Jewish leaders in the Somivit concentration camp, later that month and the following month more than 20,000 Jews were deported from Sofia and their property seized. In 1934, Sofia had had around 25,000 Jewish inhabitants, close to a tenth of the city's total population. The German foreign ministry understood that Bulgaria feared the Allies and hoped to avoid antagonizing them. Nonetheless, the ghettoization and
curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...
of Bulgaria's Jewish population was completed in 1943 and antisemitic racial laws were not repealed until 30 August 1944.


Allies and Soviet occupation

On 8 September, Soviet forces crossed the Bulgarian-Romanian border and on the eve of 8 September garrison detachments, led by
Zveno Zveno ( bg, Звено, lit=link), ''Politicheski krŭg "Zveno"'', officially Political Circle "Zveno" was a Bulgarian political organization, founded in 1930 by Bulgarian politicians, intellectuals and Bulgarian Army officers. It was associate ...
officers, overthrew the government after taking strategic points in Sofia and arresting government ministers. A new government of the Fatherland Front was appointed on 9 September with
Kimon Georgiev Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov ( bg, Кимон Георгиев Стоянов; August 11, 1882 – September 28, 1969) was a Bulgarian general who was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1934 to 1935 and again from 1944 to 1946. Life an ...
as prime minister. War was declared on Germany and its allies at once and the divisions sent by the Axis Powers to invade Bulgaria were easily driven back. A pro-Axis
Bulgarian government-in-exile The Bulgarian National Government-in-exile ( bg, Българско национално правителство в изгнание, ''Balgarsko natsionalno pravitelstvo v izgnanie'') was a right-wing Bulgarian government-in-exile after the mon ...
was formed in Vienna, under
Aleksandar Tsankov Aleksandar Tsolov Tsankov ( bg, Александър Цолов Цанков; June 29, 1879 – July 27, 1959) was a leading Bulgarian politician during the interwar period between the two world wars. Biography A professor of political economy ...
and while it was able to muster a 600-strong Bulgarian SS regiment of Bulgarian anti-communist volunteers already in Germany under a German commander, they had little success. Soviet POWs and interned Soviet citizens were released from Sveti Kirik DPODS detention camp when the Fatherland Front took power. POWs of the western Allies were repatriated by way of Turkey, and the POW camp at Shumen closed on 25 September 1944. The concentration camp for Bulgarian communists and Soviet-sympathisers at
Stavroupoli Stavroupoli ( el, Σταυρούπολη, literally ''city of the Cross'') is a suburb of the Thessaloniki Urban Area and was a former municipality in the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it has bee ...
() in Greece was closed as the Bulgarians withdrew from occupied territory. An armistice with the Allies was signed on the 28 October 1944 in Moscow. Signatories were
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
,
Andrey Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (russian: Андре́й Януа́рьевич Выши́нский; pl, Andrzej Wyszyński) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is known as a state prosecutor of Joseph ...
, and Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr represented by Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin and Lieut. Gen James Gammell for the Allies and the
United Nations Organization The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
, and for the Bulgarians the Foreign Minister Petko Stainov, Finance Minister Petko Stoyanov, and
Nikola Petkov Nikola Dimitrov Petkov ( bg, Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered polit ...
and Dobri Terpeshev as
ministers without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet ...
. In Macedonia, the Bulgarian troops, surrounded by German forces, and betrayed by high-ranking military commanders, fought their way back to the old borders of Bulgaria. Unlike the Communist resistance, the right wing followers of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) saw the solution of the
Macedonian Question The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times. Еarliest historical inhabitants The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
in creating a pro-Bulgarian Independent Macedonian State. At this time the IMRO leader Ivan Mihailov arrived in German reoccupied Skopje, where the Germans hoped that he could form a Macedonian state on the base of former IMRO structures and Ohrana. Seeing that Germany had lost the war and to avoid further bloodshed, after two days he refused and set off.''Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia''
Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Columbia University Press, 2008, , pp. 238-240.
Under the leadership of a new Bulgarian pro-Communist government, three Bulgarian armies (some 455,000 strong in total) entered Yugoslavia in September 1944 and alongside Soviet and Yugoslav forces, moved to
Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, whil ...
and Skopje with the strategic task of blocking the German forces withdrawing from Greece. Southern and eastern Serbia and Macedonia were liberated within a month and the 130,000-strong
Bulgarian First Army The Bulgarian First Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II. Balkan Wars First Balkan War Following the military reforms of 1907 the territory of the Bulgarian Kingdom was divided into three Army ...
continued to Hungary, driving off the Germans and entering
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
in April 1945. Contact was established with the
British Eighth Army The Eighth Army was an Allied field army formation of the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. Units came from Australia, British India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Free French Force ...
in the town of Klagenfurt on 8 May 1945, the day the Nazi government in Germany capitulated. Then Gen.
Vladimir Stoychev Vladimir Dimitrov Stoychev ( bg, Владимир Димитров Стойчев, 24 March 1892 – 27 April 1990) was a Bulgarian Colonel General, diplomat and Olympic equestrian. Biography Vladimir Stoychev was born in Sofia, the capital of t ...
signed a demarcation agreement with British V Corps commander Charles Keightley.


Consequences and results

As a consequence of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Bulgaria and a Communist regime was installed in 1946 with
Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...
at the helm. The monarchy was abolished in 1946 and the tsar sent into exile. The People's Republic of Bulgaria was established, lasting until 1990. The Red Army remained in occupation of Bulgaria until 1947. Bulgaria later joined the Warsaw Pact in 1954 and 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Though the Bulgarian armistice with the Soviet Union had surrendered all territory occupied and claimed by Bulgaria in Greek and Yugoslavian Macedonia and Thrace, the
Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 The Paris Peace Treaties (french: Traités de Paris) were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945. The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers (princ ...
confirmed the incorporation of
Southern Dobruja Southern Dobruja, South Dobruja or Quadrilateral ( Bulgarian: Южна Добруджа, ''Yuzhna Dobrudzha'' or simply Добруджа, ''Dobrudzha''; ro, Dobrogea de Sud, or ) is an area of northeastern Bulgaria comprising Dobrich and Silis ...
into Bulgaria during the War, thus making Bulgaria, apart from Croatia the only Axis country that increased its pre-war territory. The occupied parts of the Aegean region and Vardar Macedonia remaining within the borders of Bulgaria were returned, with 150,000 Bulgarians being expelled from
Western Thrace Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, �υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a geographic and historic ...
. Subsequent to their ordeal during the war, most of Bulgaria's remaining Jews, some 50,000 in September 1944 emigrated. About 35,000 left for Palestine during the British Mandate and the great majority of the remainder departed to the post-1948 State of Israel; by the first years of the 1950s some 45,000 Bulgarian Jews had left the post-war communist state.


Armed forces

By the end of the war, Bulgaria managed to mobilize about 450,000 men. Military equipment was mostly of German origin. By 1945, Bulgaria had also received stocks of Soviet weaponry, mostly small arms.


See also

*
Bulgarian irredentism Bulgarian irredentism is a term to identify the territory associated with a historical national state and a modern Bulgarian irredentist nationalist movement in the 19th and 20th centuries, which would include most of Macedonia, Thrace and ...
*
Bulgarian resistance movement during World War II The Bulgarian Resistance was part of the anti- Axis resistance during World War II. It consisted of armed and unarmed actions of resistance groups against the Wehrmacht forces in Bulgaria and the Tsardom of Bulgaria authorities. It was mainly c ...
*
Bulgarian government-in-exile The Bulgarian National Government-in-exile ( bg, Българско национално правителство в изгнание, ''Balgarsko natsionalno pravitelstvo v izgnanie'') was a right-wing Bulgarian government-in-exile after the mon ...
*
Bulgaria–Russia relations Bulgaria–Russia relations ( Bulgarian: Отношения между България и Русия, romanized: ''Otnosheniya mezhdu Bulgarya i Rusiya'', russian: Отношения между Болгарией и Россией, translit=Otno ...
*
National Liberation War of Macedonia World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia started with the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Under the pressure of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, part of the Macedonian communists began in October 1941 a political and military ...
* Ohrana * Military of Bulgaria


References

* * * * * * *Griehl, Manfred (2001). ''Junker Ju 87 Stuka''. London/Stuttgart: Airlife Publishing/Motorbuch. . * * *


External links


Axis History Factbook — Bulgaria

Map

Text of Declaration of War on Bulgaria - June 5, 1942

The Armistice Agreement with Bulgaria; October 28, 1944
{{Authority control *
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...