Who knows their World War II history? Which country declared war on both the Allies and the Axis Powers? You guessed it... Bulgaria! Just to play it safe, it declared war on every country it could think of... not all at the same time. You want an explanation? Well...
Before fighting started in WWII, Hitler smooched up to Bulgaria and said, in exchange for allowing German troupes to pass freely through Bulgarian territory, it would make Bulgaria the boss of the whole Balkan peninsula when the war ended. Given its history, this was Bulgaria's rightful role... so the deal made perfect sense. Without bothering with too much of the detail, Bulgaria signed up.
Sorry, but you need a little bit of history... about Bulgaria's minority communities. Before WWII, Bulgaria had some 50,000 Jewish citizens and a much bigger Moslem population. After signing the Axis agreement, it was required by Germany to reduce the civil rights of its Jewish and Moslem citizens. They became second class citizens. Coincidentally, each stormy night in Sophia, a number of synagogues and mosques were struck by lightning... decimating the number of places of worship... leaving vapours that smelt vaguely of gunpowder. Enough of history... as usual, it's very complicated... but (overall) this history shows Bulgaria in a very positive light.
Here is the story. Hitler wanted Bulgarian Jews shipped to his concentration camps. Bulgaria did not have the authority to stop such movements in the Baltic states over which it had been given some administration authority. As a result, the Jewish population of Greece, Romania and other Balkan nations suffered terribly. However, for its own citizens, Bulgaria played a delicate defensive manoeuvre that eventually saved the lives of most of its Jewish citizens. They didn't fight Hitler's orders... they simply found administrative obstacles to delay the delivery. Bulgaria couldn't deport its Jewish citizens because they were needed to repair the roads ruined by the German troops movements... then Bulgaria couldn't deport its Jewish citizens because they were needed for agricultural work so that German soldiers in the Balkan peninsula could be fed... etc, etc. Bulgaria knew more about bureaucratic obfuscation than the Germans and used its knowledge to telling effect.
During the war, Bulgaria had a growing number of its citizens attracted to the communist ideology. This group caused problems within Bulgaria, resulting in the country not being vigorous in its occupation of other Balkan nations (There were exceptions as you would expect.) Bulgaria did not supply troops for Hitler's invasion of Russia. In fact, the Bulgarian government was forced to resign during that period... and was replaced by a government of communist persuasion. Just in time, you might say since Russia had advanced quickly. Bulgaria allowed Russian occupation without resistance... in fact, successive communist governments recorded the event as releasing brotherly love between the two nations that was euphoric and unbounded... leading Bulgaria to sign up with the Allied forces as fast as possible. The love affair with communism lasted half a century... whereupon, the new democratic government tore down the soviet monuments. Fortunately, many of the monuments have been saved and stored in a special park.
How clever are these people? Bulgaria was the only Axis participant that walked from the peace settlement negotiations with more territory than it had before the start of the war. Bulgaria is the only Axis participant (to my knowledge) who received a letter of thanks from Israel for the assistance it gave to Jewish people during the war.
Today's message is heavy going... apologies for that. But on discovering this history today, I thought it so interesting, I just had to share it with you.
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