Dimitar Peshev Museum

Музей »Димитър Пешев«

A museum in the town of Kyustendil is dedicated to the life of local-born Dimitar Peshev, Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly during World War II. In 1943, he publicly stood up against the planned deportations of the Bulgarian Jews.

History

Already in September 1939, the Bulgarian government expelled all foreign Jews from the country. When the law for the »defence of the nation« came into force in January 1941, the persecution of the Jews in Bulgaria began: They were forced to identify themselves with a yellow star, they were expropriated and expelled from the cities. Thousands of Jewish men were deployed in strenuous forced labour in camps. Moreover, Bulgaria agreed to the deportation of its Jewish citizens living abroad to Auschwitz. When the Wehrmacht invaded Yugoslavia and Greece in the spring of 1941, Bulgaria occupied the Greek region of Thrace as well as parts of Macedonia and Serbia. Although the region was not occupied by the German Wehrmacht, Bulgarian authorities arrested nearly 11,500 Jews in these territories and handed them over to the SS, who deported them to the Treblinka death camp in occupied Poland and murdered them there.
Jews were also arrested in the Bulgarian heartland. On March 8, 1943, train cars that would transport the Jews to death camps were prepared. Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly, Dimitar Peshev (1894–1973) intervened by speaking to Minister of the Interior Gabrovski and Tsar Boris III, advocating that the Jews remain in Bulgaria. Peshev subsequently wrote a manifesto in support of ending all anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria. Peshev and 42 other deputies signed the letter, and on March 17, it was handed to the prime minister. Protests of politicians and church representatives eventually thwarted the planned deportations. One reason for this may have been the looming military victory of the Allies.
The communist government, which was installed by the Soviets after the war, sentenced Peshev to 15 years in prison at the beginning of 1945. He was reprieved after one and half years, and lived a secluded life after his release. Just a few weeks before his death, Peshev was awarded the title of »Righteous Among the Nations« by the Israeli memorial Yad Vashem.

Bulgaria, undated, Dimitar Peshev, Regionalen Istoricheski Muzey

Kyustendil, undated, »Generations« sculpture in front of the museum entrance, Regionalen Istoricheski Muzey

Victims

The museum is dedicated to Dimitar Peshev and the »rescue of the Bulgarian Jews«. Nevertheless, Bulgaria was also complicit in the National Socialist policy of extermination: Beginning March 1943, Bulgaria arrested 11,393 Jews in Thrace (today in Greece), Macedonia and the city of Pirot (today in Serbia) and handed them over to the SS, who murdered them at the Treblinka extermination camp.

Boris III (1894–1943), reigned in Bulgaria since 1918, established an authoritarian regime in the country in 1934. At the end of 1940 the »Law on Protection of the Nation« made Jews into second-class citizens. The country was allied with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. On 1 March 1941 it adhered to the tripartite pact between Germany, Japan and Italy. Through a German initiative, the previous year Bulgaria had regained part of the Dobrudzha region on the Black Sea from Romania. In spring 1941 Bulgaria was able to further expand its sphere of influence. Following the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece by the German Wehrmacht, Bulgaria occupied the Greek region of Thrace as well as parts of North Macedonia and Serbia. In March 1943, the Bulgarian authorities captured 11,500 Jews living in these occupied territories and handed them over to the German SS. The SS deported them to German extermination camps in occupied Poland, where they were murdered. Arrests also took place in Bulgaria itself, which was home to around 50,000 Jews. The deportation of these Jews was averted as a result of political protests – especially from Dimitar Peschev (1894–1973), deputy president of the Bulgarian national assembly – and protests from the church. Boris III most likely also agreed not to deport these Jews. Nonetheless, Jews had to wear a yellow star as an identifying mark, their assets were confiscated and they were banished from towns. Thousands of Jews worked as forced labourers in camps. Researchers estimate that around a thousand additional Bulgarian Jews died as a result of persecution in Bulgaria and in the German sphere of influence. In September 1944 the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria and the Red Army invaded the country shortly afterwards. The communist-dominated »Patriotic Front« assumed power and exacted revenge. Some 2,500 death sentences were issued against political opponents in the course of 135 trials carried out by a »people’s tribunal« and over 28,000 people disappeared. The Bulgarian culture of memory was also determined by the new regime. An enthusiastic personality cult developed around the head of the Bulgarian communist party, Georgi Dimitrov (1882–1949), who was honoured, unlike the discredited »fascist« Tsar Boris III. Dimitrov had been tried at the Leipzig Reich court in 1933, accused of involvement in the Reichstag fire in Berlin, but he managed to secure his acquittal in this show trial staged by the Nazis. His then triumph was regarded as proof of the lengthy anti-fascist struggle in Bulgaria after 1944. Only after 1991 did it come to light that local partisan groups had received no public support for a long time during the war. The genocide of European Jews and Peschev’s intervention for the Bulgarian Jews also found little resonance during the communist period. On the contrary, the communist party claimed that it had organised their »rescue« itself. Memorial sites have since been established to remember the intervention for the Bulgarian Jews and a museum to Peschev was opened in Kyustendil in 2002. However, these sites present the myth of a nation of rescuers. There is still no differentiated approach to the contradictions in Bulgarian policy towards the Jews in the Second World War, for example the attitude of the Tsar, the treatment of Jews in Bulgaria, the expulsion abroad of Jews with a Bulgarian passport, the deportation of Jews from Thrace and Macedonia and the pressure on Jews to emigrate after the war.

Remembrance

For decades, the story of Dimitar Peshev was unknown to the broad public. The communist regime deliberately kept Peshev's deed a secret in order to emphasise the role communists played in the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. This changed in 1998, when a book on Peshev was published by Italian journalist Gabriele Nissim. In 2001, a sandstone statue in honour of Peshev was dedicated in a park named after him in the centre of his home town Kyustendil. Two years later, on March 9, 2003, the Dimitar Peshev Museum was opened. The research efforts and the reconstruction of Peshev's birth house were financed by the »Union of Bulgarian Jews« in Israel. Peshev's niece, Kaluda Kiardiyeva, donated her uncle's personal documents and furnishings to the museum. The museum building is a reconstruction of Peshev's birth house, which is not on its original location but in the city centre. The exhibition consists of three rooms with a total of 150 square metres exhibition space. It presents the history of Jewish life in Bulgaria since 1878, when Jews were granted civil rights; the life and times of Dimitar Peshev as well as the life of Jews in Kyustendil since 1943. Located in the museum's garden is a sculpture by Israeli artist Simcha Beracha entitled »Generations«, which symbolises the witnesses and their descendants.

Kyustendil, undated, View of the exhibition at the Peshev Museum, Skulptur »Generationen« vor dem Eingang des Museums, Regionalen Istoricheski Muzey

Kyustendil, 2007, Bust of Dimitar Peshev in the city centre, Svilen Enev

Possibilities

Guided tours in Bulgarian and English by appointment

Open

Wednesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact

http://www.kyustendilmuseum.primasoft.bg/

rmuseum.kn@mail.bg

+ 359(0)78 551 811

Zar-Simeon-I.-Straße 11
2500 Kjustendil

Kyustendil, undated, Reconsturcted birthplace of Dimitar Peshev, now a museum, Regionalen Istoricheski Muzey

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