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Bulgaria and the Holocaust: The Fragility of Goodness
Symposium, exhibition, and cultural events sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, the "1939" Club, and the Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel. Cosponsored by the Bulgarian Jewish Heritage Alliance of America, UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies, UCLA Department of History, and UCLA Mickey Katz Chair in Jewish Music.
November 8 opening night reception with keynote speaker Steven F. Sage, U.S. Holocaust Museum and film screening of "The Optimists."
Thursday, November 08, 2012
4:00 PM
UCLA Hillel
574 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA
How were 50,000 Bulgarian Jews saved from the Holocaust despite the intense efforts of the Bulgarian government to deport them? The Optimists tells the dramatic story of how people of all ethnic backgrounds and religions secured the safety of their Jewish neighbors.
Directed by Jacky and Lisa Comforty. 82 minutes.
The Bulgaria and the Holocaust: The Fragility of Goodness exhibition tells the story of how the Bulgarian Jews survived the Holocaust. In February 1943, Bulgaria and Germany signed an agreement to deport Bulgarian Jewry to camps in Poland. First Bulgarian police detained over 11,000 Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, then under Bulgarian occupation, and sent them to death camps. Then they proceeded to round up 9,000 Jews within Bulgaria itself. An intense public reaction ensued. Significant and public protest involving key political leaders and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church moved King Boris III to cancel the deportation on the very day of its planned execution. While expelled from their homes and persecuted, Bulgaria’s 48,000 Jews nonetheless escaped total destruction with the help of civic society. The exhibit will run from September 10 to November 30 at UCLA Hillel.
For more information please contact
Center for Jewish Studies Tel: 310-267-5327
cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu
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Sponsor(s): Center for European and Eurasian Studies, Department of History, Center for Jewish Studies, Bulgarian Jewish Heritage Alliance of America, UCLA Mickey Katz Chair in Jewish Music, The “1939” Club, Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel
