The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust
By Jacky Comforty with Martha Aladjem Bloomfield
Foreword by Omer Bartov
The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust shares a complex tapestry of voices of memories previously underrepresented, ignored and denied. An alternative perspective that includes stolen, silenced, but now reclaimed Jewish narrative based on our peoples’ experiences. It contextualizes and personalizes our history, reconstructs the puzzle, praises those who helped the Jews and shares their exemplary acts of humanity for future generations. It fills a void in the Bulgarian Holocaust literature–specifically first-hand accounts of memory of survivors, eyewitnesses, photographs, official publications, laws, and newspaper articles.
According to Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor European History, Department of History, Brown University, who wrote the Foreword to our book, “This book is thus an important corrective to the existing scholarship; but it is also a major contribution to the literature on the Holocaust in that it brings back the voices of the community itself, thereby allowing members of Bulgarian Jewry to tell their own story.”
Endorsed by scholars from the United States, Bulgaria, Israel, Germany and France.
Drawing on a rich collection of oral and visual sources, most previously unknown, this book presents an account of Bulgarian Jews and Bulgaria’s role in the Final Solution like no other book on its subject. First-person oral testimonies and accompanying graphics make for engaging, gripping, reading. An historical narrative at its best!
— Alvin Rosenfeld, Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, Indiana University
A valuable contribution to the history of Bulgarian Jews and those under Bulgarian rule during the Holocaust offers a patiently assembled and processed collection of individual voices which blend into a telling polyphonic narrative. The myriad personal memories convincingly demystify well-established canonical stories and pay a deserved tribute to human decency.
— Roumen Avramov, Centre for Advanced Studies Sofia
An excellent combination of rich documentation, critical study, responsible research and grounded insights. A flowing, important, fascinating historical narrative–the results of years of diligent work. Highly recommended!
— Shlomo Shealtiel, Yad Yaari Research Center of Hashomer Hatzair
Jacky Comforty is not only an avid collector of historical memories and visual sources of the Jews of Bulgaria, but also—as this book proves—the voice of the survivors. The book tells a story on the Shoah in the Balkans which is much more complex than the established varieties: a story of deportation and annihilation, but also one of solidarity and rescue.
— Stefan Troebst, Leipzig University
A compelling and very personal book whose rich, poignant testimonies provide a welcome addition to recent scholarship on writing and remembering Jewish history in Bulgaria. Alongside Jewish witness accounts, a wealth of photographs bring back to life the experiences of Jewish persecution during World War Two and successfully reclaim the Bulgarian Jews’ roles in their own ‘rescue.’ The social lives of this collection of testimonies may also invite scholars to consider this volume as an object of research in its own right.
— Nadège Ragaru, Sciences Po, Paris
Reviews of The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust
Colin Schindler, The Jerusalem Post, wrote, “Jacky Comforty and Martha Bloomfield have done a service for the rest of us in shining a light on the dark and complex history of the Balkans. In an era of disinformation and fake news, their painstaking research has reclaimed this terrible episode in Jewish history for a wider audience and pushed aside those adept at manipulating it. It is an accessible and interesting read.”
Jason Hensley, PhD,who teaches Holocaust studies at Gratz College, wrote in Sephardic Horizons, “The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust is an attempt by Jacky Comforty and Martha Bloomfield to add a further perspective to Bulgaria’s memory, and the international community’s memory, of what took place in Bulgaria during the Holocaust. It seeks to correct what Comforty and Bloomfield see as a nationalistic and inaccurate narrative of rescue and kindness towards Bulgaria’s Jewish population. This distorted memory, the authors write, originated only a few decades ago in the early 1990s.”
Choice, Publishing Unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, writes: Comforty, an award-winning filmmaker and oral historian, has written a counter narrative of Bulgarian Jews and Bulgaria’s role in the Final Solution, challenging the belief that the Bulgarian government prevented the deportation of its Jews to Auschwitz, except for those in the newly occupied lands of Thrace and Macedonia. Based on primary sources and interviews with more than 60 Bulgarian war survivors, Comforty argues that Bulgaria was an ally to Nazi Germany, and King Boris III, far from being the “Bulgarian Schindler,” was prepared to deport the Jews of mainland Bulgaria to the death camps. Moreover, the Bulgarian parliament passed the Law for the Defense of the Nation in 1941 (effective until 1944), which applied Nazi racial laws to Bulgaria’s Jewish population. The deportation law, which would have initially deported some 8,000 Jews from Bulgaria to Auschwitz, was temporarily suspended because of the intervention of Bulgarian parliamentarians and members of the Orthodox hierarchy. Comforty notes that Bulgarians were not as anti-Semitic as their government, and in 1943, the king’s death and the war’s turning tide in favor of the Allies saved the Jews of Bulgaria from being sent to their deaths. The book includes valuable pictures, a timeline of events, and an extensive bibliography. Recommended. General readers through faculty.
About The Authors
Jacky Comforty is an award-winning filmmaker, oral historian, and media creator who has worked for over thirty-five years creating films and videos in the United States, Germany, Israel, and Bulgaria.
Martha Aladjem Bloomfield is an award-winning author, oral historian, artist and photographer, who has written several books about immigrants, migrants, and the formerly homeless.
We welcome the opportunity to give presentations & interviews. Contact Jacky Comforty at jacky_comforty@comforty.com & Martha Bloomfield at Marthabloomfield@gmail.com
Special 30% discount offer! Use code: LXFANDF30 when ordering online.
To schedule an event with the authors, visit: www.the-stolen-narrative.org
Discover “THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY” of THE STOLEN NARRATIVE OF THE BULGARIAN JEWS AND THE HOLOCAUST
Rowman & Littlefield, Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature
