ATHENS (JTA) — A Greek-Jewish umbrella group asked a United Nations body to make clear when commemorating Bulgaria’s rescue of its Jews the country’s role in the genocide of Greek Jews.
"Bulgarians saved their country’s Jews in exchange for the Jews of the other territories under their control," said the letter sent Jan. 26 from the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece to the U.N. Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations. "In the name of the historical memory of our brothers, victims of the Bulgarian atrocities in our country during the Holocaust, we ask you to include this small and ‘untold’ part of history in your briefing."
The Greek-Jewish group was writing ahead of the department’s briefing Jan. 26, a day ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, that focused "on the little-known role of the Bulgarian people in saving Bulgarian Jews during this tragic time in our history."
Bulgarian occupiers of northeastern Greece handed over some 4,000 Greek Jews to the Nazis for extermination.
The Bulgarian collaborative government of the time took steps to protect its own Jewish minority.
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