Anti-jewish Terrorism in Bulgaria: Leaders of Gang Which Kid Napped Jews and Held Them to Ransom Arr

The police have just succeeded in arresting Kalpaktschiew, the leader of a terrorist band which has been kidnapping Jews and extorting money from them, or demanding ransom from their relatives. His assistant, a student named Karmanow, was arrested a few days ago.

The police found it extremely difficult to arrest kalpaktschiew himself, till they discovered that one of the girl telephone operators in the State Telephone Department was Kalpaktschiew’s sweetheart, and overhearing the police conversations was able to warn her lover in time whenever the police were about to effect an arrest. The police are now searching for the other members of the gang, who are believed to be associated with the Bulgarian antisemitic organisation, Rodna Zachtita.

Among the activities of the gang are the following: About two months ago a Jewish money-changer was decoyed into an outlying part of the city and was then knocked down and robbed of the money he was carrying with him. On Christmas Day a Jewish pedlar was called into a house ostensibly to buy old clothes. He was taken down into a cellar and there was knocked on the head with a revolver. He was bound hand and foot, blindfolded and gagged, and then put in a sack. He only had a few leva on him, but this was taken away, and he lay there for 48 hours before he was rescued.

The next day a Jewish doctor was called to the same house to treat a supposed sick man. On entering he was confronted by a revolver and at its point he was put in chains and forced to write a letter to his wife and to his father-in-law instructing them to hand 200,000 levas to the bearer of the letter, else he and all his family would be killed. The doctor after much struggling succeeded in releasing himself from his chains, and from the windows called for help and was finally released by the police, who, searching in the cellar, found the trussed Jewish pedlar.

The police made several discoveries which led to a search for Kalpaktschiew and Karmanow, who is a student, and the editor of the Prelom”, the organ of the antisemitic student organisation.

Extortion of money from Jews by antisemites by threats of assassination and through terrorist activities has been a feature in Bulgarian life for many years past. As long ago as 1924 Dr. Victor Jacobson when he was acting as special Emissary of the Zionist Executive to Bulgaria, raised this matter with the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Kalfoff.

It would be unfair, M. Kalfoff insisted in his reply to Dr. Jacobsohn, to describe the incidents which had occurred in Bulgaria recently as due to an antisemitic movement. It was unfortunately true, he said, that certain persons had tried to extort money from private people and institutions, and that among the victims there had been Jews. But immediately these matters had been made known to the Government it had taken action to put a stop to them, and the Government would be as severe in its action if there was any recurrence.

The situation in Bulgaria, the Minister went on, is like that in other defeated countries. Bulgaria is passing through a very difficult and moral crisis, and there is a feeling of discontent among the population. The spirit of discipline and the love of order which characterised Bulgaria before the war has been shaken, and the less order-leving sections of the population are taking advantage of this state of affairs, but the Government is determined to overcome this internal disorder.

Both in 1924 and in 1925 there were repeated cases in Bulgaria of armed robbers, said to be members of the Maoedonian Revolutionary Committee, extorting large sums of money from wealthy Jews in the towns of Tatar-Basarjik, Roustchouk, and Philipopolis. Armed men entered their homes or businesses and demanded that they should give them 250,000 levas (about £500) towards the funds of the Committee, for which they made out receipts in the name of the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee, guaranteeing them against further molestation. Several such cases Occurred even in Sofia itself.

The Bulgarian Minister to the United States at the time, M. Panaretoff, wrote to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York in 1925 with regard to a report circulated by the Agence Athens that bands of Macedonian revolutionaries had been extorting large sums of money from Jews all over the country at the point of the revolver, quoting M. Farhi, the President of the Jewish Consistory in Bulgaria, as saying that the Jews in Bulgaria were given full rights and protection by the Bulgarian Government, According to M. Farhi, he added, however, some persons, Macedonian Revolutionists, or pretending to be such, tried to extort money from some Jews in the town of Tatar-Basajik, but as soon as the Government heard of it they put a stop to it.