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Anti-semitism One of Chief Charges Against Bulgarian Leaders on Trial As War Criminals

January 22, 1945
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The introduction of anti-Jewish laws and persecution of Jews at German behest is one of the principal charges on which leaders of the pro-Nazi Bulgarian governments are being tried here as war criminals.

In the course of the examination in court of Bogdan Filov, former premier, the prosecutor, Mo Angelov, charged him with responsibility for adoption of the “law for defense of the nation,” which, the court said, “transferred the Jews into despised beings at the instigation of Germany.”

The prosecutor also referred to this law while interrogating ex-deputy Zhiko Strundzhev, who claimed that he never approved of the legislation, but voted for it under pressure. Disputing Strundzhev’s argument, Angelov read from an address made by the ex-deputy in which he stated that “the only correct solution of the Jewish problem is to remove Jews from the country — let Anglo-American ships come to the Agean and take them away.”

Meanwhile, the pressing problems facing the surviving Jews in Bulgaria were discussed this week at a conference between the Regent and a delegation of the Conference of Jewish Communities.

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