The Bulgarian Government today announced that the deportation of the Jews from Sofia will be completed “by the end of June.” The last of the 25,000 Sofia Jews were to have been expelled by June 7 under a previous order. The resistance displayed by the non-Jewish population has slowed up the deportations, it is reported.
The announcement of the Bulgarian Government, cabled from Sofia by correspondents of Swedish newspapers, adds that many thousands of Jews already deported from Sofia have been “settled” in the townships of Karnobat, Vidin and Pleven. The Swedish correspondents quote the Bulgarian newspapers as reporting that the authorities have ordered the construction of twenty-five wooden barracks in which the deported Jews will be kept isolated from the rest of the population.
Other reports reaching here today state that a number of Jews have committed suicide in Sofia and that the police authorities there have cancelled all food cards issued to Jews. One report says that while the majority of the non-Jewish population is enraged at the deportation of the Jews, small groups of anti-Semitic youths are attacking Jews in the streets. Among those attacked was the chief rabbi of Sofia, the report stated.
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