The Minister of War, General Kissioff; Flight Lieut. Airanoff, Adjutant to the King, whom he represented; the Commandant of the Sofia Garrison, General Solaroff; representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education and Public Worship; the Mayor of Sofia, M. Boyan Natscheff; the President of the Bulgarian-Palestine Committee, General Nikiphoroff; General Lazaroff, General Sirmanoff; representatives of the Federations of Bulgarian Ex-Soldiers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Officers of the Reserve; representatives of many Jewish and non-Jewish organisations, and a great assembly of the general public, attended the ceremony of laying the foundation stones here for a monument to the Jewish soldiers who fell during the War fighting for Bulgaria, and of a hospital in which there will be a memorial slab giving the names of all the Jewish fallen. The Federation of Jewish War Veterans, and the Jewish Sick Fund, Bikur, Holim, and the Jewish Relief Organisation, Kupat Zedakah, have formed a joint committee to carry through the project.
Eight hundred members of the Sofia branch of the Federation of Jewish War Veterans paraded, with the Court Military Band at their head, and followed by the members of the Maccabee Jewish Sports Organisation with its band and banners.
The Rabbi of the Community, Dr. Hanannel, delivered an address, after which the document recording the laying of the foundation stone in Hebrew and Bulgarian was read out and placed with some coins in a cylinder, and buried under the foundation stone.
The Rabbi then dedicated the banner of the Federation of Jewish war veterans, and the Minister of War, unfurled it, and holding it up as he spoke, he addressed the gathering:
Representatives of all the authorities and of all sections of the Bulgarian population are assembled here, the Minister said, to honour the memory of those Jewish soldiers who fell fighting for our Fatherland. This banner bears the Jewish colours and the Bulgarian arms, and it will recall to you former Jewish soldiers your War Service, and your continued civilian service for the Fatherland.
The President of the Federation of Jewish Ex-Soldiers, M. Buco Bassan, then delivered an address, in which he spoke of the services of the Jewish soldiers during the war.
The Federation of Jewish War Veterans was established in 1924, to assist needy members, the windows and orphans of fallen Jewish soldiers and to erect a monument to their memory. The first President was Colonel Avram Tadger, who held office till last year. The Federation is comprehensive, including Jewish officers, non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and wounded ex-servicemen. The Sofia branch has a membership of about 1,000, and there are branches in most other towns of the country A register of Jewish soldiers who fell in battle is being compiled, and 1,200 names of Jewish dead have already been entered. It is believed that about 2,000 Jewish soldiers fell in battle for Bulgaria out of a total Jewish population of 43,000 souls at the time of the war.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
