The Bulgarian Peoples Court trying members of the former pro-Nazi governments were urged today to impose the death sentence on ex-premier Bogdan Filov, and members of his cabinet, for their persecution and murder of thousands of Jews.
Demanding the death penalty, Chief prosecutor Petroy reviewed the testimony by many witnesses concerning the infamous treatment of Jews, and the confiscation of Jewish property and the deportation of Jews from Macedonia and Thrace and declared, “It is unfortunate that I cannot bring into court any witnesses among the deportees, because they have all been burnt alive.”
Petrov disclosed that during the four years of the fascist regime about 1,000,300,000 levas (approximately $12,000,000 at pre-war rates of exchange) in taxes alone were squeezed out of Bulgaria’s Jews, aside from property, businesses and valuables which were seized.
As Petrov read out the crimes against the Jews committed by the defendants, members of the audience shouted; “Death, death.”
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.
