SOFIA, Bulgaria (JTA) — Leaders of the Bulgarian Jewish community marked Holocaust Remembrance Day at a ceremony in Sofia.
The event, known officially as the Day of the Salvation of the Bulgarian Jews and of the Victims of the Holocaust and of the Crimes Against Humanity, was held Thursday morning opposite the National Assembly building. National politicians, ambassadors, Holocaust survivors and other dignitaries were on hand for the ceremony in the Bulgarian capital.
Bulgaria declined to deport its Jewish population, numbering nearly 50,000, during the Holocaust. More than 11,000 Jews in Thrace in Macedonia, territories then administered by Bulgaria, were deported, however.
Also Thursday, a ceremony was held in Skopje, Macedonia, to memorialize the Jews who were killed and to inaugurate a multimillion-dollar Holocaust memorial and museum that will be among the largest in the world.
