Bulgaria has marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, 65 years after the rescue of the country's Jews from the Shoah. Even though Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany in World War II, the majority of the country's 50,000 Jews were not deported to the Nazi death camps in 1943 thanks to massive protests. A series of commemorative events were organized by the Jewish community organization, Shalom, in the capital Sofia and other cities. In the northeastern city of Shumen, a 'tolerance alley' was inaugurated where representatives of all ethnic communities in the city – Bulgarians, Armenians, Roma, Russians, Turks, and Jews – planted trees.
In 1943, the pro-fascist government of Germany's ally, Bulgaria, signed a secret agreement with the Nazis to deport 20,000 Jews to death camps in Poland. This plan was partially put into effect, with more than 11,000 Jews of the Bulgarian-administered territories of Macedonia and Thrace being sent to the death camps. However, thanks to the efforts of the then vice-president of parliament, Dimitar Peshev, the deportation of some 48,000 Jewish Bulgarian citizens was prevented. Peshev galvanized 42 fellow legislators to sign a protest petition to King Boris. Meanwhile, Orthodox Church leaders also spoke out, and professors, doctors, lawyers, students, labour leaders and peasants staged protests, including marches and street demonstrations.
Later, King Boris told the Nazi leadership that he needed the Jews as construction workers. He moved them into labor camps, but refused to deport them or hand them over to the Nazis. Bulgaria's refusal to heed Nazi orders saved all of its 48,000 Jews from being deported to death camps. Peshev and the Orthodox archbishops of Sofia and Plovdiv have been honored as Righteous Gentiles by Israel’s Yad Vashem. About 45,000 of Bulgaria's Jews emigrated to Israel after its establishment in 1948. Today's Bulgarian Jewish community numbers around 6,000, most of whom live in Sofia.