NEW YORK—The World Jewish Congress expressed its grave concern regarding the impact of ongoing political discourse distorting the history of the Holocaust in Bulgaria in a letter written on Monday to the country’s Prime Minister, H.E. Nikolai Denkov, by WJC’s Executive Vice President Maram Stern.
The letter, authored at the request of WJC’s Bulgarian-affiliate, The Organization of Jews in Bulgaria (OJB) Shalom, outlines recent damaging comparisons made by political officials between current events and the perpetration of the Holocaust by the Nazis.
The full text of the WJC’s letter can be found below:
Dear Prime Minister Denkov,
Allow me to express my warmest congratulations to you upon assuming this new office, in which I wish you every success.
I am writing today to express our grave concern regarding the current political discourse in the Republic of Bulgaria, in which it apparently has become acceptable to minimize and trivialize the Holocaust and the fate of Jews during World War II.
Mr. Kostadinov, leader of the Vazrazhdane (Revival) party, has frequently used the Holocaust as a political platform to address contemporary political matters. Most recently, Mr. Kostadinov has leveled offensive accusations of Nazism against Dr. Alexander Oscar, Chairman of the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria (OJB) Shalom. Especially as OJB Shalom is affiliated with the World Jewish Congress as the representative body of Jews in Bulgaria, and a driving force for Jewish life in Bulgaria, we are alarmed that some parties are attempting to slander Dr. Oskar while simultaneously trying to delegitimize OJB Shalom, claiming that it is "just one of the Jewish Organizations in Bulgaria."
Furthermore, representatives of Vazrazhdane have drawn comparisons between the vaccination certificate or Covid testing and the oppressive tactics employed by the Nazi regime against the Jewish population and have employed conspiracy theories pertaining to Jewish influence on a number of occasions during their election campaigns. Additionally, they have been known to discredit individuals in public life based solely on their Jewish heritage. The emergence of an establishment in Sofia bearing the inscription “JUDE” and a Jewish star can be directly attributed to the normalization of such discourse in the country. The World Jewish Congress expresses its opposition to using the history of the Holocaust in political discourse. Employing terms such as Nazism and National Socialism outside their historical context is entirely inappropriate and considered antisemitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which Bulgaria has embraced as its operative definition.
In the name of Jewish communities around the world, I would therefore respectfully request that Mr. Kostadinov refrain from using such rhetoric and instead be encouraged by other government leaders to employ less offensive approaches to attain his political and social objectives.
Very truly yours,
Maram Stern
Executive Vice President
