Peshev Dimitâr

Peshev, Dimitâr Dimitâr Peshev (b. 1894) was a prominent politician in Bulgaria in the period before and during World War II, and in 1936, he served as Minister of Justice. On the international scene, he favored Bulgaria’s alliance with Nazi Germany, hoping it would help the country regain its territories lost in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. In March 1941 Bulgaria signed an alliance with Nazi Germany and received the territories of Thrace and Macedonia. At the same time Bulgaria enacted the Law for the Protection of the Nation and a series of ordinances severley restricting the life of Bulgarian Jews. Despite the opposition of various circles in Bulgarian society, the legislation was approved by the parliament, and Dimitar Peshev, the vice chairman of the National Assembly, supported the bill. In February 1943 Bulgaria's anti-Jewish policy escalated, and the country signs an agreement with Germany to deport 20,000 Jews to the death camps. The plan was to deport all the Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, and the remainder from Old Bulgaria. When rumours spread in Kyustandil about the planned deportation, a delegation went to Sofia and turned to Peshev, who was orginally from their town. When on March 9, 1943, Peshev learned of his government intention to hand over to the Germans for deportation the first group of more than 8,000 Jews from Bulgaria, he decided to oppose this vigorously. Peshev, as vice chairman of the National Assembly, gathered a few of his fellow deputies and went to see Petâr Gabrovski, the Bulgarian minister of internal affairs, with a demand that the order be rescinded. After a dramatic confrontation, Gabrovski ordered that the deportation be postponed. Peshev personally called the district governor in Kyustendil to make sure that the counter-order had been received. Peshev also decided to publicly denounce this and further deportations from the podium of the National Assembly. Drafting a letter of protest, he collected thesignatures of 42 members of Parliament, addressed to the government and the king, in which he pleaded not to disgrace the name of Bulgaria by consenting to the deportation of its own citizens to Nazi concentration camps. The public protest occasioned by Peshev’s posture caused the government to reconsider its plans to deport the Jews of Bulgaria. Although the Jewish community suffered from the anti Jewish decrees, the community of 48,000 Bulgarian Jews survived. The communities of Macedonia and Thrace were almost totally wiped out. Peshev was penalized by his dismissal as vice chairman of the National Assembly. After the Communist takeover, in September 1944, Peshev was brought to trial for his participation in the previous pro-German government. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but was released after one year. He died a lonely and forgotten man in 1973. On January 10, 1973, Yad Vashem recognized Dimitâr Peshev as Righteous Among the Nations