Popgueorguiev Stoyan

Popgueorguiev, Stoyan (Metropolitan Stefan) Markov, Konstantin (Metropolitan Kiril) In the 20’s and 30’s, the Sofia Metropolitan Stefan (born Stoyan Popgueorguiev), became one of the most eminent figures in the spiritual, political and social life of Bulgaria. During the war he was an outspoken enemy of the Bulgarian alliance with the Third Reich. In his articles in the press he expressed his scathing criticism of Hitler and the Nazis and the censor often suppressed his articles. ”It is not true that I am anti-German, was his answer, I am an admirer of many Germans, like Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann and Jacob Wasserman”. During the discussions held in the Bulgarian parliament in the second half of 1940 on the antisemitic Law for the Protection of the Nation, which would curtail the legal rights of Bulgarian Jews, Stefan, as a member of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, voiced his opposition. On November 15, 1940, the Holy Synod petitioned the government to treat Bulgarian citizens of Jewish origin who had converted, or were willing to do so, in the same manner as Christian Bulgarians. The petition was signed by all the metropolitan bishops included Kiril, (born Konstantin Markov) of Plovdiv, who had, in 1938, written a pamphlet condemning antisemitism. He now issued his own personal condemnation of the government leaders who supported Hitler’s racist policies against the Jews. On February 22, 1943, an agreement was signed between the pro-Nazi Bulgarian Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, Aleksander Belev, and Eichmann’s representative, Theodor Dannecker, to deport 20,000 Jews. At the beginning of March, when Metropolitan Stefan was informed about the impending expulsion of the first 8,000 Jews from the “old” Bulgarian territory, including more than 800 outstanding Sofia Jews, he pressed King Boris to cancel the order. And if the deportations would be carried out, Stefan threatened that he would order the gates of the churches and monasteries opened toshelter the Jews. Metropolitan Kiril especially stood out in his favorable and warm attitude towards Jews. On March 10, when he learned of the arrest of the Plovdiv’s Jews, he immediately took steps to have them released. Sarina Molho, remembered that on that day, she witnessed Metropolitan Kiril making his way to a place where Jews were gathered and assuring them, “I will not allow any of you to leave Plovdiv”, and that same afternoon they were released. Kiril also told the king that he will start a campaign of civil disobedience, including personally lying down on the railroad tracks in front of the deportation trains, if the planned operation were carried out. On April 2, 1943, Stefan called for a plenary session of the Holy Synod in which it was decided to protest to Prime Minister Filov and Interior Minister Gabrovski, stating that the Church deplored the Law for the Protection of the Nation, which had become an instrument for “restricting and persecuting the Jewish minority in our country…. Our people…cannot tolerate injustice, cruelty, and violence against anybody.” Confronted with the threat to Sofia’s Jews, rabbis Daniel Tsion and Asher Hananel, together with two other leaders of the Jewish community, Adolf Chaymov and Menachem Moshonov, sought out Stefan on the morning of May 24, 1943 for his intervention. As he was very tormented by what he heard from the Jewish leaders he went immediately to meet the king at his palace. As a result of the king’s hesitation, Stefan drafted a letter to him: “My heart is broken! I have a presentiment that we will be punished severely for what we have done to the Jews because our acts are disrespectful of God and harmful to the nation…” That same day, Stefan went to the Cathedral, for the festivities of Kiril and Methodius Day, and preached against the persecution of the Jews, stating that it was contrary to the Bulgarian tradition of tolerance. He expressed his open rebellion against the Government order to stopconversion of Jews in a circular letter, sent on May 27, in which he stated: ”The decision of the Government contradicts the laws and principles of our Church, and makes us betray God”. As a result, the police raided the offices of the Sofia Bishopric, on May 28, and impounded, among other things, 386 applications for conversion from Jewish adults and 104 for children. Stefan reported to his colleagues on June 23, about threats made to him by the pro-Fascist movement Otez Paisii, stating, “People should know that the state shouldn’t be good to some and brutal to others”. In 1962, Kiril, who had become the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, visited Israel and declared in an interview “we wouldn’t have had the courage to insist on the annulment of the anti-Jewish legislation without the support of the Bulgarian People at our back. We only expressed its wishes”. On November 11, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Stoyan Popgueorguiev (Metropolitan Stefan) and Konstantin Markov (Metropolitan Kiril) as Righteous Among the Nations.