1942: Bulgaria

Pro-Fascist Policy.

Under the influence of the pro-Fascist policy, started (in spite of the opposition of a large part of the population) by King Boris III with his coup d'état of May 19, 1934, Bulgaria has become more and more an active partner of the Axis. As a formal sign of her attachment, she signed the German-Japanese-Italian alliance, the so-called Three-Power-Pact, on Mar. 1, 1941. On Nov. 25, 1941, came the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact directed against the Soviet Union in spite of the fact that a large part of the population is, for traditional and racial reasons, most friendly to Russia, and sympathy with Communism is widespread among the peasantry who form the bulk of the population. The Fascist policy of the King found a certain support with the people because it promised to bring to Bulgaria the fulfilment of her expansionist dreams. As a result of her adherence to the Axis, Bulgaria occupied and annexed large parts of Greece and Yugoslavia after these two countries had been defeated by Germany in April 1941. As in World War I Bulgaria again staked her future on a German victory and expected the creation of a Great Bulgaria which would include, in addition to Bulgaria proper, the newly annexed Greek territories of Macedonia and western Thrace, and the Yugoslavian territory of southern Serbia.

But these annexionist desires and their execution in the wake of German conquest, without any active participation of the Bulgarian army in the war, and the brutal treatment meted out by the Bulgarian occupation forces to Greeks and Serbs alike, has aroused new bitterness against the Bulgarians among the Balkan peoples. Bulgaria is now vitally interested in a German victory, but large circles of the Bulgarians, outside the court, begin to be afraid that Bulgaria may have again backed the wrong horse. The splendid resistance of the Russian armies to German invasion, the unexpected necessity for the German armies to fight two hard winter campaigns on the icy steppes of Russia, the unexpected strength of Great Britain in the Near East which led to the defeat of Marshal Rommel's army, the landing of an American force in Africa, the growing strength of Turkey, and the increasingly apparent fatal weakness of Fascist Italy — all these factors have contributed to a growing feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in Bulgaria. Yet the Government under Bogdan Filoff, Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, continued its policy of Fascism without any let-up.

Relations with Soviet Russia.

Germany tried to exercise a strong pressure on Bulgaria to join actively in the war against the Soviet Union and to send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern front where Rumanian, Hungarian, Finnish and Italian armies were fighting side by side with the German army. But the Bulgarian cabinet could not comply with this request. Popular opposition was too strong. So far Bulgaria had made large territorial gains without any real fighting on the part of her army, and any participation in the war against Russia would have involved the loss of many lives and much suffering under the hard conditions of the Russian front. Also, the sympathy for Russia was too deeply ingrained in the Bulgarian mind to allow any compliance with the German request. On the other hand, the Government made a continuous effort to stamp out within the country all Communist agitation which seemed to continue with great strength. There were reported rumors that Russian parachutists had been dropped over Bulgaria and were helping to organize resistance to the Axis and sabotage in the country. The Bulgarian government executed many Bulgarians for alleged sympathy with the Soviet Union and with the democracies. Among those executed was General Vladimir Zaimoff, a former Bulgarian Minister of Interior, who was well known as an opponent of the King's pro-German policy and as an exponent of close collaboration with Yugoslavia. He had led an unsuccessful military uprising in May 1935. He was executed on June 1, 1942. Innumerable other Bulgarians were sentenced to death or long terms of imprisonment during the year.

Internal Policy.

In her internal policy Bulgaria followed a strictly Fascist line. In his declaration on Apr. 12, Premier Filoff promised that strong measures would be taken to liquidate whatever remained in Bulgaria of democratic and liberal ideas and of their representatives. The persecution against the Jews was growing steadily in intensity and was carried to the same length as in National Socialist Germany. All their property was confiscated; they were confined to ghettos, forced to wear a yellow star on their garments, and kept in a permanent state of undernourishment and overwork so that their complete extermination could be expected within a measurable time. The government did everything to strengthen the antidemocratic feeling in the country and to cut the ties which in the past have linked Bulgaria with the Anglo-Saxon world. All rotary clubs and Y. M. C. A. organizations throughout the country were suppressed and their property liquidated. The American college in Sofia was closed and the Americans expelled on Sept. 12. Scarcity of food and industrial goods made itself felt more and more. Concentration camps were filled to capacity with political prisoners.

The Bulgarian army was growing and was estimated to have a strength of 400,000 men. But it lacked modern equipment which the Germans reserved for themselves. An agreement was reached with Italy for the construction of a new motor highway from Durazzo, a port in Italian Albania, to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. As a result of the Bulgarian occupation of southern Serbia, Bulgaria has now become a neighbor of Italy through a common frontier with Albania. The Bulgarian government decided to proclaim Apr. 12, the day of the occupation of Macedonia and Thrace, as a national holy day to be known as 'day of the unification of Bulgaria.' This new national holy day was celebrated for the first time in 1942 and was used for a great government demonstration of Bulgaria's solidarity with Germany, Italy and Japan.

In April the cabinet decided to ban all transactions in gold money or bullion except through the intermediary of the Bank of Bulgaria. It also requisitioned all stocks of fodder to meet the needs of the army and also for redistribution to farmers in certain areas where a great shortage of fodder was felt. As in all other countries under Axis control, it was most difficult to get any authentic news about the internal conditions of Bulgaria through the thick veil of censorship. It was clear, however, that in spite of the satisfaction felt concerning the acquisition of large new territories and the new role promised to Bulgaria as the leading nation and strongest power in a German-controlled Balkan peninsula, the Bulgarian people did not feel too happy in their present situation.