Bulgaria
Boris III- Tsar of Bulgaria: 3 October 1918 – 28 August 1943
Silver 100 Leva 34mm (19.95 grams) 0.500 silver (approximately 0.3194 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 45 Designer: Percy Metcalfe
БOPИCЪ III ЦАРЬ НА БЪЛГАИТѢ, his head left.
100 ЛEBA 1937 between two stalks of wheat and flower and bottom.

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Boris III, Tsar of Bulgaria (30 January[O.S. 18 January]1894– 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier), son ofFerdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of theKingdom of Bulgaria during World War I. This was the countrys second major defeat in only five years, after the disastrousSecond Balkan War (1913). Under theTreaty of Neuilly, Bulgaria was forced to cede new territories and pay crippling reparations to its neighbours, thereby threatening political and economic stability. Two political forces, the Agrarian Union and the Communist Party, were calling for the overthrowing of the monarchy and the change of the government. It was in these circumstances that Boris succeeded to the throne. He distinguished himself during the Second World War by opposing attempts byAdolf Hitler to deport theJewish population of his country.

Biography

Boris was born on 30 January 1894 inSofia. He was the first son of PrinceFerdinand of Bulgaria and his wife PrincessMarie Louise.

In February 1896 his father paved the way for the reconciliation of Bulgaria and Russia with the conversion of the infant Prince Boris fromRoman Catholicism toEastern Orthodox Christianity, a move that earned Ferdinand the frustration of his wife, the animosity of his Catholic Austrian relatives (particularly that of his uncle,Franz Joseph I of Austria) and excommunication from the Catholic Church. In order to remedy this difficult situation Ferdinand christened all his remaining children as Catholics.Nicholas II of Russia stood as godfather to Boris and met the young boy during Ferdinands official visit toSaint Petersburg in July 1898.

He received his initial education in the so-called Palace Secondary School which Ferdinand created in 1908 solely for his sons. Later, Boris graduated from the Military School inSofia, then took part in theBalkan Wars. During theFirst World War he served asliaison officer of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army on theMacedonian front. In 1916 he was promoted tocolonel and attached again as liaison officer to Army Group Mackensen and the BulgarianThird Army for the operations againstRomania. Boris worked hard to smooth the sometimes difficult relations betweenField MarshalMackensen and the commander of the 3rd armyLieutenant GeneralStefan Toshev. Through his courage and personal example he earned the respect of the troops and the senior Bulgarian and German commanders, even that of theGeneralquartiermeister of the German ArmyErich Ludendorff, who preferred dealing personally with Boris and described him as excellently trained, a thoroughly soldierly person and mature beyond his years. In 1918 Boris was made amajor general and with the abdication of his father acceded to the throne as Tsar Boris III on 3 October 1918.

Early reign

One year after Boriss accession,Aleksandar Stamboliyski (or Stambolijski) of the Bulgarian Peoples Agrarian Union was elected prime minister. Though popular with the large peasant class, Stambolijski earned the animosity of the middle class and military, which led to his toppling in a military coup on 9 June 1923, and his subsequent assassination. On 14 April 1925 an anarchist group attacked Boriss cavalcade as it passed through theArabakonak Pass. Two days later a bomb killed 150 members of the Bulgarian political and military elite in Sofia as they attended the funeral of a murdered general (seeSt Nedelya Church assault). Following a further attempt on Boriss life the same year military reprisals killed several thousand communists and agrarians, including representatives of the intelligentsia. Finally, in October 1925, there was a short border war with Greece, known as theIncident at Petrich, which was resolved with the help of theLeague of Nations.

In thecoup on 19 May 1934, theZveno military organisation established a dictatorship and abolished the political parties in Bulgaria. King Boris was reduced to the status of a puppet king as a result of the coup. The following year, he staged a counter-coup and assumed control of the country by establishing a regime loyal to him. The political process was controlled by the Tsar, but a form of parliamentary rule was re-introduced, without the restoration of the political parties. With the rise of the "Kings government" in 1935, Bulgaria entered an era of prosperity and astounding growth, which deservedly qualify it as the Golden Age of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. It lasted nearly five years.

Boris marriedGiovanna of Italy, daughter ofVictor Emmanuel III of Italy, first in a Catholic ceremony inAssisi, Italy in October 1930 (attended byBenito Mussolini), and then at an Orthodox ceremony in Sofia. The marriage produced a daughter,Maria Louisa, in January 1933, and a son and heir to the throne,Simeon, in 1937.

World War II

In the early days of World War II, Bulgaria was neutral, but powerful groups in the country swayed its politics towards Germany (with which Bulgaria had also been allied in World War I). As a result of peace treaties that endedWorld War I – theTreaty of Versailles and theTreaty of Neuilly—Bulgaria, which had fought on the losing side, lost two important territories to neighboring countries: the northern plain ofDobrudja to Romania andThrace to Greece. The Bulgarians considered these treaties an insult and wanted the lands restored. WhenAdolf Hitler rose to power, he tried to win Bulgarian KingBoris III’s allegiance. In the summer of 1940, after a year of war, Hitler hosted diplomatic talks between Bulgaria and Romania in Vienna. On September 7, an agreement was signed for the return of SouthDobrudja to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian nation rejoiced. In March 1941, Boris allied himself with theAxis powers, thus recovering most ofMacedonia and AegeanThrace back to his kingdom, as well as protecting his country from being crushed by the GermanWehrmacht like neighboringYugoslavia andGreece. For recovering these territories Tsar Boris was called the Unifier (Bulgarian: Цар Обединител).

Tsar Boris appeared on the cover of Time on 20 January 1941 wearing a full military uniform. However he was unwilling to send troops to fight the Soviet Union, although in that war the destinies of Bulgaria and Europe were to be decided. He not only did not send regular troops to theEastern Front, but also refused to allow a legion of volunteers to go, although the German legation in Sofia received 1500 requests from Bulgarian young men who wanted to fight againstBolshevism.

However, in spite of this strong alliance, Boris was not willing to render full and unconditional cooperation with Germany, despite the German presence inSofia and along the railway line which passed through the Bulgarian capital to Greece.

Bulgarian Royalty
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Ferdinand I Children Boris III Prince Kyril Princess Eudoxia Princess Nadejda Boris III Children Princess Marie Louise Simeon II Simeon II Children Prince Kardam Prince Kyrill Prince Kubrat Prince Konstantin-Assen Princess Kalina Grandchildren Prince Boris Prince Beltran Princess Mafalda Princess Olimpia Prince Tassilo Prince Mirko Prince Lukás Prince Tirso Prince Umberto Princess Sofia v t e

But there was a price to be paid for the return of Dobrudja. This was the adoption of the anti-Jewish “Law for Protection of the Nation” (Закон за защита на нацията — ЗЗН) on 24 December 1940. This law was in accordance with theNuremberg Laws inNazi Germany and the rest of Hitlers occupied Europe. Bulgarian Prime MinisterBogdan Filov and Interior MinisterPetur Gabrovski, both Nazi sympathizers, were the architects of this law, which restricted Jewish rights, imposed new taxes, and established a quota for Jews in some professions. Many Bulgarians protested in letters to their government. In March 1941, Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact and joined theAxis coalition in hopes of regaining the territories of Macedonia and Thrace. Tsar Boris signed it into law on 21 January 1941..

The Holocaust

In early 1943, in Bulgaria arrived the emissary ofHitler –Theodor Dannecker, an SS Hauptsturmführer and one ofAdolf Eichmanns associates who guided the campaign for the deportation of theFrench Jews to death camps. In February 1943,Dannecker met with the Commissar for Jewish Affairs in Bulgaria –Alexander Belev, famous for his antisemitic and strong nationalist views. They both held closed-door meetings and ended with a secret agreement signed on 22 February 1943 for the deportations of 20,000 Jews fromAegean Thrace andVardar Macedonia. These were the territories conquered by Germany and legally not to be under Bulgarian jurisdiction until after the end of the war. The Jewish people in these territories were citizens of Greece andYugoslavia. Several days later, it became clear that the number of Jews inAegean Thrace andVardar Macedonia was 11,343. The "quota" of 20,000 came short. The revised pact called for sending those 11,343 Jews fromThrace andMacedonia and another 8,000 fromBulgaria proper. The remainingBulgarian Jews were to be deported later.

The initial roundups were to begin on March 9, 1943. InKyustendil, a town on the western border, the boxcars were lined up. But as the news about the imminent deportations leaked, protests began throughoutBulgaria. In the morning of March 9, a delegation from Kyustendil, composed of eminent public figures and headed byDimitar Peshev, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, met with Interior MinisterPetur Gabrovski. Facing strong opposition within the country, Gabrovski relented. The same day he sent telegrams to the roundup centers cancelling the deportations.

In a report of 5 April 1943, Adolph Hoffman, a German government adviser and police attache at the German legation in Sofia (1943–44) wrote: "The Minister of Interior has received instruction from the highest place to stop the planned deportation of Jews from the old borders of Bulgaria". In fact, Gabrovski’s decision was not taken on his own “personal initiative,” but had come from the highest authority— King Boris III, who at the risk of direct confrontation with the Reich, refused to deport the Jews. Four hours before the deadline, the order was cancelled. While Jews living inBulgaria proper were saved, 11,343 Jews fromVardar Macedonia andThrace were deported to the death camps ofTreblinka andMajdanek. The Jewish subjects of these new territories were considered exiles underHitlers military command and underHitlers direct jurisdiction. Bulgaria administered these lands, but Nazi Germany did not formally annex them to Bulgaria and their status were to be resolved only after the war.

Still reluctant to comply with the German deportation request, the Royal Palace utilized Swiss diplomatic channels to inquire whether possible deportations of the Jews could happen to British-controlled Palestine by ships rather than to concentration camps in Poland by trains. However, this attempt was blocked by the British Foreign Secretary,Anthony Eden.^[8]

Aware of Bulgarias unreliability on the Jewish matter, the Nazis grew more suspicious about the quiet activities in aid of European Jewry of an old friend of King Boris, MonsignorAngelo Roncalli, then Apostolic delegate inIstanbul and futurePope John XXIII. Reporting on the humanitarian efforts of Roncalli, his secretary inVenice and in theVatican, Monsignor Loris F. Capovilla writes: "Through his intervention, and with the help of King Boris III of Bulgaria, thousands of Jews fromSlovakia, who had first been sent toHungary and then toBulgaria, and who were in danger of being sent toNazi concentration camps, obtained transit visas for Palestine signed by him."^[9]

Meetings with Hitler

Nazi pressure on King Boris III continued for the deportation of the Bulgarian Jewry. At the end of March,Hitler invited the king to visit him. Upon returning home, King Boris ordered able-bodied Jewishmen to join hard labor units to build roads within the interior of his kingdom. It is widely believed this was the Kings attempt to avoid deporting them. In May 1943,Dannecker and the Commissar for Jewish AffairsBelev headed to plan the deportation of 50,000 Bulgarian Jews, to be loaded on steamers on theRiver Danube. Boris III continued the cat and mouse game thatBulgarian Jews were needed for the construction of roads and railway lines inside his kingdom. Nazi officials requested that Bulgaria deport its Jewish population to German-occupiedPoland. The request caused a public outcry, and a campaign whose most prominent leaders were Parliament vice-chairmanDimitar Peshev and the head of theBulgarian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan, was organized. Following this campaign, Boris III refused to permit the extradition of Bulgarias 50,000 Jews.

On June 30, 1943, Apostolic DelegateAngelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, wrote to King Boris III of Bulgaria, asking for mercy for “the sons of theJewish people.” He wrote that King Boris should on no account agree to that dishonorable action. On the copy of the letter the futurePope John XXIII noted, by hand, that the King replied verbally to his message. The note goes on: "Il Re ha fatto qualche cosa" ("The king has acted") and also noting the difficult situation of the monarch, Mgr. Roncalli stresses once again: "Però, ripeto, ha fatto" (" But I repeat, he has acted").

An excerpt from the diary of RabbiDaniel Zion, the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Bulgaria during the war years, reads: "Do not be afraid, dear brothers and sisters! Trust in the Holy Rock of our salvation ... Yesterday I was informed by Bishop Stephen about his conversation with the Bulgarian king. When I went to see Bishop Stephen, he said: "Tell your people, the King has promised, that the Bulgarian Jews shall not leave the borders of Bulgaria ...". When I returned to the synagogue, silence reigned in anticipation of the outcome of my meeting with Bishop Stephen. When I entered, my words were: "Yes, my brethren, God heard our prayers ..."

Most irritating for Hitler, however, was the Tsars refusal to declare war on the Soviet Union or send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern front. On 9 August 1943, Hitler summoned Boris to a stormy meeting atRastenburg,East Prussia, where Tsar Boris arrived by plane fromVrazhdebna on Saturday, 14 August. AtRastenburg the King asserted his stance once again not to sendBulgarian Jews to death camps in Poland and Germany. While Bulgaria had declared a symbolic war on the distant United Kingdom and the United States, at that meeting Boris once again refused to get involved in the war against the Soviet Union, giving two major reasons for his unwillingness to send troops to Russia. First, many ordinary Bulgarians had strong Russian sentiments; and second, the political and military position of Turkey remained unclear. The symbolic war against the Western Allies, however, turned into a disaster for the citizens ofSofia as the city was heavily bombarded by theUSAAF and the BritishRoyal Air Force in 1943 and 1944. Nevertheless, the bombardments started only after Boris death.

Bulgaria’s opposition came to a head at this last official meeting betweenHitler and King Boris III in August 1943. Reports of the meeting indicate that Hitler was furious at the King for refusing to join the war against the USSR and to deport the Jews within his kingdom. At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that “the Bulgarian Jews were not to be deported for King Boris had insisted that the Jews were needed for various laboring tasks including road maintenance." This act of bravery displayed by King Boris saved all 50,000 Jews of Bulgaria. Two weeks later on August, 28th 1943, King Boris III died, aged 49.

Death

Shortly after returning to Sofia from a meeting with Hitler, Boris died of apparent heart failure on 28 August 1943. According to the diary of the German attache in Sofia at the time, Colonel von Schoenebeck, the two German doctors who attended the king – Sajitz andHans Eppinger – both believed that the king had died from the same poison that Dr. Eppinger had allegedly found two years earlier in the postmortem examination of the Greek prime ministerIoannis Metaxas, a slow poison which takes weeks to do its work, and which causes the appearance of blotches on the skin of its victim before death.

Boris was succeeded by his six-year-old sonSimeon II under a Regency Council headed by Boriss brother,Prince Kiril of Bulgaria.

Following a large and impressive state funeral at theAlexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia, where the streets were lined with weeping crowds, the coffin of Tsar Boris III was taken by train to the mountains and buried in Bulgarias largest and most important monastery, theRila Monastery. After taking power in September 1944, the Communist-dominated government had his body exhumed and secretly buried in the courtyard of theVrana Palace near Sofia. At a later time the Communist authorities removed the zinc coffin from Vrana and moved it to a secret location, which remains unknown to this day. After the fall of communism, an excavation attempt was made at the Vrana Palace, in which only Boriss heart was found, as it had been put in a glass cylinder outside the coffin. The heart was taken by his widow in 1993 to Rila Monastery where it was reinterred.

A wood-carving is placed on the left side of his grave in the Rila monastery, made on 10 October 1943 by inhabitants of the village of Osoi,Debar district. The wood-carving has the following inscription: