A Report on the Banality of Integrity

Tosho Donchev

Summary

During World War II in Bulgaria allied with Nazi Germany there were two occasions when the nearly 50,000 Bulgarian-citizen Jews averted deportation at the last minute in a near-miraculous way. The most important role in saving the Jews was played by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.On December 24, 1940 the Bulgarian parliament adopted The Act on Protecting the Nation which introduced discrimination against the Jewish residents and deprived them of major rights, based on the Nuremberg race laws. In debates on the law, the first to oppose Bulgaria’s official Jewish policy was the synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which issued a resolution of condemnation.Target date for the first Bulgarian transports was set at March 10–11, 1943. In parallel, the deportation of the Jews in Macedonia and Thrace was begun. When this became apparent in Bulgaria, the Jewish community of Bulgaria and the portion of Bulgarian public opinion that opposed the deportation sounded the alarm.On March 9, Tsar Boris III postponed the deportations. But the threat had not disappeared. Not everyone received the postponement order. In Plovdiv several hundred Jews were collected for deportation on the morning of March 10. Plovdiv Metropolitan (Bishop) Kirill immediately telegraphed the Tsar asking for mercy. Then he went to the collection site, joined the Jews who were there and announced that he was going with them. Officials of the Orthodox Church in Sliven, Shumen, Pazardzhik, Haskovo and Samokov protested in much the same way. Finally, the postponement command reached everyone by noon.Bulgarian society has proved its viability in surviving 500 years of Ottoman domination and still being able to establish a state. But, despite the ups and downs of its history, one cannot say that it has deep-rooted middle class traditions or has built a lengthy democratic order of values, when compared to either Western or Central Europe. Nevertheless, this society was able to pull together and produce a unique outcome during the Holocaust era.Doncsev’s study is focused on the issues behind that unique outcome and he attempts to explore them and get answers. In addition, he is very conscious of his Bulgarian ethnicity but has lived in Hungary his entire life. Therefore, he is very well acquainted with Bulgaria and its people but has the ability to step back and see them objectively, from the outside. Additionally, he is thoroughly acquainted with the tragedy of the Hungarian Holocaust, so he knows where to focus his attention. This is why I believe this study is both credible and fills a historical gap.András KleinHungary’s Ambassador to Sofia

Other books that might interest you

Death of a Prominent Citizen

Cora Harrison

"Harrison's seventh Reverend Mother whodunit stands out as her trickiest yet... Fans of historical puzzle mysteries will be delighted" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review


Money is the root of all evil, according to the Reverend Mother – but is it the motive for her cousin's murder?

Wealthy widow Charlotte Hendrick had always promised that her riches would be divided equally between her seven closest relatives when she died. Now she has changed her mind and summoned her nearest and dearest, including her cousin, the Reverend Mother, to her substantial home on Bachelor's Quay to inform them of her decision. As Mrs Hendrick's relatives desperately make their case to retain a share of her wealth, riots break out on the quays outside as the flood waters rise ...

The following morning, a body is discovered in the master bedroom, its throat cut. Could there be a connection to the riots of the night before – or does the killer lie closer to home? In her efforts to uncover the truth, the Reverend Mother unearths a tale of greed, cruelty, forbidden passion ... and cold-blooded malice.

Show book

Angel in the Glass The - A new...

Alys Clare

'A thought-provoking plot, and an affecting and powerful conclusion make this one of Clare's best' - Booklist Starred Review

Physician-sleuth Dr Gabriel Taverner uncovers dark secrets in his small Devon village in the second of this intriguing historical mystery series. 

June, 1604.  When the emaciated body of a vagrant is found on the edge of the moor, it’s the verdict of physician Gabriel Taverner that the man died of natural causes – but is all as it seems? Who was the dead man, and why had he come to the small West Country village of Tavy St Luke’s to die cold, sick and alone?  With no one claiming to have known him, his identity remains a mystery.

Then a discovery found buried in a nearby field throws a strange new light on the case … and in attempting to find the answers, Gabriel Taverner and Coroner Theophilus Davey unearth a series of shocking secrets stretching back more than fourteen years.

Show book

The Poor Relation - The...

Susanna Bavin

1908, Manchester. Mary Maitland is an attractive and intelligent young woman determined to strike out on her own and earn a living. Finding work at a women’s employment agency, her creative talent is soon noticed and Mary begins writing articles for newspapers and magazines. 
But being of independent and progressive mind are  troublesome traits when those you hold dear must constantly live up to the expectations of the well-to-do family to which they are linked. With increasing pressures from the powers that be, can Mary find the fine line between honouring her family and honouring herself?

Show book

The Chocolate Maker's Wife - A...

Karen Brooks

Australian bestselling novelist Karen Brooks rewrites women back into history with this breathtaking novel set in 17th century London—a lush, fascinating story of the beautiful woman who is drawn into a world of riches, power, intrigue…and chocolate.
Damnation has never been so sweet...
Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather . . . until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman.
Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an “opportunity like no other,” allowing her to escape into a very different life, becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen, to gossip and plot, while indulging in the sweet and heady drink.
Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society, desired and respected in equal measure.
But Sir Everard’s plans for Rosamund and the chocolate house involve family secrets that span the Atlantic Ocean, and which have already brought death and dishonor to the Blithman name. Rosamund knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate.
As she fights for her life and those she loves through the ravages of the Plague and London’s Great Fire, Rosamund’s breathtaking tale is one marked by cruelty and revenge; passion and redemption—and the sinfully sweet temptation of chocolate.

Show book

The Water Dancers - A Novel

Terry Gamble

A stunning debut novel from a new voice in literary fiction, set on Lake Michigan following World War II, The Water Dancers limns the divide between the worlds of the wealthy elite "summer people" and the poor native population who serve them–and what happens when those worlds collide.
When Rachel Winnapee first comes to work at the March family summer home on vast and beautiful Lake Michigan, she quickly learns her place. Servants are seen and not heard as they bring the breakfast trays, wash and iron luxurious clothes, and serve gin and tonics to the wealthy family as they lounge on the deck playing bridge. Orphaned as a poverty–stricken young girl from the nearby band of Native Americans, Rachel is in awe of the Marches' glamorous life–and quite enamored of the family's son Woody.
Rachel is soon assigned the task of caring for Woody, a young man whose life has been changed utterly by his experience as a soldier in WWII. The war has cost Woody not only his leg, but, worse, the older brother he loved and admired. Now back at home, Woody cannot bear to face the obligations of his future – especially when it comes to his bride–to–be Elizabeth. Woody finds himself drawn to Rachel, who is like no one he's ever known. The love affair that unites these two lost souls in this Great Gatsby–esque portrait of class division will alter the course of their lives in ways both heartbreaking and profound.
This novel's richness is due, in part, to the author's memories of summers spent at her family's house on Lake Michigan, home to six generations of Gambles (as in Procter & Gamble). THE WATER DANCERS, told in a voice as clear and cool as lake water, is a luminescent tale of love, loss and redemption, and heralds the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

Show book

The Summer Country - A Novel

Lauren Willig

"Tense, atmospheric, and gorgeously written, The Summer Country is a novel to savor!" – Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network 
A brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yet—a sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados. 
 
Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan-- merely a vicar’s daughter, and a reform-minded vicar’s daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the family’s lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day.  But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados—a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.  
 
When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts. 
 
Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins?  Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past— a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom. 
 
THE SUMMER COUNTRY will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds.

Show book