Carl Djerassi - The history of the Bulgarian Jews (41/117)
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- To listen to more of Carl Djerassi’s stories, go to the playlist:
• Carl Djerassi (Scientist)
Austrian-American Carl Djerassi (1923-2015) was born in Vienna. He revolutionised the field of female contraception when he and his team of chemists produced synthetic progesterone which led to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill. [Listener: Tamara Tracz; date recorded: 2005]
TRANSCRIPT: My father decided not to emigrate because he saw no reason for it. Bulgaria was no problem. Of course, they were all very optimistic because, of course, Bulgaria was... then became part of the Axis. But a point that I always emphasise that very few people know, is the history of Bulgarian Jews. That is one of the great stories of... of 1930s... 1940s, so the Nazi days. It was the only country in Europe, with the exception of Denmark, and Denmark did it differently because in Denmark they, sort of, kept the small Danish-Jewish population, sort of, hidden you might say by not wearing... I forgot whether they didn’t wear the Star of David or everyone wore them, but the fact of the matter you couldn’t very easily find them. In Bulgaria it was a small, 50,000 or so, Jews which had lived there for centuries. These were the... people came there after the Spanish Inquisition. The Canetti’s and people like that here who spoke Ladino as well as Bulgarian, but were always part of a minority... oppressed minority like the Bulgarians because they under the Ottomans until relatively recently. They were not discriminated against. So if there was an anti-Semitism it was of a totally different one from certainly Germany or totally from the pogroms of Russia or Poland, which just didn’t exist in Bulgaria. And there was even a certain amount of intermarriage. And not a single Bulgarian Jew died, or was sent to... abroad to a concentration camp. Whereas all around the Balkans the Romanian Jews, the Greek Jews, Yugoslav, particularly Hungarians, you know, died by the tens or hundreds of thousands. And that was a very extraordinary story, which is totally ignored, and that is only possible when you have a decent population. You cannot do this... you can neither blame nor credit one person. Like blaming Hitler for everything that went on in Germany or crediting King Boris in Bulgaria for everything that went well in... in the country. You can’t do that sort of thing unless the population culturally can accept that, or is accustomed to it. And that I think is a point that I feel very strongly about and always was very pleased about with... and proud about Bulgaria.
So what then happened in Bulgaria is that after the war, that is when the Communists moved in... the Russians moved in and therefore Bulgaria always had a wonderful relation historically with the Russians in contrast to all the other countries around there because: (A) they spoke a very similar language, Bulgarian and Russian. But the Russians originally liberated the Bulgarians from the Turks so they were always considered the liberators of Bulgaria, and therefore when the Russians moved in they didn’t move in the way they did in other countries. They were sort of a benign... they just moved in as Communists taking over, but otherwise it was a very benign relationship between Bulgaria and Russia. And even though it was one of the most Stalinist regimes of communist Eastern Europe it was an indigenous Stalinist regime. Zhivkov and people like that rather than imposed on them by... by the Russians. So, in 1947 I think, plus or minus a year, the Bulgarian by that time Communist government permitted all Bulgarian Jews to emigrate if they wanted to, but only to Israel. And there were some ships that literally left there and about 80% of the Jewish population of Bulgaria emigrated. The other 20 stayed there... 20% stayed there and was totally integrated. For instance, until very recently let’s say the foreign minister of Bulgaria until the recent election was Jewish and many other important ones. It’s interesting that in that country even though these Jewish families lived there for hundreds of years you always could tell whether they’re Jewish or not from their name because all the Bulgarian Slavic names of course ended like Popov or Dimitrov or endings of -ov or -ef. The others were always Spanish... Alkalei, Meshoulam, Canetti and so on. - Наука та технологія
![[HLHW] The Power of One: The Holocaust in Bulgaria with Aaron Cohen](/img/n.gif)
I have Bulgarian and Jewish ancestry
I did not of this little known history at all. Thank you for posting.
I am proud of my Bulgarian grandparents who helped protecting our Jewish neighbors and friends from prosecution.
Bulgarians are the most
wonderful people in a most beautiful country!
very fascinating
Very interesting video, but why so short :(
Prior to Germany demanding Bulgarian Jews, Bulgaria was able to help Slovakia Jews to flee to British controlled Palestine. Bulgaria may not have been able to get later permission to send Jews to Palestine that were stateless or from newly acquired territories gifted by the Nazis such as parts of Greece, but Bulgaria had also pledged war on America and Britian to relax relations with Germany.
Thank You. I didn't knew that.
And how do they repay us. They drain the Wests economy to occupy a land they can't possibly defend. Bulgarians went through 300 years of total oppression, a Bulgarian from 120 years ago couldn't even know Germany existed. And before the Turkish it was the Greeks. To them we are all the same.
@@josharnold7247 most people look for someone to take advantage of. Most people try to make connection and call others their people and try to aquire things by illegitimate means.
Just look at the Southern Baptists and using their own children in arranged marriages to gain more for themselves. That's disgusting.
@@chrissinclair4442 it just sucks. Bulgaria today still is recovering. We disappeared for over 300 years. 300 years no history. No advancements. Not allowed to do anything except farm, hide, while woman can get raped and villages slaughtered. And there aren't even records. Only passed down through tales. What he says in the video is true. Jews were not oppressed like that. For the entire time they lived alongside us they were allowed to thrive. And even yet, with no apologies from anyone after we got liberated. We saved them, because it's true we loved them. And there were Bulgarians who mixed W Jews (and I am even part Jewish ). And now we suffer. Because we are forced into the "rest of the world" which is getting sucked dry.
@@chrissinclair4442 what does Israel do for Yemen? Anywhere? Even in the USA things are crumbling 200,000 overdoses a year and the bigger problem is maybe a couple hundred Israelis get killed by the Palestinians? The world is fucked
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Good video but it should be noted that around 20,000-40,000 slavic pomak muslims became oppressed after the Russians took over. . Only the Bulgarian Christians would have benefited.
Why slavic? What language do they use?
LOL НЕ ЗНАЕХ ЧЕ ДНЕС ИМА ЖИВИ СКЛАВИ ,СКЛАВИНИ,СЛАВИНИ,СЛАВИ/ОТ ГРЪЦКИ -РОБИ/ И ТО СЛАВЯНИ ПОМАЦИ????? ПО ИСТОРИЧЕСКИ СВЕДЕНИЯ НА БАЛКАНИТЕ ПРИ ЗАВЛАДЯВАНЕТО ИМ ОТ ОСМАНЦИТЕ ЖИВЕЯТ НАД 5МИЛИОНА БЪЛГАРИ.ПРЕЗ 1877 ТЕ СА 3 МИЛИОНА?????????? ЧУДНО ЗАЩО ИМА АСИРИЙСКИ ГЕНОЦИД,ГРЪЦКИ ГЕНОЦИД ,АРМЕНСКИ ГЕНОЦИД, КЮРДСКИ ГЕНОЦИД......?????????? И ДНЕС НА ТЕРИТОРИЯТА НА БЪЛГАРИЯ ЖИВЕЯТ ПОМАЦИ /ПОМЪЦЕНИ -ПОМЪЧЕНИ ХРИСТИЯНИ/ И ГОЛЯМА ЧАСТ ОТ ТЕЗИ ПОМАЦИ СА ДНЕС С ХРИСТИЯНСКИ ИМЕНА И РЕЛИГИЯ.АЗ СЪМ ПОМАК .ТИ КОЙ СИ?
They were not allowed to be Christian. The pomaks were oppressed because they stuck to their tradition. The communists didn't allow that. Also "Only the Bulgarian Christians" they are/were the vast majority. Pomaks are a tiny minority.
There is no such ethnicity as pomak they are Bulgarians who were forced to accept Islam. Thry were brutally oppressed by the ottomans
They speak Bulgarian obviously because they are ethnic Bulgars. If you want to find out more watch "Time of violence" great movie
@@josharnold7247 they were oppressed cause of tough relations with the turks