The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust collects narratives of Bulgarian Jews who survived the Holocaust. Through the analysis of eye-witness testimonies, archival documents, photographs, and researchers’ investigations, the authors weave a complex tapestry of voices that were previously underrepresented, ignored, and denied. Taken together, the collected memories offer an alternative perspective that counters official accounts and corroborates war crimes.

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The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust, a compilation of eyewitness testimonies, archival documents, photographs, and researchers’ investigations, debunks a Holocaust myth that not only were the Jews of Bulgaria spared but it was thanks to a sympathetic government. This book provides a fresh

perspective on that time and place. This title is recommended for all Holocaust collections.

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Comforty, an award-winning filmmaker and oral historian, has written a counter narrative of Bulgarian Jews and Bulgaria’s role in the Final Solution, challenging the belief that the Bulgarian government prevented the deportation of its Jews to Auschwitz, except for those in the newly occupied lands of Thrace and Macedonia. Based on primary sources and interviews with more than 60 Bulgarian war survivors, Comforty argues that Bulgaria was an ally to Nazi Germany, and King Boris III, far from being the “Bulgarian Schindler,” was prepared to deport the Jews of mainland Bulgaria to the death camps. Moreover, the Bulgarian parliament passed the Law for the Defense of the Nation in 1941 (effective until 1944), which applied Nazi racial laws to Bulgaria's Jewish population. The deportation law, which would have initially deported some 8,000 Jews from Bulgaria to Auschwitz, was temporarily suspended because of the intervention of Bulgarian parliamentarians and members of the Orthodox hierarchy. Comforty notes that Bulgarians were not as anti-Semitic as their government, and in 1943, the king's death and the war's turning tide in favor of the Allies saved the Jews of Bulgaria from being sent to their deaths. The book includes valuable pictures, a time line of events, and an extensive bibliography. Recommended. General readers through faculty.

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Documentary filmmaker Jacky Comforty explores this heartwarming story in The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and Holocaust, which he wrote with Michigan writer Martha Aladjem Bloomfield. Comforty traveled the world to interview historians, political scientists, military analysts and other experts to develop an unvarnished picture of Bulgarian actions during the war.

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The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust fills a lacuna in Holocaust history and in Bulgarian collective memory. It serves as a reminder of both the fragility of memory, its susceptibility to reshaping, and the gravity of memory, its ability to affect a population’s view of itself and even affect a nation’s international and political standing. Altogether, the book is an essential record of a narrative, the memories of the survivors –that have been repressed for far too long.

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Jacky Comforty and Martha Bloomfield have done a service for the rest of us in shining a light on the dark and complex history of the Balkans. In an era of disinformation and fake news, their painstaking research has reclaimed this terrible episode in Jewish history for a wider audience and pushed aside those adept at manipulating it. It is an accessible and interesting read.