For years, the Holocaust in Bulgaria was under-researched, under- represented, overshadowed and manipulated by political and economic interests. A myth became popular that there was no Holocaust in Bulgaria. The story of the Jewish people who had lived and survived these times has never been told. A combination of resistance, and political and social circumstances helped most of the Bulgarian Jewry survive the Holocaust, under very difficult, harsh conditions. Bulgaria’s government refused to protect Bulgarian Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe and consequently they were deported to Auschwitz. Jews, who lived in territories which Bulgaria annexed, were deported and murdered in Treblinka. At least 12,000 Jews became victims of Bulgaria’s collaboration in the Final Solution.
This exhibit closes a gap between testimonials and the lack of visual documentation and depiction of events. It links and contextualizes the events in Bulgaria with the Holocaust throughout Europe. Photographs, archival films and on location documentation, maps, documents, voices, paintings, and narration weave the story together.
Our aim is to innovate within the realm of visual and audio-visual history, showcasing how diverse materials can harmonize to craft a coherent narrative. We aim to reconstruct the story of the Holocaust in one country, Bulgaria, and the consequences it had for thousands of Jewish, Greek, Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian victims. But the most important purpose of sharing this story is to give voice to those who were silenced, tortured, lost, drowned or forgotten. This exhibit is dedicated to the memory of these victims of the Holocaust in Bulgaria. The exhibition will open on January 22, 2026, at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center in Maitland, Florida, a suburb of Orlando.
To host our exhibit
Our exhibit will debut at The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center in Maitland, Florida, January-June 2026. It will feature the original fifty-two paintings along with texts and images, links to video and audio clips of oral histories with survivors and archival footage.
The exhibition has multiple options for formats and modules for you to customize the exhibit to your specific space.
Modules of the Exhibition
Life Before the War: This module addresses Jewish migration to the Balkans, Jewish identity and history, and Jewish integration into Bulgarian society. In Bulgaria, a combination of idealism and pragmatism strengthened the brotherhood between individual Bulgarians and Jews who lived near each other for generations. Relationships between religious leaders were important to avoid hate speech and foster dialogue. Antisemitism was minimal and never state sponsored.
Rise of antisemitism, Riots in Bulgaria and the Final Solution: The political and economic instabilities that followed World War I in Europe bore the seeds for World War II. The results included reparations and economic hardships and brought social unrest and political division. Bulgaria’s economic dependence on Germany led to the infiltration of Nazi ideology and propaganda, resulting in the rise of pro-Nazi organizations in the 1930s in Bulgaria aligning Bulgaria more closely with Nazi Germany and enacted policies that discriminated against Jewish citizens.
Jewish Resistance and Resilience: On May 24th, 1943, an unprecedented event took place in Bulgaria. An anti-deportation protest organized by Jews. This was the second attempt of the Bulgarian government to deport the Jews of Bulgaria. The Jewish leadership’s successful coordination and mobilization of decent Bulgarians from all walks of life helped protect most of the community. Some 50,000 Jews escaped the fate of the 11,343 Jews Bulgaria deported to Treblinka.