Bogdan Filov
Bogdan Filov Богдан Филов | |
|---|---|
Tsvyatko Boboshevski | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 April 1883 Stara Zagora, Eastern Rumelia (today Bulgaria) |
| Died | 1 February 1945 (aged 61) Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse | Evdokia Peteva-Filova |
Bogdan Dimitrov Filov (
Early life
Born in
Prime minister
On 15 February 1940, following the resignation of Georgi Kyoseivanov, Filov was appointed prime minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Filov was an ally of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria. On 7 September, Bulgaria was awarded the southern part of Dobruja by the Treaty of Craiova. On 14 February of the following year, Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with the Axis powers and on 1 March joined the Tripartite Pact. On Bulgaria's Independence Day, March 3, German troops crossed into Bulgaria on the way to invade the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Greece. Though a titular member of the Axis, Bulgaria stayed out of the war as much as possible during the regime of King Boris and Premier Filov. After the death of Boris in August 1943, Filov became a member of the Regency Council established because the new tsar, Simeon II, was underage.
Antisemitic law and pro-Nazi policy
In November, 1940, the government of Bogdan Filov proposed the
Filov established the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs as executive body concerned with Jews in Bulgaria. In accordance with a governmental decision made in March 1943, Jews from the "newly annexed territories", who were not Bulgarian subjects, were deported by Bulgarian authorities to
Death
Following the armistice with the Soviet Union whose forces had entered Bulgaria in 1944, a new Communist-dominated government was established and the Regency Council members were arrested. Filov and ninety-two other public officials were sentenced to death by a "People's Tribunal" on the afternoon of 1 February 1945 and executed by firing squad that night in Sofia cemetery. They were then buried in a mass grave that had been a bomb crater. The former professor was described in one obituary as a man who had mistakenly "preferred making history to teaching it".[5] Filov's property was confiscated and his wife exiled.
The sentence was revoked by the Bulgarian Supreme Court on June 26, 1996.[6] His diary was first published in 1986.
See also
- Treaty of Craiova
- Military history of Bulgaria during World War II
Notes
- ^ Die Legionen der Provinz Moesia von Augustus bis auf Diokletian. Leipzig: Druck von G. Kreysing. 1906. Retrieved February 28, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Early Bulgarian Art by Professor Dr. Bogdan D. Filov, Director of the National Museum in Sofia. Berne: Paul Haupt Academical Book Store. 1919. Retrieved February 28, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Holocaust Encyclopaedia: Bulgaria Archived May 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Holocaust of Jews from Trakia and Macedonia". Archived from the original on 2010-01-27. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
- ^ "100 Death Sentences". Time. February 12, 1945.
- ^ Ташев, Ташо. Министрите на България 1879-1999. София, АИ „Проф. Марин Дринов“ / Изд. на МО, 1999. ISBN 978-954-430-603-8, с. 430.
References
- Bulgaria in the Second World War by Marshall Lee Miller, Stanford University Press, 1975.
- Royalty in Exile by Charles Fenyvesi, London, 1981, pps:153-171 - "Czar Simeon of the Bulgars". ISBN 978-0-86051-131-1
- Boris III of Bulgaria 1894-1943, by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, ISBN 978-0-86332-140-5
- Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, ISBN 978-0-8191-5778-2
- Un archeologo al servizio della monarchia bulgara. La parabola politica di Bogdan Filov (1940–1944) by Alberto Basciani, in Francesco Guida (ed) Intellettuali versus democrazia. I regimi authoritari nell'Europa sud-orientale (1933–1953), Roma, Carocci, 2010, ISBN 978-88-430-5239-4
- Z Čech do Pompejí by Karel Sklenář, Praha, 1982.