Dimensions
147 x 224 x 22mm
On 9 March 1943, freight trains were waiting at Bulgaria's stations to pick up thousands of Jews and carry them to Treblinka. Four hours before their departure, following a dramatic showdown, the order was cancelled. Another attempt in May also failed. Why?
This book tells how Bulgaria (with Denmark) was the only Nazi-occupied country in Europe not to comply with the order to deport her Jewish population during the Second World War. It brings together contemporary accounts, political tracts, speeches, letters and personal memoirs, many of which are here translated into English for the first time. These key documents demonstrate how, under the leadership of King Boris III and, in particular, prime minister Dimitar Pechev, parliamentarians, Patriarchs, and ordinary citizens came together to mount an unprecedented rescue operation.
Tzvetan Todorov reconstructs this complex history. By interrogating different versions of events, he reveals the delicate nature of goodness: how the incidence of good depends on the particular and often chance union of political, economic, social and moral forces and how the slightest deviation from the path can jeopardise everything. Furthermore, once evil takes hold in society, it spreads easily, while good remains difficult, elusive and fragile. And yet, as this book shows, possible.
'The Fragility Of Goodness' is an important book that tells of a rare, and largely unknown, moment of light in an otherwise dark history.
