66 · Ömer Turan
not move freely and had to pay extra taxes. In order to please Germany
and retain its rule in parts of Aegean Thrace and Macedonia, which were
annexed in the spring of 1941, the Bulgarian government agreed to send
12,000 Jews to death camps. They were listed, and some of them were ar-
rested already. However, because of internal and external developments,
such as the battle of Stalingrad, the plan was not implemented.^66
After World War II, the Jews began to receive their rights back. How-
ever, because of the difficulties they faced, from the establishment of Is-
rael on 15 May 1948 until May 1949, 70 percent of Bulgarian Jews, 32,106,
went to Israel.^67 In July 1949, the Central Committee of the Bulgarian
Communist Party decided not to permit Jews to return to Bulgaria. A
campaign was launched against Jewish educational, cultural, and health
institutions in 1951.^68 By December, only 7,676 Jews remained in Bul-
garia: 4,259 in Sofia and 3,417 in the countryside. Some Jewish organiza-
tions and schools were stopped. In the early 1950s, a series of anti-Semitic
trials were planned in Eastern Europe due to the impact of the anti-Jew-
ish persecutions in the USSR shortly before the death of Stalin. It was
going to be launched in Bulgaria, but it did not happen. First of all, the
Jews who remained in Bulgaria were Communists. That is why they did
not migrate to Israel. However, after 1955, the Central Committee of the
Bulgarian Communist Party decided to oppose Jewish organizations.^69
Jewish institutions were eliminated and nationalized. Heavy conditions
narrowed the field of work for remaining foundations. By the issue of
the Law of Religion in these years, religious institutions were national-
ized. Vladimir Paounovsky claims that the result of democratization in
Bulgaria beginning in 1989 was the free publication and circulation of
anti-Semitic publications.^70
Even though the pressure on the Turks in Bulgaria during World War
II was less than that put on the Jews, they still faced several difficulties.
Before the war, more than 10,000 Turks migrated to Turkey each year.
However, this number dropped to 7,004 in 1940, 3,803 in 1941, 2,672 in
1942, 1,145 in 1943, and 489 in 1944. After the war, private and pious
foundations’ properties were nationalized. Their schools were annexed
by Bulgarian ones. Their religious life was largely stopped. In 1950, a new
treaty of migration was signed between Bulgaria and Turkey, and about
150,000 Turks moved to Turkey in 1950 and 1951. Then the doors were
closed permanently. The Bulgarization campaign of the Turks began.
Turkish publication was first limited and then completely prohibited,