Order by Bulgarian government on deportation of Jews [Bulgaria] [Unconfirmed]
Commentary from other sources:
1) “In March 1943, Bulgarian authorities deported all of the Jews from the territories Bulgaria had annexed in Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia) and Thrace (formerly part of Greece). When the Germans pressured Bulgaria to deport its own Jews, the king initially agreed. He canceled the order [of expelling Bulgarian Jews] only after receiving protests from thousands of ordinary citizens as well as leaders in the Bulgarian parliament and the Eastern Orthodox Church.”
Phyllis Goldstein: “A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism.” p. 279
2) “In January 1943 Adolf Beckerle, the German minister to Sofia [Bulgaria], was joined by SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Theodor Dannecker, an associate of [Adolf] Eichmann, who came to Bulgaria in order to arrange for the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to the eastern territories…On Feb. 2, 1943, [Minister of Interior] Gabrovski and Dannecker agreed that all Jews living in Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia and in Thrace, administered by Bulgaria since the spring of 1941, would also be surrendered to the Germans for deportation. On Feb. 22, Belev [Head of Commissariat for Jewish Affairs] and Dannecker signed a formal agreement to deport 20,000 Jews. As the total number of Jews living in Bulgarian-held Thrace and Macedonia was only slightly over 10,000, Dannecker informed Eichmann that Jews from Bulgaria proper, mainly from the capital and other large towns, would also be deported. On March 2 [1943], the government approved the surrender of 20,000 Jews into German hands, but the fiction that only Jews from Macedonia and Thrace were to be deported continued to be maintained. The collection of Macedonian and Thracian Jews into special transit camps began immediately. Preparations were also begun for the concentration of those Jews from Bulgaria proper who were to make up the agreed figure of 20,000.”
“The Virtual Jewish History Tour Bulgaria; The Deportations Program.” jewishvirtuallibrary.org