Syrian refugee in Voenna Rampa complex, Bulgaria, 2013. Demotix/Katya Yordanova.All rights reserved./Europe faces choices of which future generations will be either proud or deeply ashamed. In 1943, Bulgarians – politicians, members of the clergy, intellectuals and other citizens – effectively stopped the deportation of the 50,000-strong Jewish community from the country. This is now a reason for justified national pride or, more appropriately, for a feeling of fulfilled moral duty.
At the same time, however, Bulgarians did not do anything (or not enough) to prevent the deportation of 11,000 Jews from territories in Greece and Macedonia occupied by the Bulgarian army (albeit under German overall command). The second episode – for which there is no moral justification – is a reason for shame and embarrassment. This is the moral tally of only one European nation from the 1940s, and nothing can be done now to erase it from history or national consciousness.
Similarly, when the dust from the current refugee crisis settles, the most pressing question will be - who were the nations that failed to live up to basic standards of humanity; who refused to offer help to people in extreme distress caused by raging war and violence. On top of that, there will be another issue: did Europe, as a political entity, manage to find a humane and efficient answer to a difficult situation? Indeed, the scale of the crisis is now so dramatic, that left on their own some of the smaller countries – such as Greece, Hungary or Bulgaria – could hardly cope with it.
