La spoliation des biens juifs en Bulgarie pendant la seconde guerre mondiale : un état des lieux historiographique

The study of the Bulgarian case provides an original contribution to the scholarship on the confiscation of Jewish property in Europe during World War II. This ally of Nazi Germany passed anti-Semitic legislation in January 1941 and laid the framework for the expropriation of Jewish properties. In the “Old Kingdom” (pre-1941 borders) however, the economic deprivation of the Bulgarian Jews did not prefigure their deportation. By contrast, in Yugoslav and Greek territories under Bulgarian occupation, economic dispossession, deportation and extermination were inexorably linked. Could the issue of spoliation therefore provide a perspective shedding new light on this tragic bifurcation? How can one interpret the micro-social dynamics, which led some social actors to take part in the grabbing of Jewish property and at times to also publicly oppose the deportation of Bulgaria’s Jews? The publication of a pioneer piece of research by Bulgarian historian Roumen Avramov provides the opportunity to offer a review of the literature on the Holocaust and the expropriation of Jewish properties in Bulgaria. Building upon Avramov’s work, this article also suggests areas for further research on anti-Jewish policies in Bulgaria.