{"id":6110,"date":"2017-07-17T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T18:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comforty.com\/theoptimists\/?page_id=6110"},"modified":"2022-01-04T21:58:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T21:58:26","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/comforty.com\/theoptimists\/home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA rare documentary . . . compact and elegant.\u201d<\/strong>
\n – New York Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cUplifting documentary . . . fascinating story.\u201d<\/strong>
\n – TV Guide<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA miraculous sharp movie.\u201d<\/strong>
\n – Chicago Tribune<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals triumph over odds in inspiring \u02bbOptimists\u02bc.\u201d<\/strong>
\n – Chicago Sun Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPotent and gripping\u201d<\/strong>
\n – Boston Globe<\/strong><\/p>\n

[vsw id=”212812680″ source=”vimeo” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]<\/p>\n

On March 9th, 1943, police arrived at the home of Jacky Comforty\u2019s family in Bulgaria. This was to be the beginning of the end, the start of the journey to Treblinka.<\/p>\n

On March All was proceeding according to the plan drawn up several weeks earlier by Nazi Germany and its Bulgarian allies. At gunpoint Jacky\u2019s grandparents; his aunt, then fifteen years old; and his uncle, age four, all marched to the deportation center set up at a neighborhood school. Jacky\u2019s father, 22 at the time, was not at home when the police came. He laying in hospital, maltreated after a train accident while being\u00a0interned in a slave labor camp.On March 9th, 1943, police arrived at the home of Jacky Comforty\u2019s family in Bulgaria. This was to be the beginning of the end, the start of the journey to Treblinka.<\/p>\n

The four Comfortys scheduled to depart for Poland that day were among the 8,500 Bulgarian Jews targeted first for extermination. Just a few days before, Bulgaria started rounding up for deportations 11,343 Jews from its\u00a0annexed\u00a0territories taken from\u00a0Greece and Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

On March 10th, the Jews of Plovdiv were brought to the former Jewish schoolyard. In other towns they were rounded up and gathered to await transport. They waited all day. And then, at the end of that day, they were simply sent home.<\/p>\n

Forty nine thousand\u00a0Jews survived, because Bulgarian friends found ways to protect them from their would-be murderers, in defiance of their Nazi-allied government. The Optimists tells their story.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this documentary project has been to explore how these different ethnic and religious groups came to live together in peace in Bulgaria during the Holocaust, and to learn how the lessons learned can be applied today.<\/p>\n

In Bulgaria, both organized efforts and individuals made a difference. The Bulgarian Parliament, Church, intellectuals, trade unions, professional guilds, and the Jewish community all helped defeat the Nazis\u2019 plans for mass deportations. And the many individuals who helped left a legacy of rescue stories. They include:
\n* Dimiter Peshev deputy speaker of the Parliament who ruined his political career but successfully mobilized Parliament members to stop the deportations
\n* Rubin Dimitrov the baker who hid Jews in his bakery’s ovens
\n* Anton Kirilov the judge who rescued his friend caught up in a transport \u00a0to Treblinka of Jews the Bulgaria government handed the Germans * the priest who pledged to board the train to Treblinka along with the Jews if they were deported
\n* Vera Kocheva the teacher who wore a Jewish star out of solidarity with her Jewish friends
\n* Penka Kassabova the school principal who admitted Jewish students to her school, which was shut down by the government
\nand the many anonymous Bulgarians\u00a0who went before daybreak to wash away hateful an anti-Semitic slogans Nazis painted during the night on buildings.<\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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