Nissim Mordehay

Nissim Mordehay, the older child of Mina and Behor Mordehay, was born on January 8, 1932 in Ihtiman, Bulgaria.

Nissim’s family was quite well-off. They owned a large store that sold textiles and clothing, and they lived in the largest building in the city. It was so large that they rented out the first floor to the police department and the town jail was even located in their basement. Each child had a nanny, and there were other servants to do the laundry and cleaning. The family was well respected by their non-Jewish neighbors, and all of Nissim’s playmates were non-Jews.

In March 1941, when Nissim was 9 years old, Bulgaria allied itself with Germany. Because there were so few Jews in Ihtiman, Nissim’s family did not feel the brunt of the harsh anti-Jewish measures passed at that time by the Bulgarian government. Life went on much as before. His parents were forced to wear yellow stars to identify them as Jews, but Nissim and his sister were exempt because they were children. However, Nissim and his sister were not permitted to attend public school during the 1942-43 school year because they were Jews. Their cousin tutored them at home.

In 1943, the Germans began pressing their Bulgarian allies to deport their Jews to concentration camps in Poland.

Over 20,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz Death Camp from Macedonia and Thrace, areas that had recently been annexed to Bulgaria. The Jews of Old Bulgaria were to be next. However, the King of Bulgaria ordered all plans for deportations of Bulgarian Jews stopped, but he was unable to prevent the expulsion to the countryside of Sofia’s 20,000 Jews. From there, they were to be transported by ship to “the East.” The people of Bulgaria protested this action. Nissim’s many relatives from Sofia were given shelter in his home. The Bulgarian people began large-scale protests against the treatment of the Jews. Instead of arousing antisemitism, the expelled Jews won the sympathy of the non-Jewish population. By January 1944, massive allied bombing of Bulgaria began, and plans to deport the Jews were completely shelved. The Jews of Old Bulgaria were saved due to the courageous defiance of the King of Bulgaria and his people.

Jews may have lived in what is now Bulgaria as early as the first century of the Common Era. Most, however, had their roots in the Byzantine and Turkish Empires or descended from Spanish Jews who fled the Inquisition at the time of Columbus. These Jews were later joined by others fleeing massacres in Germany and Hungary during the latter Middle Ages.

Bulgaria’s Jews lived in the main cities and earned their living in retail trade and the professions. However, they played only a minor role in the country’s cultural life as a whole. By World War II, approximately 50,000 Jews made their homes in Bulgaria.