H.E. Mr Marin Raykov
Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Court of St. James’s
for
Hidden Identity Projects and A Sky of Stars Exhibition
I would like to welcome this exhibition, which is part of a larger project related to the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust – a major historical event to which the European historical memory remains indebted, despite the widely acknowledged facts. In one of the most frightening periods of darkness in our European history, a period marked by large-scale praise of death and hatred, which in fact was the Holocaust, the Bulgarian political class, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the vast majority of the Bulgarian nation withstood a moral test of noble growth and selflessness, which unfortunately many other national communities failed to successfully pass. Those Bulgarians who took part in the saving of our Jewish fellow citizens had the deepest of conviction that it was their patriotic duty and did not feel at any moment that they were performing heroism. For them, for the highest clergy of Bulgaria, for the Bulgarian royal family, this was an act equivalent to the attestation of belonging to the Christian civilisation and to the family of civilised nations. The categorical rejection of the very existence of the “Jewish question” in Bulgaria was ubiquitous and unanimous, regardless of the anti-Jewish legislation that some extremists imposed on the Bulgarian society. The awareness of the worth of significance of the act of salvation of our fellow Jews during the The second World War is greatly important not just for the proclamation of our historical memory and identity, but also for the influence on our moral system and moral values for today and our future generations of Bulgarian tolerance, solidarity with our closest ones, respect for cultural pluralism and diversity in our united national community. At the same time, it is an occasion of deep reflection and a chance to bow our heads in memory of the 11,000 Jews from Thrace and Macedonia, who were not saved by the Bulgarian administration, nor did they receive the same expression of solidarity from the local Bulgarian community. Their deaths, as part of the Holocaust engages our conscience and our thoughts on topics that go far beyond the conclusion of the Nazi barbarism. Today, we have a clear awareness to continue to appreciate the value of the lost lives of the innocent, as well as that of the 48,000 saved Bulgarian Jews. It is these thoughts, indeed, that gives me the reason to welcome any project that draws the focus to the public attention towards the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews.
H.E. Mr Marin Raykov
Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Court of St. James’s
H.E. Irit Lillian
Ambassador of the State of Israel to Bulgaria
for
Hidden Identity Projects and the ‘Do Not Forget’ Exhibition
Can we step into the world of our ancestors? In to the world of the past? Can we become only for a moment an integral part of it? The exhibition “Do Not Forget” allowed the spectators to visit for a short while in these forbidden worlds. The memory of the Holocaust still has a forbidden dimension even more than 70 years after the end of WWII. Traces of this dimension exists not only in the memory of the survivors but also in the minds of their decedents. Dorian Hirsch is looking into the “Order of Chaos” presenting the old demons but reflecting on the unique story of the salvation of 48,000 Jews in Bulgaria while David King lets the feelings flow without limitations into a new sphere. I was deeply impressed by the artist’s attempt to portray the memory, to reach the heart and the mind. I got out of the exhibition with a feeling of freedom and hope – for a better future, for a reality in which the vanishing of the witnesses does not hurt the memory, with a call for unification, tolerance and responsibility for each other.
While watching David’s works one can feel the energy and at the same time – the pain. The meeting between the artist and the unique story of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jewish community in WWII as well as the deportation of the Jews of Thrace, Macedonia and Pirot result in a burst of energy, grey energy and a yellow star of David. The yellow Star of David which was once a representation of the visual labelling of Jews, mandatory to be worn as a badge of fear, humiliation and division became a symbolic act of Unification.
It is not only about remembrance it is about the memory, the memory that is translated to wide strokes, a cry that comes out of the body while creating a new form of memory, a new question. In Israel, the memory of the Holocaust is still very vivid. Although many survivors are disappearing from our world, the memory is kept by their descendants who made a vow “Do Not Forget”. It is not obvious in a country like Bulgaria in which the legacy of salvation is stronger than the memory of the background. David King managed to penetrate this gap with grey energy and with a sense of human brotherhood, I congratulate him for this amazing artistic achievement.
H.E. Irit Lillian, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Bulgaria