Reviews

"A complex story of heroism... a moving history." -Publishers Weekly; "Well researched and clearly written; imparts the surrealistic horror of the times and the courage of a few." -Booklist

Much of what has been written about how, and why, no Bulgarian Jews were deported to the death camps during the Holocaust has been polemical, with official Communist histories stressing the influence of the party while others glorify King Boris III. Bar Zohar (Bitter Scent, LJ 11/15/96), a former Knesset member and the official biographer of David Ben Gurion, correctly shows that it was a confluence of factors: outspoken profascist Parliament members, the Orthodox Church leadership, an opportunistic (and irredentist) King Boris, and the Bulgarian people, who resisted the efforts of several fanatic leaders who wanted to deport the Jews to certain death. Although Bar Zohar is clearly proud of Bulgaria's record, he does not absolve the king completely. Mixing history, intrigue, and suspense, this accessible and well-researched book should appeal to both general and specialized readers, although it does not completely replace Frederick B. Chary's more scholarly The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution, 1940-1944 (LJ 2/1/73), with which it differs on several points.‘John A. Drobnicki, York Coll. Lib., CUNY