fighting as essentially a "paper war" and were generally apathetic
regarding their role in the war. There was little suffering within
Bulgarian boundaries and little expression of hatred toward Bulgaria's
ostensible enemies. Despite Bulgaria's alliance with the Nazis and
Fascists, within the country Jews were for the most part protected
rather than persecuted.

By 1943, however, the war began to change for the Bulgarians. Slowly the
Allies began to turn back German power. At this time Bulgaria was hit
frequently by British and United States air raids. Because of Bulgaria's
strategic significance and its declaration of war, albeit symbolic,
against Great Britain and the United States, Sofia and other major
Bulgarian cities became targets for American and British bombers. Sofia
was reduced to little more than rubble at one point, and over 30,000
casualties were suffered by the Bulgarians.

In 1943 Boris died and was succeeded by his six-year-old son, Simeon. In
fact, however, a three-man regency retained power, with Ivan Bagrianov
as premier. The regency was less actively pro-Axis in orientation than
was the late king; with its coming to power, thousands of political
prisoners were released from jail, and all persecution of Jews was
terminated.

By 1944, when Germany and its allies were clearly losing the war, the
Bulgarian leaders sought to reverse the earlier decision of the king and
to seek peace with the Allies as well as with the Greek and Yugoslav
governments-in-exile. Despite sub rosa attempts to release itself from
agreements with the Axis, Bulgaria was unable to extricate itself from
the alliance. On August 22, 1944, the Bulgarian government publicly
announced that it was ready for a peace agreement with the Allies.

The war was ended for Bulgaria when, on September 4, 1944, the Soviets,
after taking over Romania, entered Bulgaria. The exact sequence of
events has been interpreted differently by various historians. There are,
however, two major interpretations. One suggests that, once the Soviets
had occupied Romania and declared war on Bulgaria, Bulgaria--under a
hastily formed anti-Axis coalition government--immediately quit the pact
with the Axis and declared war on its former ally, Germany. The other
interpretation posits the theory that, on August 26, the Bulgarian
government had declared itself neutral, thus withdrawing from the war.
At this time it ordered German troops on its soil to disarm. When Sovi