- Bogdan Filov
Bogdan Dimitrov Filov ( _bg. Богдан Димитров Филов) (
9 April 1883 –2 February 1945 ) became a powerful politician and was Prime Minister ofBulgaria duringWorld War II . During his service, Bulgaria became the seventh nation to join theAxis Powers .Early life
Born in
Stara Zagora , Filov was partly educated inImperial Germany at Leipzig, Freiburg and Bonn, and later became a professor of archeology, and of art history, at theUniversity of Sofia .Prime Minister
On
15 February 1940 , following the resignation ofGeorgi Kyoseivanov , Filov was appointed Prime Minister of theKingdom of Bulgaria . Filov was an ally ofTsar Boris III . On7 September , Bulgaria was awarded the southern part ofDobruja by theTreaty of Craiova .On New Year's Day in 1941, Filov and his wife travelled to
Vienna , at that time a part ofNazi Germany known as the "Ostmark " (theAnschluss having earlier incorporated Austria into Germany). Though the purpose was, ostensibly, so that Filov could be treated for ulcers by Dr. Hans Eppinger, Filov met in Vienna with German Foreign MinisterJoachim von Ribbentrop . Soon German advisers arrived in Bulgaria. [ "Bogdan Philoff", in "Current Biography 1941", pp. 667-668] A "Law for the Defence of the Nation" went into effect on23 January , restricting the rights of Bulgarian Jews [ Madus I. Madlarsky, "The Killing Tr] .
On
14 February , Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with theAxis powers and on1 March joined theTripartite Pact . On Bulgaria's Independence Day, March 3, German troops crossed into Bulgaria on the way to invade theKingdom of Yugoslavia and theKingdom of Greece .Though a titular member of the Axis, Bulgaria stayed out of the war as much as possible during the regime of King Boris and Premier Filov. After the death of Boris in 1943, Filov became a member of the Regency Council established because the new Tsar,
Simeon II , was underage.Death
Following the armistice with the
Soviet Union whose forces had entered Bulgaria in 1944, a new Communist-dominated government was established and the Regency Council members were arrested. Filov and ninety-two other public officials were sentenced to death by a "People's Tribunal" on the afternoon of1 February 1945 and executed by firing squad that night in Sofia cemetery. They were then buried in a mass grave that had been a bomb crater. The former professor was described in one obituary as a man who had mistakenly "preferred making history to teaching it." [ "100 Death Sentences", "TIME" Magazine, February 12, 1945 ]ee also
*
Vienna Awards
*Military history of Bulgaria during World War II References
* "Bulgaria in the Second World War" by Marshall Lee Miller, Stanford University Press, 1975.
* "Royalty in Exile" by Charles Fenyvesi, London, 1981, pps:153-171 - "Czar Simeon of the Bulgars". ISBN 978-0-86051-131-1
* "Boris III of Bulgaria 1894-1943", by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, ISBN 978-0-86332-140-5
* "Crown of Thorns" by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, ISBN 978-0-8191-5778-2
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