The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (44 page)

The testimonies against the Law for the Defense of the Nation come from
The Survival.
Additional documents, including the statement of the Bulgarian Writers' Union, the Lawyers' Union, and the open letter to the National Assembly Deputies, are from
The Fragility of Goodness,
pp. 45-53.

The October 1942 quote from the Nazi authorities in Berlin comes from
Saving of the Jews in Bulgaria,
chapter 7, p. 3. Further details on Belev's powers come from
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
pp. 35-46. Dannecker's arrival in Sofia is documented in
Beyond Hitler's Grasp,
pp. 59, 63-75. The Dannecker-Belev Agreement is printed in its entirety in
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
pp. 208-10. The destination points of the February 22 memo is documented in
Survival,
p. 71. The "private" and "extremely important" memo appears in
Survival,
p. 206. Belev's note to Gabrovski about maintaining secrecy is taken from N. Greenberg,
Documents, Central Consistory of the Jews in Bulgaria, 1945,
pp. 8-11, and is referenced in Emmy Barouh's "The Fate of the Bulgarian Jews During W'orld War II," which appeared in
Bulgaria for NATO 2002.

The story of Liliana Panitza appears in many accounts, including
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
p. 91, and
Beyond Hitler's Grasp,
pp. 77-86. An original source for both accounts is the testimony of Buko Levi from the postwar Protocols of the People's Court Number 7, V, 1498. Additional reference to Panitsa and Levi is in Vicki Tamir's
Bulgaria and Her Jews,
p. 198. The suggestion that Belev and Panitsa were lovers was made to me in several interviews and appears in various published accounts, most prominently
Beyond Hitler's Grasp.
Bar-Zohar's conclusions go further than others have been willing to go, and some remain skeptical that she was as devoted to him as Bar-Zohar suggests. However, Buko Levi's son, Yohanan, told me in a telephone interview that Belev and Panitsa were indeed lovers and that Buko's testimony at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, makes that clear. In any case, Yohanan Levi told me, "She was the one who saved us. I can't express the gratitude that we owe her."

The story of the optician and the bribe is told by Bar-Zohar (p. 104), Chaiy (p. 91), and Tamir (p. 198). The description of Kyustendil comes from personal observation and from interviews with Kyustendil natives, including Vela Dimitrova, Sabat Isakov, and my colleague at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC- Berkeley, Kyustendil native Mimi Chakarova. The initial fears in Kyustendil are recounted vividly in the excerpted memoir of Asen Suichmezov
{Fragility,
pp. 13236) and in interviews with Isakov and with Violeta Conforty, who told the story of the Macedonian leader Vladimir Kurtev and the party at Belev's house.

The description of the Jews in the train cars traveling through Bulgaria on the way to Treblinka was recounted in numerous interviews, including with Yitzhak Yitzhaki. Metropolitan Stefan's memories of this appear in
Fragility,
p. 126. The story of Mati Braun, the locket of hair, and the photo album was retold by her old friend Vela Dimitrova. It is not clear how many Bulgarian Jews knew, by 1943, of the atrocities elsewhere in Europe, but it is clear from my dozens of interviews, from the Eshkenazi family oral history, and from written statements by Bulgarian religious leaders that terrible stories were being carried across the Bulgarian border. Mati survived the war, but Vela heard that soon after, she moved to Israel. She didn't come back for her album, and Vela never saw her again.

The mobilization of the Jews of Kyustendil comes largely from Chary's account, pp. 92-93 (especially on Yako Barouh), and from Violeta Conforty, who recalls the arrival of Vladimir Kurtev in Kyustendil and his warnings to the Jewish community there. Description of Suichmezov and the journey comes from interviews with Dimitrova, Conforty, and Isakov. Suichmezov's recollections, including the pleas of the Jews, come from the aforementioned memoir excerpts.

The description of the events in the school yard in Plovdiv comes from Susannah Behar, with additional details provided from interviews with other Jewish eyewitnesses in Plovdiv, including Berta Levi and Yvette Amavi. Kiril's defense of the Bulgarian Jews is well documented, including by Chary (pp. 138-39) and Bar-Zohar (pp. 126-27, 169-70).

The story of Kiril's pledge to lie on the railroad tracks comes from an interview with a woman named Beba of Plovdiv, who was ten years old at the time. Susannah is skeptical of this and maintains that as an older eyewitness, who was at the school from the beginning of the day, her recollection is more reliable than that of a child's. "You know how kids make up stories," she said. Bar-Zohar (p. 126) goes further than either account, suggesting that Kiril, in his robes and heavy cross, managed to climb the fence, challenging the Bulgarian authorities to "try to stop me!" Neither Beba, Susannah, nor any of the other Plovdiv eyewitnesses I spoke with recalls such a thing.

Susannah's recollection of the contingency plan to join the Partizans in the Rhodope Mountains has an echo in the story of Dr. Corinna Solomonova, the friend of Solia Arroyo Eshkenazi's family in Plovdiv. "I was only eighteen," she told me. "I had a wonderful family. I had a proposition from the Partizans to go to the mountains with them and not go to the camps. I had received their offer. I had no intention of going to the concentration camps."

The portrait of Peshev is drawn largely from the interview I did in Kyustendil with his niece Kaluda Kiradzhieva. Additional details are taken from Gabriel Nissim's biography of Peshev,
The Man Who Stopped Hitler.
Further insight into Peshev, and especially the importance of his actions, can be found in Todorov's essays in
Fragility,
especially pp. 35-40. Peshev himself explores his political philosophy in his memoir, excerpted in
Fragility,
pp. 137-83.

Suichmezov's actions in Sofia are described in his memoir (excerpted in
Fragility,
pp. 134-36). The initial meeting between Suichmezov and Peshev is also described by Peshev in
Fragility,
p. 160. Peshev describes the earlier pleas of a fellow MP, about the "defeated, desperate, powerless people," on p. 158 of
Fragility,
and on p. 159 he describes his moment of decision, perhaps the single most important moment in the entire story of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. The tense moments in the parliament building are described in both men's memoirs
{Fragility,
pp. 136 and 161-62), by Chary (pp. 94-96) and Bar-Zohar (pp. 113-24). Suichmezov's memoir is the source for the quotes from Peshev and Colonel Tadger.

The moment in the school yard when the Jews were set free was described by Susannah Behar and the other eyewitnesses mentioned earlier. The late notice, confirmed by printed accounts, provides insight into the state of communications in 1940s Bulgaria as well as, perhaps, into the reluctance of some members of the Commissariat for Jewish Questions to swiftly carry out Gabrovski's orders.

Metropolitan Stefan's letter imploring the king is part of his memoir, excerpted in
Fragility,
p. 127. The letter by Peshev and his fellow deputies appears in its entirety in
Fragility,
pp. 78-80. The deportation plans along the Danube is documented on p. 143 of
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution.

To this day, there remains a fierce debate about the role of King Boris in the "saving" of the Bulgarian Jews. Did the king stop the deportation of Bulgaria's Jews to Poland out of concern for his Jewish citizens? Or did the foxlike ally of Hitler, after the Nazi devastation at the battle of Stalingrad, sense that the end was coming and keep the Bulgarian Jewry intact to avoid charges of genocide?

The fact that the Germans believed the order to suspend the deportations came from the "highest place" has led many to believe that Boris himself approved this, but Chary, who has probably spent more time studying this issue than anyone, disagrees. "It is very unlikely that Gabrovski would have talked to the king," Chary wrote me. "The king did not like him and furthermore had removed himself from the issue of deporting the Jews at this point." Bar-Zohar, on the other hand, states flatly that "the king had acted at the eleventh hour, and the deportation had been thwarted" (p. 128,
Beyond Hitler's
Grasp).
He argues the king reversed his policy in March 1943 and essentially decided to stand with the Jews of Bulgaria. Many others are skeptical of this, including Jacky Comforty, producer with Lisa Comforty of the acclaimed documentary
The Optimists:
The Story of the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust,
and Todorov, who writes in
Fragility,
pp. 19 and 23:

It is impossible to take the king's words at face value. . . . His actions were guided by self-interest, or rather, by what he saw as Bulgaria's interests. . . . What motivated him was national interest as he understood it, not humanitarian principles. Small countries have to come to terms with great ones. Hitler had the power; thus some of his demands had to be accepted.

The quote about "ideological enlightenment" comes from
Saving of the Jews in Bulgaria,
chapter 10, p. 16.

The idea behind Tzevtan Todorov's title,
Fragility of Goodness,
is that if one event had transpired differently, if one person had not acted or had acted in some other way—even, indeed, if King Boris had not joined the Axis powers, thus prompting the Germans into a brutal occupation of Bulgaria—the outcome for the Bulgarian Jews could have been completely different. I agree.

Chapter 4

This chapter is grounded in dozens of documents, books, and firsthand accounts, including multiple interviews with Dalia's and Bashir's families; interviews with numerous eyewitnesses to events in Ramla, Lydda (Lod), and Jerusalem in 1947 and 1948; published accounts from historical figures of the day and other eyewitnesses; original documents from the Central Zionist Archives and the archives at Kibbutz Na'an; and numerous secondary sources, including books by Israeli and Arab scholars who base their work in the archives.

The
aqiqa
ceremony was described by Khanom Khairi, Bashir's older sister, who was an eyewitness to the event. Details of the ceremony were verified by Islamic scholar Hatem Bazian of UC-Berkeley. The young Bashir was recalled by Khanom and Nuha Khairi in 2004 interviews in Berkeley and Amman, respectively. The "sweeten your teeth" saying is a familiar one in Palestinian culture. It was translated by my colleague Nidal Rafa.

Sheikh Mustafa's worries are chronicled in the British high commissioner's monthly telegram, which is printed in
Political Diaries of the Arab World, Vol. 6, 1941—1942,
pp. 437-40.

Discussion of the Jewish refugees from the DP camps, and the debate over Britain's acceptance of additional refugees to Palestine, is in Morris
{Righteous Victims,
pp. 18084); Neff
{Fallen Fillers,
pp. 30-34); Cohen
{Palestine and the Great Powers,
pp. 113—14); and Hirst (pp. 238-39). The story of the
Exodus
is told by Hirst (p. 239), Morris (p. 183), and Cohen (pp. 254-57).

The internal politics in the Jewish community of Palestine (known as the Yishuv) immediately after World War II is described in
Righteous Victims,
pp. 173-84;
One Palestine Complete,
pp. 468-86; Avi Shlaim's
The Iron Wall,
pp. 22-27; and Ehud Sprinzak's
Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination,
pp. 38-40. The King David explosion is mentioned in
The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews,
where Benny Morris puts the death toll at eighty; Segev, in
One Palestine Complete,
p. 476, says there were "more than ninety" deaths; the Jewish Virtual Library (
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/
History/King_David.html) and Walid Khalidi's
Before Their Diaspora
both cite a death toll of ninety-one. An insight into the British view of the Jewish military capacity can be found in
Palestine and Transjordan Administrative Reports, Vol 16,
p. 496.

British troop strength and the accompanying quote are taken from p. 498 of
Palestine and Transjordan Administrative Reports, Vol. 16.
The "wholesale terrorism" quote comes from the same volume, p. 496.

The pressures on Britain at the end of the colonial era and how this contributed to their quitting Palestine a year after quitting India were pointed out to me by Tom Segev in his comments on an early draft of my manuscript. The arrival of the UN fact-finding team, known as the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine, or UNSCOP, is mentioned in
Righteous Victims,
pp. 180-84, and in Segev, pp. 495-96.

Palestinians' concerns about the potential fate of Arabs in a Jewish state and their desire for a one-state solution come from several sources, including an interview with the Palestinian scholar Naseer Aruri. The fractured nature of Palestinian society in 1947, particularly in the wake of the Arab Rebellion, is discussed in Rashid Khalidi's
Palestinian Identity,
pp. 190—92; Yoav Gelber's
Palestine 1948,
pp. 31-33; and Ilan Pappe's
A History of Modern Palestine,
pp. 119-20. Further corroboration of Palestinian- Arab disunity on the eve of war was provided by Hillel Cohen, author of
Shadow Army: Palestinian Collaborators in the Service of Zionism: 1917-1948
(in Hebrew), and Michael J. Cohen, professor at Bar-Ilan University, in
Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945—1948.
"It was never easy for the outsider," wrote former Israeli intelligence officer David Kimche and his brother Jon in their 1960 book,
Clash of Destinies
(p. 42), "and especially for the governments of Europe and the United States, to be sure which was the valid expression of the Arab mood: the publicly voiced determination to fight against the Jewish aspirations in Palestine, or the privately uttered assurance that some kind of amicable arrangement was quite possible. . . ."