As war officially comes to Bulgaria and much of the rest of the world, it becomes gradually more clear that this conflict is going to be larger and more dangerous than previously imagined.

Major Characters in this Episode:

Tsar Boris III

Foreign Minister Popov

Adolf Hitler

US President Roosevelt

US Secretary of State Hull

Hristo Lukov

Timeline:

• 1941, Oct 16th - The Greek Prime Minister issues a memorandum to German leadership against “Bulgarian propaganda” in Aegean Macedonia.

• 1941, Oct - The German Minister in Sofia begins pressuring the government to impose more restrictions on its Jewish population.

• 1941, Oct - A Jewish Communist partisan sabotages a fuel depot in Ruse, one of the first acts of partisan resistance in Bulgaria.

• 1941, Nov 2nd - Full scale civil war breaks out between the Serb Chetniks and Communist Partisans with the Battle of Trešnjica.

• 1941, Nov 15th - Communist partisans are hanged in Sofia.

• 1941, Nov 22nd - Bulgaria and Germany sign a protocol to cooperate in press, information, and propaganda.

• 1941, Nov 25th - Bulgaria signs the Anti-Comintern Pact. Foreign Minister Popov also discusses difficulties in implementing anti-Jewish policies while in Berlin.

• 1941, Nov 25th - At the initiative of the Italian consul in Skopje, Albanians there organize a demonstration demanding the region be put under the control of Italian Albania.

• 1941, Nov 26th - The German and Bulgarian foreign ministers meet to discuss applying Bulgarian national defense laws to foreign nationals.

• 1941, Nov 27th - German forces are halted on the outskirts of Moscow.

• 1941, Dec 7th - Japan attacks US forces at Pearl Harbor, bringing the country into WWII.

• 1941, Dec 11th - Germany and Italy declare war on the US, which responds by doing the same to Germany. Hungary and Romania follow suit the next day.

• 1941, Dec 12th - The National Assembly declares war on the US and Great Britain. They respond by declaring war on Bulgaria on Dec 25th.

• 1941, Dec - Hitler informs Bulgaria that other Eastern European nations are willing to deport their Jews into German custody, but Bulgaria refuses.

• 1942, Jan 1st - New lands occupied by Bulgaria begin to operate under the Bulgarian tax system.

• 1942, Jan 1st - The Allied Powers and Soviet Union agree not to make a separate peace with Germany.

• 1942, Jan 7th - The German attempt to take Moscow ends in failure.

• 1942, Jan 9th - Tsar Boris openly discusses abdication with close confidants.

• 1942, Jan 20th - The Wannsee Conference is held near Berlin during which senior Nazi officials plan out the Holocaust.

• 1942, Jan - German ambassador to Sofia expresses frustration after the government bans the Legionnaire newspaper.

• 1942, Jan - Serbian government reorganized.

• 1942, Feb 24th - The ship the MV Struma is sunk by a Soviet submarine carrying Jewish refugees from Romania to Palestine.

• 1942, Feb - General Hristo Lukov schedules a public rally, but the government bans the event.

Sources:

• История на България в Дати by Vasil Katsunov, Plamen Mitev, Valeri Kolev, Evgenia Kalinova, and Iskra Baeva

• Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff

• Bulgaria During the Second World War by Marshall E. Miller

• History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century by Barbara Jelavich

• The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution, 1940-1944 by Frederick B. Chary

• The Balkans by Misha Glenny

• A Concise History of Bulgaria by R.J. Crampton

• Bulgaria and Her Jews by Vicki Tamir