At a commemorative plenary sitting the National Assembly marked the Holocaust Memorial Day and the 60th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews.

Statements were made by the President of the National Assembly Ognian Gerdjikov, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov, representatives of all parliamentary groups.

The Parliament unanimously adopted a declaration on the occasion of the Holocaust Day and the 60th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews.

“Bulgarian people have the right to be proud of the act of dignity and humanity performed by their predecessors, who were the only ones in Europe to protect and save the lives of their compatriots of Jewish descent during the Second World War. This act showed traditional Bulgarian tolerance to its ethnic and religious minorities,” the declaration reads.

The document pays homage to the millions of innocent victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and antisemitism, and points out that the Holocaust is history, a lesson and a warning of the past to the future.

“Paying tribute to all victims of the Holocaust and giving expression to our deeply-felt gratitude to those honourable Bulgarians who saved the Bulgarian Jews from deportation to the Nazi concentration camps, we, Members of Parliament of the 39th National Assembly, explicitly condemn the manifestations of xenophobia, antisemitism, ethnic and religious prejudice, and join the international community’s efforts to fight terrorism as a threat to the foundation of democratic civil society and human ethics,” the declaration reads.