New York Times
By Ian Fisher
The posters went up here overnight, about 500 copies of a painting of Hitler. They were plastered at the outdoor book market in central Sophia, near the Jewish center, where Emil Kalo saw them not only with alarm but also with puzzlement: Bulgaria simply has not been a place with much anti-Semitism.
"Historically, it absolutely doesn't exist here," said Mr. Kalo, the leader of Bulgaria's community of 7,000 Jews.
The posters are a reproduction of the cover of a new Bulgarian translation of "Mein Kampf," Hitler's early memoir and political rant. They were clearly meant to provoke - and to sell books.
The strategy appears to be working, according to Galin Jordanov, one of the men responsible for publishing the book. Nearly 5,000 copies have been sold here so far, he said. That makes the book a best-seller in a nation of 8 million people where the average print run for a Bulgarian work of fiction is 530.
It was no coincidence, booksellers say, that sales rose considerably after the posters went up a week ago. While Mr. Jordanov denied any knowledge of them, he said with authority that 400 to 600 posters had gone up.
"When you say, 'This guy is such a bad guy,' people are curious," he said. "And when he writes a book, people will buy it. Curiosity kills the cat. We are generating a simple form of sensation."
Mr. Jordanov, 39, is the chief editor for the publishing house, Zhar Ptitza. He is big and swift-witted, has translated a book about the film director Elia Kazan and is not against a large dose of vodka just before noon. His English is not only good, but idiomatic in the distinct way of a man who learned it largely from banned Western books and music in the 1970s.
He contends that the issue of banned books - and not anti-Semitism - is the point about the publication here of "Mein Kampf." The Communists banned it too, he notes; now that the Berlin Wall has fallen, people want to read it.
Mr. Jordanov claims to have no connection to fascist parties - or to have anything against Jews. "Hitler has no friends here," he says. His publishing house has issued Machiavelli's "The Prince" and another book that has nothing to do with Jewish issues.
But it has also published a translation of a book casting doubt on the Holocaust. And what also troubles some Bulgarians is that he does not exactly repudiate Hitler.
The one thing Mr. Jordanov said he wanted to make clear was this: In his mind, Hitler was no worse than the Communists who ruled Russia and Eastern Europe from World War II until 1989, killing the hopes for many brainy young men - like him. "You can say the chief editor of the publishing house said that Adolf Hitler has done no harm to the Bulgarian people, unlike the governments that held power since 1945," he said.
Mr. Kalo is quick to say that publication of the book is an aberration in Bulgaria, a nation of many ethnicities (and where Turks, not Jews, were more often scapegoats). Though Bulgaria was an ally of Germany in World War II, none of Bulgaria's 54,000 Jews died in concentration camps, he said. They were, in fact, shielded by average Bulgarians.
Since then, Mr. Kalo said, there have been only scattered instances of anti-Semitism. Rightists, skinheads, even hard-line nationalists, never held much sway. But, he asked, do these posters mean that rightists are gaining ground now? Are the people who made the posters selling books or Hitler's ideas?
"I don't know their ideology," he said. "That is why I am afraid."
Both he and Zhelyo Zhelev, Bulgaria's former president and a dissident who wrote a well-known book about fascism, said they believed that Bulgaria's economic situation, among the worst in the former Communist countries, was playing a role.
"This is more of a commercial phenomenon than a political one," Mr. Zhelev said.
"There are a lot of people who are dissatisfied," he said. "They are struggling with unemployment, poverty, economic hardship, which are the traits for Bulgaria's transition from communism to democracy. This commercial campaign is exploiting this dissatisfaction."
SOFIA The posters went up here overnight, about 500 copies of a painting of Hitler. They were plastered at the outdoor book market in central Sophia, near the Jewish center, where Emil Kalo saw them not only with alarm but also with puzzlement: Bulgaria simply has not been a place with much anti-Semitism.
"Historically, it absolutely doesn't exist here," said Mr. Kalo, the leader of Bulgaria's community of 7,000 Jews.
The posters are a reproduction of the cover of a new Bulgarian translation of "Mein Kampf," Hitler's early memoir and political rant. They were clearly meant to provoke - and to sell books.
The strategy appears to be working, according to Galin Jordanov, one of the men responsible for publishing the book. Nearly 5,000 copies have been sold here so far, he said. That makes the book a best-seller in a nation of 8 million people where the average print run for a Bulgarian work of fiction is 530.
It was no coincidence, booksellers say, that sales rose considerably after the posters went up a week ago. While Mr. Jordanov denied any knowledge of them, he said with authority that 400 to 600 posters had gone up.
"When you say, 'This guy is such a bad guy,' people are curious," he said. "And when he writes a book, people will buy it. Curiosity kills the cat. We are generating a simple form of sensation."
Mr. Jordanov, 39, is the chief editor for the publishing house, Zhar Ptitza. He is big and swift-witted, has translated a book about the film director Elia Kazan and is not against a large dose of vodka just before noon. His English is not only good, but idiomatic in the distinct way of a man who learned it largely from banned Western books and music in the 1970s.
He contends that the issue of banned books - and not anti-Semitism - is the point about the publication here of "Mein Kampf." The Communists banned it too, he notes; now that the Berlin Wall has fallen, people want to read it.
Mr. Jordanov claims to have no connection to fascist parties - or to have anything against Jews. "Hitler has no friends here," he says. His publishing house has issued Machiavelli's "The Prince" and another book that has nothing to do with Jewish issues.
But it has also published a translation of a book casting doubt on the Holocaust. And what also troubles some Bulgarians is that he does not exactly repudiate Hitler.
The one thing Mr. Jordanov said he wanted to make clear was this: In his mind, Hitler was no worse than the Communists who ruled Russia and Eastern Europe from World War II until 1989, killing the hopes for many brainy young men - like him. "You can say the chief editor of the publishing house said that Adolf Hitler has done no harm to the Bulgarian people, unlike the governments that held power since 1945," he said.
Mr. Kalo is quick to say that publication of the book is an aberration in Bulgaria, a nation of many ethnicities (and where Turks, not Jews, were more often scapegoats). Though Bulgaria was an ally of Germany in World War II, none of Bulgaria's 54,000 Jews died in concentration camps, he said. They were, in fact, shielded by average Bulgarians.
Since then, Mr. Kalo said, there have been only scattered instances of anti-Semitism. Rightists, skinheads, even hard-line nationalists, never held much sway. But, he asked, do these posters mean that rightists are gaining ground now? Are the people who made the posters selling books or Hitler's ideas?
"I don't know their ideology," he said. "That is why I am afraid."
Both he and Zhelyo Zhelev, Bulgaria's former president and a dissident who wrote a well-known book about fascism, said they believed that Bulgaria's economic situation, among the worst in the former Communist countries, was playing a role.
"This is more of a commercial phenomenon than a political one," Mr. Zhelev said.
"There are a lot of people who are dissatisfied," he said. "They are struggling with unemployment, poverty, economic hardship, which are the traits for Bulgaria's transition from communism to democracy. This commercial campaign is exploiting this dissatisfaction."
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