Bulgarian Jews commemorate survival

A ceremony has been held in Bulgaria to mark the anniversary of the country's refusal to send Jews to the death camps during World War II.

Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, described the anniversary as a day of national pride, as he joined hundreds of Jews in the city of Plovdiv.

In 1943, German Nazi forces stationed in Bulgaria took 8,500 Jews to a square in Plovdiv in preparation for deportation to concentration camps in Poland.

They gave up their plans following protests from ordinary Bulgarians, Christian clergymen, politicians and the King, Boris III.

As a result, none of Bulgaria's 50,000 were deported, even though the government was an ally of Nazi Germany.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service