Tolerance in the Past
– Collaboration In the Future
By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stanimir
Stanev
During the WWII, from November 1943 till September 1944 in Bulgaria, on the Shumen
Plateau, near the town of Shumen, there was
a POW-camp for the
Allied military personal, mostly from aircrafts,
fallen on the territory of Bulgaria for the stated period. Under the slogan
“Tolerance In the Past – Collaboration In the Future”, the Civil Initiative
Committee from Shumen organized several initiatives to
commemorate the 60th anniversary from the releasing of the POW by
the Bulgarian government. The main objective of these activities was to give
opportunity to the heirs of the veterans for future collaboration. Civil
Initiative Committee with the support of Shumen University, Shumen Municipality, Civil Society for Shumen and “Shumensko
Plateau” Nature Park Directorate carried out the following activities on 8
September 2004:
- Scientific
session at the Shumen University, dedicated to the 60th
anniversary from the releasing of the POW and from the closing down of the
camp near Shumen.
- Visit
to the places near Shumen were the POW camp used to
stand.
- Opening
an exhibition at the Regional History Museum – Shumen.
In the exhibition were also some
exponents from the Museum of Aviation in Plovdiv provided by his
manager Mr. Slavi Pavlov. Bulgarian
veteran pilots from WWII Alexander Gigov and Dimitar Somov were also in
Shumen.
At the
opening of the scientific session the participants were greeted on behalf of
the Mayor of Shumen. Moving speeches were made by Vesselin Stoyanov – son of
Bulgarian greatest ace during WWII General Soyan Stoyanov ,
and by Robert Johnson from
Texas – former POW in the camp and
the former gunner from the bomber that was shot down on 24
June 1944
near Samokov . Mr. Johnson has arrived at the
invitation of the Mayor of Shumen together with his
wife and one of his sons. His visit to Bulgaria ended on 10 September with his visit to Samokov, where the
bomber B-24 “ Gidi Gidi Boom Boom” was shot down on 24
June 1944.
He and his family met with veterans from World War II and visited the places
where the plane was shot down and where the prisoners of war were kept before
their departure to Shumen.)Briefing for journalists was
carried out. It was attended by all of the guests of the event. There also was
one of the former commandants of the camp – the 90-years-old Dragomir Evrov from
Sliven, known for his humane attitude
towards the POW and veteran from Bulgarian anti-nazi compain in 1944. A moving moment was the hug between the
former enemies . It is interesting to note that
during the preparation of the initiatives another former commandant of the camp
was found – Kiril Kostadinov
Kiryakov. On the 6 September Robert
Johnson and his family, guided by Ass. Prof. Stanimir
Stanev,
visited him. There is certain data
that Kiryakov showed very humane attitude towards the
prisoners of war.
The
following scientific papers were presented during the conference at the
University:
- Chronicle, people and events in the Shumen prisoners-of-war camp by Col.(ret.) Ass.Prof.
Stanimir Stanev,
scientific coordinator of the events.
- Documents for POW camp around Shumen from Central Military Archives
– Veliko Turnovo, by the head of Archives Ivan Koev
- The “black Easter” for the Bulgarian Military Aviation –by Major Manush Hristov from the Air
Force Training Base “Georgi Benkovski”
– Dolna Mitropoliya
- The Bulgarian partisan army in the strategic plans of the allied
forces –
by Prof. DSc. Marin Kalonkin
- For one small military trophy –by Ivan Bonchev
- The American air-raid over Dupnitsa – by Dr. Ivan Sekelariev
In the
afternoon, participants in the events have visited by buses the two places on
the Shumen plateau, where the camp used to
stand. The group was joined by the defense attaché from the US Embassy
in Sofia – Col. Carla Bass. At 16.00, with the attendance of many guests,
the
exhibition at the Regional History Museum in Shumen was opened. It was dedicated to the
heroism of the Bulgarian pilots when defending Sofia and to the citizens of
Shumen and their tolerant attitude towards
the prisoners of war . After the opening of the
exhibition, at the hall of the history museum continued the reading of papers
from the conference by famous Bulgarian scientists
historians – Prof. DSc Vitka
Toshkova, Ass. Prof. Dr. Stoyan Tanev and others.
In the evening the management of the Shumen University gave official dinner for the guests
of the event and for the participants in the conference. During that dinner the
undoubted contribution of the conference to the complementation of the history
of the camp was stated.
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