The Consul General of Bulgaria in New York took part in an online discussion organized by an educational platform on Holocaust remembrance. The special guest was Sasha Wilson, an American actress and theater director of Bulgarian origin, who is the co-author of and the main character in the play "The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria".

The topic of Sasha Wilson's presentation was "Balkan Hope: How Nearly 50,000 Jewish Bulgarians Were Saved from Deportation During World War II". She began her story by telling how she came across Stefan Gruev's book "Crown of Thorns" in her grandfather's library (who emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States during World War II), which marked the beginning of her acquaintance with other books (including "Out of Hitler's Grip" by Michael Bar-Zohar and "An Extraordinary Fate" by Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and research, as a result of which, together with her partner Joseph Cullen, she wrote a play dedicated to the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust.

Sasha Wilson introduced the participants in the event to the historical developments in Bulgaria during the war and the difficult choices that Boris III faced and which, ultimately, led to the cancellation of the deportation and the rescue of all nearly 50 thousand Bulgarian Jews. The role of civil society, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Dimitar Peshev, Lilyana Panitsa, etc. in this process was also discussed.

At the beginning of the discussion, the Bulgarian Consul General briefly introduced the audience to the organization by the Consulate General in New York of events dedicated to the anniversary of the rescue of all nearly 50 thousand Bulgarian Jews and the honoring of the memory of 11 343 Jews who were deported under pressure from Nazi Germany from Northern Greece and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which were then under full German control and jurisdiction.

In the ensuing lively discussion, various issues related to the play, the historical context, the study of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews in the curricula, etc. were discussed.