The former Jewish synagogue of Blagoevgrad — now used as a cultural centre named after the Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev — carries a remarkable history. During the Second World War, when Bulgarian Jews were subject to deportation orders under the German alliance, the Jewish community of Blagoevgrad was protected by a combination of local civic leaders, Orthodox clergy, and ordinary citizens who refused to comply. The community survived intact; the synagogue survived with them.
The building itself is worth seeing: a late 19th-century structure with some Moorish architectural elements, now housing cultural events. The story of the Bulgarian Jews' survival is one of the more striking chapters of the Second World War in the Balkans — Bulgaria's government officially collaborated with Germany while much of its population quietly refused to implement the worst policies.
story: "In March 1943, 8,500 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia and Thrace were deported and killed. But the 50,000 Jews in Bulgaria proper were saved — the result of a resistance that included a letter of protest from the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and direct appeals from King Boris III, who appeared to conclude that the human cost was too high to enforce. The Blagoevgrad synagogue community was among those who survived."