The Aleph Centre for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation has published its 10th anniversary collection, "Starring: Humanity", the group said. The e-book is free to read on the centre's website.
One story in the collection is about Dyanko Prvchev. He was mayor of Burgas during World War II and fiercely opposed the deportation of the city's Jews.
Earlier on this story: Free Aleph e-book includes story about Burgas mayor Dyanko Pravchev
The book holds the best entries from the 13th International Literary and Film Competition "Whoever saves one human life saves the whole world". In this edition, 150 students from Bulgaria and abroad took part. The shortlisted young authors are represented by one art performance, 14 short stories and 9 films.
The heroes include politician Dimitar Peshev, who defied orders from Nazi Germany and saved 48,000 Bulgarian Jews from the death camps. The authors also write about Sofia Metropolitan Stefan I and Plovdiv Metropolitan Kiril, who helped save Bulgarian Jews. Other stories tell of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who risked his career to issue thousands of transit visas to fleeing Jews, and of revolutionary Todor Angelov-Bozhanata.
The young authors write about courage, moral choice and humanity, not just about pain and suffering. Aleph says they look for answers to how a person can do the right thing under pressure, where the line lies between fear and courage, and what to do when human dignity is under threat.
The centre says the memory of the rescuers is a duty today as well. Indifference is not harmless, the group explained, because anyone can face a choice on which a human life depends.
The book also includes memories and messages from the international festival "Friendship – Meaning and Salvation". It took place in Burgas in May 2026, with participants from Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Israel and Austria.
So far, the community of "keepers of memory" around Aleph has brought together nearly 2,500 young people from 16 countries. They come from Bulgaria, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Montenegro and Ukraine.
The group says the new collection is part of its work to protect historical memory and to encourage young people to study the past and turn its lessons into their own views.
The previous nine collections are also on the centre's website. Bulgaria's education ministry classes them as teaching aids for history and literature, and each year they feature in the national campaign "Hour of Dignity". Aleph hopes the new book will also reach teachers and students and become part of Bulgaria's modern literary and historical archive.