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Histories from Belene
We dedicate this project to Bulgaria’s young people and to the victims of communism!
This website is part of the Histories from Belene project of the Sofia Platform Foundation.
In order to preserve the memories about the communist regime and about the Belene camp, we recorded extensive interviews with survivors of the Belene camp, covering more than 3,000 questions. This formed the basis of the software for the virtual conversations with survivors, which you can access and conduct on this website. Along with these virtual conversations, we also created a digital tour of Belene, which offers 10 sites in and around the town of Belene. The tour is also accessible via this website.
We dedicate this project to Bulgaria’s young people and to the victims of communism!
We are grateful for the trust and courage of the survivors of the labor camp whom we interviewed. We express our gratitude for the support of Prof Daniela Koleva (Sofia University), Prof Momchil Metodiev (New Bulgarian University), Dimitar Dimov (Institute for the Study for the Near Past at New Bulgarian University) and Borislav Skochev – author of the extensive study The Belene Concentration Camp 1949-1987.
Belene is a special place with warm people. In predominantly Christian Orthodox Bulgaria, it is one of the few catholic towns. The Persina island nearby is home to thousands of different bird species and is a beautiful nature reserve. Besides this, however, the town was the site of the largest camp for those detained without trial or sentence in communist Bulgaria, the so-called Labor-education hostel.
For almost ten years, the Sofia Platform Foundation has been one of the few organizations which implements educational activities in Belene with the priceless support of the local community and especially Father Paolo Cortesi, Mihail Marinov from the Belene Island Foundation and the Belene Municipality.
The Histories from Belene project and our work as a whole would not have been possible without the support of the wider community of researchers, histories, writers and artists who are interested in communism. And most of all, it would not have been possible without the interest of Bulgaria’s young people in the recent past.
We dedicate this project to Bulgaria’s young people and to the victims of communism!
Coming soon
Coming in June – your opportunity to visit Belene and the site of the camp by selecting your tour guide and booking a date for your visit in advance.
Tsvetana Dzhermanova
4 years in labor camps Offence: anarchist
Tsvetana Dzhermanova (1928-2024) was born on 20 March 1928. Tsvetana attended the primary school in the village of Leskovets and completed her middle school studies in the village of Batanovtsi.
She became interested in the ideas of anarchism in 1946. In 1948, she was arrested in a drive against anarchists in Bulgaria and was sent to the forced labor camp in the village of Bosna, near the town of Silistra. In December 1951, she was transferred to the women’s section of the Belene camp (Shturcheto camp), where she remained until April 1952.
After her release from the camps, she was resettled a number of times. Tsvetana Dzhermanova passed away in 2024 at the age of 94.
Nikola Daskalov
8 months in the Belene camp
Offence: son of a provincial governor in the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Nikola Daskalov was born on 08 September 1934. His father, Dimitar Daskalov, was a regional governor of Plovdiv.
Following the communists’ coming to power, Nikola’s father was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death.
He was executed by firing squad on 10 February 1945. Nikola and his mother were resettled away from Sofia. Later on, Nikola was sent to the Belene camp.
Kolyo Vutev
42 days in the Lovech camp
Offence: hooligan, son of a member of the opposition
Kolyo Vutev (1940-2022) was a wrestler and a wrestling coach), born on September 10, 1940, in the village of Toros, near Lukovit. He was interned, without trial or sentence, when he was only 18 years old, in the labor camp near Lovech, which was also known as Sunny Beach. The reason for his internment was his unruly nature for which he was considered a hooligan. It is likely that contributing factors for his internment were that, in the words of Kolyo himself, his father opposed the expropriation of the villagers’ property and the formation of the cooperative labor agricultural farms, while his grandfather had been a mayor of the village. Kolyo Vutev passed away in 2022 at the age of 82.
Todor Anastasov
7 months and 1 week in the Belene camp
Offence: an attempt to escape outside Bulgaria
Todor Anastasov (1932-2023) was born on September 23, 1932 in Pleven in the family of an officer in the Bulgarian King’s army. After 1944, his family was forcibly resettled to Botevgrad. In November 1951, together with two friends of his, he made an unsuccessful attempt to leave Bulgaria. Because this was forbidden at the time, he was arrested and sent to Belene for two years, without trial or sentence. After Stalin’s death in August 1953, the camp was closed and Todor served only 7 months of his sentence. After his release from Belene, he was able to enroll in a university and graduate with a degree in physics in 1960. He worked as a teacher in Pernik, then at a research laboratory, and in 1963 he became a research associate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. After the fall of the communist regime, Todor Anastasov was the chairman of the Union of the Repressed by Communism in Bulgaria.
Todor passed away in late December 2023 at the age of 91.
Todor passed away in late December 2023 at the age of 91.
Velichko Velev
3 years in the Belene camp
Offence: participant in the anti-communist resistance
Velichko Velev was born on March 18, 1933 in Boyana, Sofia. His father’s restaurant was expropriated at the onset of communism, along with all the family’s property and assets. His father narrowly escaped execution, and the family lived in a tent in their own yard.
As a student, Velichko actively supported the Goryani movement, an armed resistance movement against the communist regime, and organized armed student resistance groups. Velichko was arrested in April 1951 and over the course of six months he was subjected to systemic beatings, starvation and torture.
In very poor physical condition, he was sent to the Belene labor camp without a sentence. Velichko was interned in Belene from October 1951 until September 1953.
Tsvetko Georgiev
3 years in camp and prisons
Offence: Agrarian, member of the opposition
Цветко Георгиев е роден на 26.02.1935 г. в с. Потоп, общ. Елин Пелин. Баща му е убит при престрелка с комунисти в Македония, а семейството му е обявено за „кулаци“. Цветко се включва в опозиционна организация, заради което е арестуван и съден за „въоръжена борба против народната власт“. Исканата присъда е смърт, но накрая на процеса Цветко получава 12 години затвор. Въдворен в Белене през октомври 1953 г., Цветко остава там до май 1955 г., когато е преместен в затвора-болница в Кюстендил, защото е болен от туберкулоза. После го местят в затвора в Пазарджик, откъдето е освободен през юли 1956 г. След освобождаването си Цветко е принуден да работи тежък физически труд, работи в мини и пещи в Кърджали, Перник, Горна Оряховица. След 1989-а година е активист във възстановения БЗНС „Никола Петков“ и е съветник на неговия лидер. Заместник-председател е на съюза на репресираните.
