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Book a Tour
To learn more about the different tours, visit the page Belene Tour
In order to book your visit, please complete the short form on this page at least one week before your visit. Blacked-out dates in the calendar indicate that there are no guides available. The price of the tour will be calculated based on your selected parameters and will be displayed. When you complete the form and press the “Book” button below, your information will be sent to your selected guide. They will get in touch with you to confirm the next steps regarding your visit. The guide will secure the visitor passes issued by the Ministry of Justice that are required for visits to Persin Island and will also arrange appropriate transport. All payments are made to the guide directly in cash upon your visit. The Sofia Platform Foundation will not receive any funds from your visit to Belene.
Booking form
(All fields are mandatory.)
Working hours change depending on the season.
From 1.10 to 15.01 - from Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 14:00 (latest time of entry); on Saturdays and Sundays, visiting the camp is only possible from 2:00 p.m.
From 15.01 to 31.03 - from Monday to Sunday from 09:00 a.m. Last time to enter the camp - 2:00 p.m.
From 1.04 to 31.09 - from Monday to Sunday from 09:00. Last time to enter the camp - 4:00 p.m.
Information about the guides
The guides who will welcome the group are members of the local community. They are keen to promote their town and its beautiful natural surroundings. They believe it is important to preserve and pass on the memories of the bad and the good that has happened here. The guides are independent of the Sofia Platform Foundation, which maintains this website.
Mihail Marinov
Mihail is the chairperson of the Belene Island Foundation; he has been working to preserve the memory of the camp since 2014. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
Mihail Marinov
Mihail is the chairperson of the Belene Island Foundation; he has been working to preserve the memory of the camp since 2014. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
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 and 4 months in labor camps
Offense: anarchist
Tsvetana Dzhermanova (1928-2024) was born on March 20, 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. At the age of twenty, Tsvetana was arrested on December 16, 1948 in a drive against anarchists in Bulgaria. She was sent to the forced labor camp in the village of Bosna, near Silistra, in January 1949 where she remained until the late fall of 1952. In December 1952 she was transferred to the women’s section of the Belene camp (Shturcheto camp), where she remained until April 30, 1952. Tsvetana, along with many other internees, was released from the camp after the death of Stalin. According to the State Security archives Tsvetana signed a declaration for cooperation while in the Belene camp, however, there is no documental evidence that she ever provided any information.
After her release from the camps, Tsvetana was forcibly resettled a number of times and was engaged for a long time in low-skilled jobs.
Tsvetana Dzhermanova passed away on February 19, 2024 at the age of 94.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Nikola Daskalov
9 months under arrest and in a camp
Offense: son of a provincial governor in the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Nikola Daskalov (1934-2025) was born on September 8, 1934. His father, Dimitar Daskalov, was a provincial governor of Plovdiv and Xanthi in the Kingdom of Bulgaria. He was tried by the People’s Court following the events of September 9, 1944, and his death sentence was executed in February 1945. Nikola and his mother were forcibly resettled from Sofia to Gorna Brestnitsa, near Lovech.
Nikola came from an “enemy” family and in 1953 he was arrested following staged accusations. After nearly four months under investigation, he was sent to Belene for three years of “re-education”, of which he spent just over five months in the camp.
Nikola was recruited by State Security at the age of 18 while he was interned in Belene. In a series of interviews as well as in his testimony here he openly talks about State Security’s repression and the trauma of those who were recruited.
After his release from the camp, Nikola had different low-skilled jobs; he later became a photographer and worked for different state institutes. After the fall of the communist regime, he was active in public and political life and held different roles, including deputy minister.
Nikola Daskalov passed away on January 15, 2025 at the age of 90.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Kolyo Vutev
42 days in the Sunny Beach camp near Lovech
Offense: "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, in 1959 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 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.
In his testimonies Kolyo indicated that he spent forty-two days at the Sunny Beach camp in the period June – July 1959. In fact, the period of his internment should be after September 1959, when the camp was created. During his time at the camp, Kolyo witnessed brutal and sadistic murders of fellow internees. He was taken out to replace another wrestler in a competition and was fortunate not to return.
Kolyo Vutev passed away in 2022 at the age of 82.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Todor Anastasov
9 months under arrest and in a camp
Offense: an attempt to escape from 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, Todor made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from Bulgaria, which became the reason for his arrest. After fifty-one days of investigation, he was sent to the Belene camp for two years, without a sentence.
Of the two years, Todor spent seven months in the camp – from December 29, 1952 to August 5, 1953 – when he was released early. After his release from Belene, he was able to enroll in university and complete a degree in physics. 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 chairman of the Union of the Repressed by Communism in Bulgaria.
Todor passed away on December 29, 2023 at the age of 91
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Velichko Velev
2.5 years under arrest and in a camp
Offense: 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 on April 27, 1951 in Sofia. He spent six months under investigation, during which he was subjected to systemic beatings, starvation and torture. While in poor physical condition, Velichko was sent to the Belene camp without a term of internment or a sentence. He remained there until September 1953.
After his time in the camp, Velichko was arrested three more times on fabricated charges. He was persecuted by State Security throughout his life and never regained his family’s expropriated properties.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Tsvetko Georgiev
3 years under arrest, in a camp and prisons Offense: Agrarian, member of the opposition
Tsvetko Georgiev was born on February 26, 1935, in the village of Potop, near Elin Pelin. His father was killed in an exchange of fire with communists in Macedonia, and the family was declared to be kulaks.
Tsvetko joined an opposition organization, for which he was arrested and tried for armed struggle against the "power of the people". The prosecution demanded the death sentence, but at the end of the trial Tsvetko was given twelve years in prison.
Interned in Belene in October 1953, Tsvetko remained there until May 1955 when he was transferred to the prison-hospital in Kyustendil because he had contracted tuberculosis. He was then moved to the prison in Pazardzhik, from where he was released on August 27, 1956. Following his release, Tsvetko had to perform hard manual labor and worked in mines and metal furnace facilities in Kardzhali, Pernik, Gorna Oryahovitsa.
After 1989, he was an activist in the reinstated Bulgarian Agrarian National Union - Nikola Petkov, and was an advisor to its leader. Tsvetko was deputy-chairperson of the Union of the Repressed by Communism.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Zheko Stoyanov
3 years and 1 month under arrest and in and political prison
Offense: participant in the anti-communist resistance
Zheko Stoyanov is a political prisoner, a member of the opposition, and a politician. He was born on May 4, 1939, in the village of Lyulin near Yambol. Accordin to the State Security archives he was recruited at the age of sixteen through extortion - he was promised that in exchange, his father would be released from prison. Five years later he was removed from the files because he didn’t provide information.
In 1961, Zheko was sentenced to death for resistance to the communist authorities. Subsequently, his sentence was changed to lengthy imprisonment.
In 1964, Zheko Stoyanov received an amnesty and was released from the Stara Zagora prison. In order to earn his living, he did hard manual labor, working as a porter, a painter on construction sites, and a miner. For twenty-two years he worked in underground mines.
After the democratic transition of 1989, Zheko Stoyanov entered politics and in 1997 he was elected a member of parliament for the United Democratic Forces. At the age of sixty, he completed a degree in economics.
In 1961, Zheko was sentenced to death for resistance to the communist authorities. Subsequently, his sentence was changed to lengthy imprisonment.
In 1964, Zheko Stoyanov received an amnesty and was released from the Stara Zagora prison. In order to earn his living, he did hard manual labor, working as a porter, a painter on construction sites, and a miner. For twenty-two years he worked in underground mines.
After the democratic transition of 1989, Zheko Stoyanov entered politics and in 1997 he was elected a member of parliament for the United Democratic Forces. At the age of sixty, he completed a degree in economics.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Alfred Foscolo
2 years and 8 months under arrest and in political prison
Offense: dissemination of anti-communist leaflets
Alfred Foscolo was born on April 24, 1942, in Sofia to a Bulgarian mother and a French father. In 1949, after the establishment of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria, the Foscolo family was forced to leave the country and settled in Paris.
After 1958, Alfred was granted the right to travel to Bulgaria, where he spent his summer holidays. There he got to know the new reality of the country and met other like-minded individuals who were dissatisfied with the regime and with whom, in 1968, he distributed printed leaflets against the Communist Party.
Arrested on August 28, 1968, for the distribution of these leaflets, Alfred was sentenced as a spy to fifteen years in prison, of which he served three in the Stara Zagora prison. Following diplomatic pressure, he was released on April 30, 1971, and left Bulgaria. He later returned to illegally take his beloved out of the country, succeeding through a complex and risky plan.
After settling in France, Alfred actively collaborated with groups fighting for human rights in Bulgaria and helped illegally take other political prisoners out of the country. He currently lives in Sofia.
After 1958, Alfred was granted the right to travel to Bulgaria, where he spent his summer holidays. There he got to know the new reality of the country and met other like-minded individuals who were dissatisfied with the regime and with whom, in 1968, he distributed printed leaflets against the Communist Party.
Arrested on August 28, 1968, for the distribution of these leaflets, Alfred was sentenced as a spy to fifteen years in prison, of which he served three in the Stara Zagora prison. Following diplomatic pressure, he was released on April 30, 1971, and left Bulgaria. He later returned to illegally take his beloved out of the country, succeeding through a complex and risky plan.
After settling in France, Alfred actively collaborated with groups fighting for human rights in Bulgaria and helped illegally take other political prisoners out of the country. He currently lives in Sofia.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
Mehmed Turker
Four years in camps and in forced resettlement
Offence: disagreement with the change of Turkish names to Bulgarian
Mehmed Türker is a Bulgarian citizen of Turkish origin. He was born on May 20, 1950, in the village of Sindeltsi, near Kardzhali. He completed his secondary education in Krumovgrad and obtained а degree in Turkish Philology from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. He then worked as a teacher in his home region, where he befriended the author and activist Ömer Osman Erendoruk. This friendship led to Mehmed’s arrest and investigation.
Mehmed was arrested on January 3, 1985, and interned in the Belene camp. After his release from Belene, he was moved to the camp near Bobov dol and later forcibly resettled to a village near Kyustendil. In 1989 he was expelled to Turkey where he became a journalist, worked for the Türkiye newspaper and wrote his memoirs. As a reporter, he covered the events around the so-called Big Excursion and the forced deportation of Bulgarian Turks to Turkey in 1989.
Mehmed Turker is well known for his civic and public contributions. He is the author of several books, numerous articles and a documentary film that depict the experiences of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the second half of the 20th century.
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The testimonies published here present survivors’ personal memories and accounts and reflect their individual experiences. They do not substitute professional historical research and may contain inaccuracies.
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