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Speaker 1: March nineteen forty three, and Bulgaria suddenly wakes up to

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Speaker 1: what being an ally of Nazi Germany really means. A

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Speaker 1: top secret mission has begun to round up thousands of

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Speaker 1: Bulgarian Jews. They're being taken to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second biggest city.

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Speaker 1: Everyone is terrified. From there, the Jews will be forced

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Speaker 1: onto trains headed for concentration camps in Poland. But someone

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Speaker 1: has leaped the secret plan and now there's uproar across

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Speaker 1: the country. Politicians, intellectuals and leaders from the Orthodox Church

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Speaker 1: are openly protesting. And just as the guards are about

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Speaker 1: to start loading.

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Speaker 2: In the middle of the over the way that was stopped.

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Speaker 1: Michael bar Zoha had Jewish friends who were already on

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Speaker 1: their way to the rail station and police, you're free.

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Speaker 1: The police announce the trains pull away empty. There was

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Speaker 1: only one explanation. Someone must have signed the order to

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Speaker 1: let those people go.

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Speaker 2: Somebody had to say stop.

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Speaker 3: Who was responsible for that?

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Speaker 2: Then?

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Speaker 3: Who made that happen? The head of the country, and

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Speaker 3: who was the head of the country down to him?

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Speaker 4: Is it? Yeah? Yeah, well Boris is cure.

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Speaker 1: And if you guessed who it was, you can bet

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Speaker 1: Hitler did too, and we know the furor is unlikely

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Speaker 1: to shrug off disobedience. Forgive and forget are not words

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Speaker 1: in his vocabulary. In Hitler's eyes, King Boris has committed

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Speaker 1: the ultimate crime. King Boris has saved the Jews, is

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Speaker 1: the culprit, and is the motive for Boris's murder. Staring

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Speaker 1: us right in the face from Blanchard House and exactly right, media,

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Speaker 1: this is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan, Chapter two, Lies, Lies, Lies.

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Speaker 1: It's nineteen ninety four and we're partying in La. It's

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Speaker 1: Friday night, and it's a big posh dinner, white tablecloths

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Speaker 1: and candlesticks and some very decent wine. Everyone's doled up,

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Speaker 1: well they would be. There's royalty present.

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Speaker 4: Thank you.

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Speaker 5: It is our honor tonight to welcome no other than

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Speaker 5: His Majesty Simeon Saxon.

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Speaker 6: All I remember is sitting and having dinner.

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Speaker 7: With the King of Bulgaria.

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Speaker 3: That's what I remember.

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Speaker 6: I don't remember what he said. I remember him being charming,

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Speaker 6: absolutely charming, and so you know, I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Just very regal.

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Speaker 1: That's Elaine all the ease. Years on, and she still

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Speaker 1: can't believe her luck. The seating plan that evening put

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Speaker 1: her right next to King Simeon of Bulgaria, Boris's son,

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Speaker 1: the man I've been chatting to in the Royal Palace

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Speaker 1: in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. For Elane, this night back in

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Speaker 1: ninety four was a wonderful evening, one she'll never forget.

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Speaker 6: Who would not be impressed with a king since I'd

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Speaker 6: never met a king in my life, So yeah, I

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Speaker 6: was impressed.

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Speaker 1: This wasn't just any old party. It was a very

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Speaker 1: special award ceremony, and Simeon was there to collect a prize,

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Speaker 1: but not for himself.

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Speaker 5: Remember someone who for so long has been forgotten, Boris,

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Speaker 5: the third of Bulgaria.

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Speaker 1: Simeon was there on behalf of his late father, King Boris.

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Speaker 1: And this party is actually a Shabbat celebration Shabbad, the

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Speaker 1: Jewish day of rest. Pretty Much all the guests here

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Speaker 1: are Jewish, including Elaine Asa. Her husband is Rabbi Haim Asa,

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Speaker 1: and he's organized this whole ceremony.

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Speaker 6: I remember just being our struck because it was just

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Speaker 6: so beautiful.

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Speaker 1: The king, who was in partnership with the architect of

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Speaker 1: the Holocaust, Adolph Hitler, is getting an award from the

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Speaker 1: La Jewish community. And I'm not the only one who

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Speaker 1: finds this hard to square because not everyone in the

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Speaker 1: La Jewish community was invited to this fancy party, and

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Speaker 1: if they had been asked, many would have declined because well,

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Speaker 1: not all of them agreed with Rabbi Haim and Elaine

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Speaker 1: Asa about King Boris. But let's leave that for a

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Speaker 1: little later. For now, this is Elaine's view, as it.

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Speaker 6: Is the oracle figure in the story of the saving

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Speaker 6: of the Jews. He played an important part. Elaine should

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Speaker 6: know I have proof the King saved my husband.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think I can safely say we have a

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Speaker 1: possible motive here. Any friend of the Jews was by

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Speaker 1: default an enemy of Hitler's. A bit of a backstory.

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Speaker 1: Elaine met her husband him at summer camp in the US,

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Speaker 1: but he was Bulgarian born and bred. Sadly, Hyen passed

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Speaker 1: away a few years ago, so we only get to

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Speaker 1: meet him through her. But I get the feeling we

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Speaker 1: all would have liked to have bumped into Hyien back

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Speaker 1: in the day.

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Speaker 6: I saw this cute Israeli guy picking corn. You know,

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Speaker 6: from the waist up. He didn't have anything on and

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Speaker 6: I sort of fell in love at that moment.

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Speaker 3: I love that.

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Speaker 1: So it was pretty much seeing his body start.

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Speaker 3: That was start.

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Speaker 8: It was no.

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Speaker 6: I have to tell you what real intrigued me. Our

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Speaker 6: dating was really his sharing his stories, his life stories.

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Speaker 6: And I was really so intrigued. I mean well, first

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Speaker 6: of all, Bulgaria. I didn't even know where it was

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Speaker 6: on the map. I was seventeen, What did I know.

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Speaker 1: After a few more dates and a very long marriage,

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Speaker 1: Elaine became well versed on Bulgarian history. At rabbinical school,

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Speaker 1: Haim wrote his thesis on the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews,

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Speaker 1: and he spent his life campaigning to get King Boris

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Speaker 1: the recognition he felt he deserved.

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Speaker 6: You know, he spoke about this forever, and he found

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Speaker 6: a space in telling his story, a space to thank

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Speaker 6: Boris for what he did.

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Speaker 1: Boris's children, King Simeon and Princess Maria Louisa, have heard

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Speaker 1: many similar testimonies. They're immensely proud their father defied Hitler.

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Speaker 9: Bulgarian Jews, many of them that I come across time

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Speaker 9: in a gain say bless your father's soul and this,

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Speaker 9: and that he was behind the fact of not extraditing

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Speaker 9: our Jewish population to camps in Germany.

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Speaker 8: Orders must have come from him.

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Speaker 10: Wherever I've gone in my ninety years and come across

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Speaker 10: Bulgarian Jewish people, I've always had the greatest and most

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Speaker 10: wonderful welcome Papa and all that.

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Speaker 8: They all remember it.

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Speaker 1: But it's saving the lives that the Jews cost. Boris

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Speaker 1: his own.

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Speaker 3: This is an amazing building, isn't it. I mean I

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Speaker 3: never knew it was. Have you been here before, yes,

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Speaker 3: yes I have.

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Speaker 1: I love it to try and find out my producer

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Speaker 1: e J. And I are a little closer to home

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Speaker 1: than you might imagine.

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Speaker 11: I love it.

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Speaker 4: What is it?

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Speaker 1: Sort of it looks like brutalist architect which it's like

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Speaker 1: all concrete. This is the National Archives in southwest London.

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Speaker 1: You're probably thinking we're a little bit off patch here,

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Speaker 1: maybe about one and a half thousand miles off patch,

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Speaker 1: and that we ought to be looking in the Bulgarian

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Speaker 1: National Archives. Yes, that would be great, except that the

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Speaker 1: Bulgarian archives, well they've been stolen. When the Russians ended

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Speaker 1: their communist occupation of Bulgaria in nineteen ninety one, they

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Speaker 1: took the National Archives with them. That means that all

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Speaker 1: those vital records are still in Russia and right now,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you're aware. Russia isn't really the kind of

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Speaker 1: place where journalists can just rock up and go digging

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Speaker 1: around for information. But there's another paper trail we can follow.

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Speaker 1: Until Bulgaria joined the Pact with Germany in nineteen forty one,

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Speaker 1: Britain had an embassy in so and most of the

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Speaker 1: paperwork from that embassy is now declassified. And here at

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Speaker 1: the London Archives, somewhere among the millions of records and documents.

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Speaker 3: I don't know, is it all computerized as well?

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Speaker 12: It is.

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Speaker 13: It's a bit fiddly, but it's going to take us

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Speaker 13: some time, I think, But I think it's worth it.

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Speaker 12: It's worth it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, we're reappearing in a couple of weeks, aren't me.

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Speaker 3: Oh have we got your sleeping though?

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Speaker 1: This certainly isn't going to be easy. I bet lots

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Speaker 1: of people can't be bothered to come here.

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Speaker 3: Actually A look, well I have to drag you obviously.

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Speaker 1: Obviously I've never bothered before, but not drag exactly. But

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Speaker 1: I do have a confession. Most of my journalistic scoops

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Speaker 1: have come through talking to people I put them at

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Speaker 1: ease and ask the right questions. Then sometimes without even

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Speaker 1: knowing it, people well they just tell the truth. But

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Speaker 1: when your murder investigation is nearly a century old, eyewitnesses

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Speaker 1: are a bit thin on the ground. So all we

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Speaker 1: have is the paper trail, and that's really time consuming.

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Speaker 1: If we don't find anything, I'll blame you for wasting

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Speaker 1: weeks in there. Ago, I can't believe we'll find anything.

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Speaker 13: Of course we will, of course we've all I mean, what.

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Speaker 3: Kind of things do they having an archived like this?

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Speaker 13: I mean, you know, documents from the Foreign Office that

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Speaker 13: have been declassified now that were secret. I'm sure we're

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Speaker 13: going to find things top secret, I promise me.

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Speaker 1: Do they also have really secret at the top or

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Speaker 1: some ultra secret? Although King Boris officially died of a

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Speaker 1: heart attack, even at the time, the rumors were rife

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Speaker 1: that he'd actually been poisoned, But what was he poisoned with?

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Speaker 1: That's where I'm hoping the archives will deliver some clues,

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Speaker 1: because my own experience of poison is rather limited, unless

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Speaker 1: you count crime fiction. Of course, I've had enough Agatha

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Speaker 1: Christie books to know that arsenic is always on the

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Speaker 1: suspect list, but that seems unlikely here because by the

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Speaker 1: Second World War doctors could detect arsenic pretty quickly. Cyanide

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Speaker 1: is another famous poison, Agatha Christie's favorite. Quite a few

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Speaker 1: Nazis used it to kill themselves after the war, including

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Speaker 1: Hitler's wife. That cyanide leaves a distinctive armored smell, and

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Speaker 1: again that would have been immediately identified. So I'm looking

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Speaker 1: for something more sophisticated, a chemical weapon, basically something designed

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Speaker 1: in a laboratory for a targeted killing.

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Speaker 3: I think I need a briefing from.

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Speaker 1: Someone whose knowledge extends beyond detective thrillers, someone who could

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Speaker 1: at least give me some context as I scan the archives.

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Speaker 14: My name's hemis Schubrecagordon Myra of expertise is chemical, biological, radiological,

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Speaker 14: a NIKA characterrorism.

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Speaker 1: This man knows everything about the state of the art toxins.

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Speaker 1: Colonel Hamish's ex British Army. He's served in Iraq and Afghanistan,

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Speaker 1: has worked all over Syria and is currently advising the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian government. He's an expert on the history and use

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Speaker 1: of chemical weapons.

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Speaker 14: After the First World War, chemical weapons developed into much

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Speaker 14: more deadly weapons called nerve agents. Which basically destroy your nerves. Now,

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Speaker 14: Hitler had a vast stock of nerve agents, and he

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Speaker 14: developed them nerve agents.

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Speaker 1: But before I get too carried away with this, Boris

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Speaker 1: was in agony. His organs were failing, and crucially, his

201
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Speaker 1: heart shut down. Do nerve agents affect the heart?

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Speaker 14: These nerve agents do impact your nerves, and your heart

203
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Speaker 14: is probably the first thing to break down. So some

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Speaker 14: sort of nerve agent would seem vaguely to fit the

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Speaker 14: bill of some of the symptoms that you're mentioning. If

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Speaker 14: it was the Germans, who seemed to be the most likely,

207
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Speaker 14: I would have thought it's some out of their chemical

208
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Speaker 14: weapon portfolio.

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Speaker 1: This is significant information. I now have a motive and

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Speaker 1: a potential means. I just need the archives to give

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Speaker 1: me some proof that the king somehow fell foul of

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Speaker 1: a nerve agent. Keywords Boris, King, Boris, Boris.

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Speaker 3: They don't have to be an order, do there. It's

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Speaker 3: just a keywords king. You have to do plus or

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Speaker 3: minus or whatever.

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Speaker 1: King, Bulgaria, Bulgaria and World War Two?

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Speaker 3: Right, enter, Oh, good grief?

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Speaker 8: Quite a few.

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00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:36,920
Speaker 3: Oh great.

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Speaker 1: While we're waiting for those documents to arrive, let's just

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Speaker 1: wind back a few years. I want to examine how

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Speaker 1: Hitler and King Boris became allies, because on the face

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Speaker 1: of it, they certainly don't look like natural bedfellows. Boris

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Speaker 1: hadn't banked on being in Hitler's camp at all. As

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Speaker 1: war brewed, he spent months traveling around the European capitals

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Speaker 1: trying to negotiate a peaceful way out. He knocked on

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Speaker 1: pretty much every leader's door because Boris knew Bulgaria was

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Speaker 1: ill prepared for conflict under the ill fated leadership of

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Speaker 1: his father, Foxy King Ferdinand. It had suffered a brutal

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Speaker 1: defeat in the First World War. It lost huge tracts

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Speaker 1: of territory as a result, including Macedonia and the area

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Speaker 1: known as Thrace. And more than that, says historian Tessa Dunlop,

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Speaker 1: it lost its army.

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Speaker 15: Remember, Boris didn't start rearming until about nineteen thirty five,

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Speaker 15: wasn't allowed to. Bulgara had been totally dearmed. So this

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Speaker 15: is a dude who's got basically a country without a

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Speaker 15: protective shell. He has no real soldiers.

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Speaker 3: Why on earth would he want to go to war.

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Speaker 1: Boris was a seasoned soldier, but he was terribly marked

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Speaker 1: by the brutal conflicts he'd fought in both Balkan Wars

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve and nineteen thirteen, and then the First

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Speaker 1: World War. When he became king aged twenty four, he

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Speaker 1: swore he would never allow Bulgarian blood to be spilled again,

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Speaker 1: which was why at the start of the Second World

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Speaker 1: War he declared Bulgaria was neutral. But the war spread

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Speaker 1: like wildfire.

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Speaker 15: Little Bulgaria was in the middle of a giant world

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Speaker 15: feed and there's no way on Earth it couldn't get

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Speaker 15: sucked up into the drama.

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Speaker 1: Now, this next bit of history is crucial to understanding

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Speaker 1: who might have killed the king and whether it might

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Speaker 1: have been Hitler. I'll explain as clearly as I can.

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Speaker 1: Here's what forced Bulgaria to stop being neutral and put

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Speaker 1: its slap bang into Hitler's camp. So Germany and Russia

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Speaker 1: were allies at the start of the war. That suited

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Speaker 1: Boris just fine. Germany was Bulgaria's biggest economic partner, and

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Speaker 1: the Soviets had rescued Bulgaria from Turkish occupation only fifty

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Speaker 1: years back, so the Bulgarians felt an affinity with the Russians.

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Speaker 1: It was all just about manageable until the summer of

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, when Hitler tore up his non aggression

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Speaker 1: packed with Russia.

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Speaker 15: The problem is when Hitler has this idea that actually, nah,

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Speaker 15: I'm going to head east. You know, I'm going to

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Speaker 15: build my empire in Russia. I'm going to kick down

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Speaker 15: the rotten door. And that means Boris has to get

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Speaker 15: off the neutrality tyrope. He's got to call it. Is

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Speaker 15: it going to be Germany or is it going to

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Speaker 15: be the USSR?

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Speaker 1: And the crunch point came when Hitler decided he fancied

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Speaker 1: his chances in Greece. There was only one route, and

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Speaker 1: that was straight through Bulgaria. Boris now had to pick

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Speaker 1: a side.

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Speaker 3: Look at the map.

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Speaker 15: Need to get to Greece, okay, to shore up the Italians.

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Speaker 15: How are they going to get there? They've got to

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Speaker 15: put boots on the ground and they've got to go

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Speaker 15: through Bulgaria. Better they go through as friends than his enemies.

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Speaker 8: We know what.

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Speaker 15: Happens if you're Germany's enemy.

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Speaker 2: We already know that.

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Speaker 15: By nineteen forty one.

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Speaker 1: Bulgarian historian George bos Duganov spells out the stark choice

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Speaker 1: facing King Boris.

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Speaker 4: The journals have only one question, frank or four.

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Speaker 11: They don't care what Bulgarian king is thinking about at all, right,

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Speaker 11: friend or four?

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Speaker 1: So Boris had two options, resist Hitler, knowing that he'd

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Speaker 1: invade anyway and accept the consequences of that would be brutal,

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Speaker 1: or give in and save all that bloodshed. His daughter,

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Speaker 1: Princess Maria Louisa is certain he made the right choice.

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Speaker 10: Had we opposed Germany, there would have been nothing left,

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Speaker 10: as they did to other countries in Europe, run us

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Speaker 10: over kill a bonisam. It was no choice, absolutely no choice,

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Speaker 10: absolutely choice.

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Speaker 1: So to protect his country, King Boris chose Germany. He

296
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Speaker 1: signed a pact with Germany, Italy and Japan in March

297
00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, and from that moment on Boris was

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Speaker 1: a marked man. Overnight he became an enemy of the Allies.

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Speaker 1: Oh right, here we go at the Q Archives in London.

300
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:41,280
Speaker 1: The first batch of the documents we called up has arrived.

301
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Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of declassified telegrams and letters from

302
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:50,399
Speaker 1: Sir George Rendall to the Foreign Office marked secret. Rendell

303
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,040
Speaker 1: was the British ambassador to Sofia during the war. He

304
00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:56,560
Speaker 1: seemed to get on well with Boris, but when the

305
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 1: King signed that pact with Hitler, Rendall was curious.

306
00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,680
Speaker 3: He freaked out. He felt the King did.

307
00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,000
Speaker 1: Have a choice about throwing in his lot with Hitler,

308
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Speaker 1: and now that the Nazis were walking the streets of Sofia,

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Speaker 1: Rendell was panicking. He was stuck in enemy territory and

310
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Speaker 1: he wanted to go home. He demanded permission to break

311
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:22,360
Speaker 1: off all ties with Bulgaria immediately. In one particular document,

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00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:23,639
Speaker 1: he's pretty dramatic.

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Speaker 14: Bulgaria had not only been able to prevent the burglar

314
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Speaker 14: of from entering, but had opened the window to him

315
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Speaker 14: and beckoned him in.

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Speaker 3: A few days.

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Speaker 1: Later, the British embassy in Sofia was closed and Rendall

318
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:43,800
Speaker 1: left the country for good. The Allies certainly gave Boris

319
00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,879
Speaker 1: the cold shoulder, but whether he liked it or not,

320
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Speaker 1: the new found friendship with Germany meant the King would

321
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:55,000
Speaker 1: get plenty of FaceTime with Hitler, and at first glance,

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Speaker 1: the King seemed very happy to hang out with the

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Speaker 1: Fura and his henchmen. Boris would sometimes go hunting and

324
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Speaker 1: shooting with them. He spoke perfect German, of course, remember

325
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 1: his father Ferdinand was German. And whenever the King met

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Speaker 1: Hitler it was all big smiles and handshakes and slaps

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Speaker 1: on the back, a real bromance.

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00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:25,639
Speaker 4: Or was it only on film footage? They are friends

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00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 4: only in film footage.

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00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,160
Speaker 1: So if they didn't share a friendship, did they share

331
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 1: an ideology?

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Speaker 4: He's very clever in the blomacy.

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Speaker 1: Now, George Bosduganov isn't just a historian, He's Bulgaria's leading historian.

334
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Speaker 3: He's unbelievably learned. Now.

335
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Speaker 1: I've done my best. I've digested all the books out

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Speaker 1: there on King Boris and the Second World War, but

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Speaker 1: it's fair to say that I'm not quite as up

338
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,960
Speaker 1: to speed as mister bos Duganov on the minutii of

339
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Speaker 1: Balkan history. And I get the impression that sometimes frustrates him,

340
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,880
Speaker 1: like when he grits his teeth and asks for a time.

341
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:12,200
Speaker 4: Out, maybe a little break, of course.

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00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 7: Yes.

343
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Speaker 1: Luckily, my producer EJ's on hand to back me up.

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00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 1: I can always rely on her, so if I can,

345
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: just I'm not recording me yet, Lory's fine.

346
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Speaker 2: I thought we were on a break. No, we're not

347
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 2: on a break.

348
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Speaker 3: Now, are you ready to go?

349
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 16: Now?

350
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Speaker 4: Where?

351
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:40,480
Speaker 1: Eventually we all get on the same page. No, yeah, no, no, no,

352
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:42,040
Speaker 1: what do you mean now?

353
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Speaker 2: Right?

354
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Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah.

355
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:50,639
Speaker 10: Uh.

356
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 1: Finally I get to ask my question.

357
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 3: Was he a Nazi.

358
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:04,479
Speaker 4: More? Never? Not at all? He has never been a

359
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 4: Nazi fan.

360
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 3: Never did he make that clear to Hitler.

361
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 11: Boris would be afraid to make this very clear to

362
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,959
Speaker 11: Hitler because of the Hitler's power.

363
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 4: Everybody in the world.

364
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 11: Was afraid by Hitler Inlish, true British, true, of course.

365
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,920
Speaker 1: So this alliance between Hitler and Boris was because.

366
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,320
Speaker 4: Have not choice, really absolutely have not choice.

367
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: But Hitler hoped the king was on side with the

368
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 1: whole Nazi project. Boris walked the walk, and he walked

369
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 1: it well.

370
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,360
Speaker 15: He wasn't intimidated by the fury, He wasn't intimidated by Hitler.

371
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Speaker 15: He is more politically experienced in many levels than Hitler is,

372
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Speaker 15: but he is an incredible political operator.

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Speaker 3: So I mean kind of, I mean sly, Hitler says.

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00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 15: Hitler says of Boris, he had never met a politician

375
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Speaker 15: as intelligent and shrew.

376
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: Now that's interesting because I've read that Hitler's nickname for

377
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 1: Boris was the Fox, not Foxy like his father Ferdinand,

378
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: but the Fox, which suggests to me that he had

379
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: Boris's number, and Hitler was right to be suspicious. King

380
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: Simeon is sure his father joined the Axis the alliance

381
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: with Germany only through political expediency, not because he shared

382
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 1: Nazi values.

383
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 9: I think he distrusted Hitler deeply with good reason. So

384
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:42,160
Speaker 9: to join the Axis was not any love of Hitler

385
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,199
Speaker 9: or because our family is of German origin. But this

386
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:51,480
Speaker 9: is what happens in these extreme situations in war time.

387
00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 1: And according to Simeon, Boris's nickname for Hitler was the

388
00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:03,199
Speaker 1: big dirty swine? Did Hitler know that? What we do know,

389
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: of course, is that Hitler always took revenge on those

390
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:10,439
Speaker 1: who displeased him. Colonel Hamish de Breton Gordon is our

391
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:14,719
Speaker 1: expert on chemical weapons like nerve agents. He tells me

392
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,399
Speaker 1: that by the time Boris died in the summer of

393
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, Hitler had a whole pharmaceutical empire of

394
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:23,880
Speaker 1: poisons at his fingertips.

395
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 14: We do know the Nazis developed nerve agents, starting off

396
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 14: with Sonning called Soman, then Tavern and then Saren, which

397
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 14: you know the Syrian Regimus used recently in Syria. Now,

398
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 14: the sad thing to say is actually they are morbidly

399
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 14: brilliant weapons, and if you had no morals or scruples,

400
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 14: you'd use them all the time.

401
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 1: I think we'd be hard pushed to find anyone who

402
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 1: could defend Hitler's morals and scruples. So nerve agents do

403
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: seem to fit the bill.

404
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,439
Speaker 14: If it's the Germans who seem most likely, it'd probably

405
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 14: be something out of their chemical factory.

406
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,199
Speaker 1: So if it's nineteen forty three and you want to

407
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 1: kill a head of state and you have access to

408
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 1: a whole stock of sophisticated synthetic weapons, why wouldn't you

409
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: use them, especially if you thought you could get away

410
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:15,960
Speaker 1: with it.

411
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 14: The idea behind using deadly toxins and chemicals is actually

412
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,119
Speaker 14: they're very difficult to attribute. There's a lot of uncertainty,

413
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 14: there's a lot of deniability. So if it was the

414
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 14: Nazi s kill Boris but didn't want to be directly

415
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 14: fingered by it, because actually they were supposed to be allies,

416
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 14: they were supposed to be working together. If you don't

417
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 14: want to be found out, then certainly some eyes is

418
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 14: that you would use a toxin that would do that.

419
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were certainly supposed to be allies who were

420
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 1: supposed to be working together. But the problem is, it

421
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: turns out Boris just kept on refusing to play by

422
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: the rules. Boris canceled the deportation of the Jews in

423
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: March nineteen forty three and sent those trains away. Hitler

424
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,920
Speaker 1: ordered Boris to Germany to have a little chat, or rather,

425
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 1: he gave him a stiff talking to. Hitler insisted all

426
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: Bulgaria's Jews must now be rounded up and sent to

427
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: Poland by the autumn. So Boris did something quite extraordinary,

428
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,679
Speaker 1: something that might well have cost him his life. He

429
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,880
Speaker 1: pretended to be on the same page as Hitler when

430
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:40,040
Speaker 1: it came to the Jews. Basically, he gas lit him.

431
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 2: The King sir, I'm dying to send in my one

432
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 2: percent way II God blame these people.

433
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: But then the King told Hitler unfortunately he couldn't send

434
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: the Jews away as they were otherwise engaged in forced labor.

435
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 7: The King sir, but I need them for building roads

436
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 7: and railroads.

437
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 2: And that was the biggest bluff of the Second World War.

438
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 1: Boris's bluff saved Michael Barzowhau's family. Michael is a writer

439
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:16,399
Speaker 1: and former politician who now lives in Israel. Forgive the

440
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 1: audio quality, but zoom was the only way I could

441
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: get to speak to him, and he's certainly worth speaking to.

442
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: He was just a young boy in Bulgaria when the

443
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 1: king invented his fictitious road building scheme. Every able bodied

444
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: Jewish man in Michael's town was to be sent to

445
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,240
Speaker 1: camps in the countryside, away from the prying eyes of

446
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: the Nazis, out of harm's way.

447
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 2: I think Boris told them, now, we are going to

448
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 2: mobilize all the able Jews men to labor camps, and

449
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 2: by doing that, we are going to prevent the sending

450
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 2: of the Jews.

451
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 1: To pot And the King's scheme worked.

452
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 2: And indeed they mobilized the Jews to the labor camps.

453
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,480
Speaker 2: My father was one of them.

454
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: According to Michael, his father's life in the camp was

455
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 1: not exactly arduous. He often played cards and socialized with

456
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 1: his Bulgarian guards. Now this was hardly a holiday. These

457
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: men had been forced to leave their homes and families

458
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: behind and their livelihoods completely uproot themselves. Not easy, but

459
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 1: it was still a far cry from a Nazi concentration camp.

460
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 16: I have pictures with the camp drinking together, singing together,

461
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 16: and it was unbelievable because they did not work very

462
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 16: hard for these camps. They didn't build any railroads. Jing

463
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 16: Boris was played here a very very subtle game.

464
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 2: He bluffed. He was a very wily man.

465
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: Now, nobody likes to be made a fool of. And

466
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: we know that Hitler clocked what Boris was up to

467
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 1: because his henchmen visited the camps and reported back. So

468
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: in May nineteen forty three, the deportation trains destined for

469
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: Poland were prepared again. All that was needed was Boris's signature,

470
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: if only someone could find him. It was a public

471
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: holiday in Bulgaria. As usual, crowds flocked to the city

472
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: center to see the king waving on the palace balcony.

473
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 1: But Boris didn't show for three whole days. He went missing,

474
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: and all the while the train drivers were waiting for

475
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: their orders. In fact, the Butterfly King had holed himself

476
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: away in his beloved mountains, and a few years ago,

477
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: Michael bars Oha tracked down the man who helped him disappear.

478
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 2: I found the driver. He was a simple man.

479
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: The chauffeur told Michael that the king didn't leave his

480
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: mountain hut for three days, and while he was hiding inside,

481
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 1: Boris confessed his worries to him and his valet.

482
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 12: He told him, I'm very much afraid that I might

483
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 12: get a phone call from Berlin to carry out a

484
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 12: certain operation. And I know very well if I get

485
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,959
Speaker 12: this phone call, I can't refuse. So I decided to

486
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 12: be for a few days in Communicado to be unreachable.

487
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 1: And just in case that wasn't clear. Michael saying that

488
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: the King deliberately cut himself off so that he couldn't

489
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: receive orders from Hitler about deporting Bulgaria's Jews on the trains,

490
00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:00,120
Speaker 1: and without the King's signature and say so, no one

491
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 1: had the authority to load those trains. When Boris came back,

492
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: he quickly evacuated all the remaining Jews to the countryside.

493
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: The elderly, the women and children, including Michael, were all

494
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: sent away out of reach of the Gestapo who were

495
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: billeted in the capitol. How many Jewish people from mainland

496
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: Bulgaria were deported to camps, concentration camps, death camps in Poland?

497
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 3: Not even one, not one.

498
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 2: No one, of course, not There was not one Bulgarian

499
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 2: jum was reported.

500
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: Forgive the skeptical journalist in me, but I need to

501
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 1: check that fact myself, because it is pretty incredible. Bulgaria's

502
00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 1: pre eminent historian, George Bosdiganov, always has the fact and

503
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: figures at his fingertips.

504
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 11: Not a single Jews, Bolgarian on foreigner a living in

505
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 11: the Kingdom was killed or departed from the country to

506
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 11: the Nazi camps. Neither one, no one, no, not one.

507
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:26,000
Speaker 1: And for George, that makes Boris a legend.

508
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:45,800
Speaker 11: King boris third Bolgarian national hero of twenty century.

509
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: It's extraordinary, such an incredible act of resistance, especially when

510
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: you remember Bulgaria was an official ally of Nazi Germany

511
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: and that the Gestapo the Bulgarian streets. Of course, not

512
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 1: everyone tells these stories in quite the same way, because

513
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 1: the definition of a hero is never universal. It's very

514
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 1: very personal, and as we'll hear in the next episode,

515
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:23,479
Speaker 1: every hero is someone else's villain. But you can bet

516
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:28,720
Speaker 1: Hitler wasn't rushing to congratulate Boris. Quite the opposite, although

517
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 1: since Boris had gone so far off message, why bother

518
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:37,240
Speaker 1: with subterfuge? I mean, why didn't the Nazis just cut

519
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,839
Speaker 1: their losses and shoot him.

520
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,279
Speaker 14: There would be no plausible defense. I mean, there's not

521
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 14: much clausible defense anyway, But I think that's the point.

522
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: Our weapons expert, Colonel Hamish de Breton Gordon thinks assassination

523
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 1: with a nerve agent is about much more than deniability.

524
00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 1: It's also about scaring the living daylights out of everybody

525
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 1: around the king.

526
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 14: These weapons are incredibly effective because of their psychological impact.

527
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 14: So half the message, or probably more than half the

528
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 14: message in these assassinations is to other people, you know,

529
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 14: trying to tell anybody else who wanted to oppose the regime,

530
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,799
Speaker 14: you know, we'd get the same thing, and it's it's

531
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 14: incredibly effective at doing that.

532
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: Anyone who witnessed Boris's awful and prolonged death would have

533
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 1: felt distinctly uncomfortable, especially if the word poison was whispered

534
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,799
Speaker 1: in the sick room. But how could Hitler have administered

535
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:44,760
Speaker 1: the poison without Boris noticing? Remember that plane that Boris

536
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,239
Speaker 1: took to meet Hitler for the last time, the one

537
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: that took him right into the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's top

538
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 1: secret base in Poland. It's also the one little Simeon

539
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,280
Speaker 1: was so excited to see when it landed back in Sofia.

540
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 1: Here's some key evidence. It wasn't a Royal jet, it

541
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: wasn't even Bulgarian. It was a German plane, and it

542
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: belonged to Hitler. I've read a few history books which

543
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 1: mention the following story. On the way home from the

544
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:21,280
Speaker 1: Wolf's Lair, the king was subdued, but after a moment,

545
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 1: he left his seat and went into the cockpit. You'll

546
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,200
Speaker 1: remember how keen he was on all things mechanical, and

547
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: he asked the pilot if the plane could climb a

548
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: little higher to see if the altitude would affect his

549
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,480
Speaker 1: ears the way it did when he went climbing in

550
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:44,759
Speaker 1: the mountains. The pilot agreed, and that's when the oxygen

551
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: masks were handed out. So what if that's how Hitler

552
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 1: did it, substituting oxygen for some sort of poisonous gas

553
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 1: in Boris's mask.

554
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 14: Actually, if it was a nerve age and he breathed

555
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,800
Speaker 14: it in, it would probably kill him pretty quickly.

556
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,840
Speaker 1: Well, Boris died fourteen days after he returned from that

557
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,280
Speaker 1: meeting with Hitler. Could it have been a delayed reaction

558
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:10,280
Speaker 1: to sign my gas?

559
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 14: For instance, if you breathe stuff in, it's going straight

560
00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 14: to your lungs, your lungs straight to your bloodstream, your

561
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 14: bloodstream straight to your heart. So if they wanted a

562
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 14: delayed reaction, they would probably want a dermal ingestion, in

563
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 14: other words, through the skin. If it was a nerve

564
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 14: agent on an oxygen mass type of thing, then that

565
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 14: scenario I would think would be less likely with the

566
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 14: outcome that we know happened.

567
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: But here's something I learned from. Simeon and Maria Louisa

568
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 1: are two living links to these events. Boris's sister Eudoxia

569
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: told them that she was sure the Nazis burned his lungs.

570
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: So Boris's children carefully examined this theory.

571
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 9: My aunt herself, she thought that it was the oxygen

572
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 9: mask that my father used on his way back. But

573
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,760
Speaker 9: apparently in those days there was no poison which would

574
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 9: work with six days delay. So there we explode another story.

575
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,799
Speaker 10: You know, it's a myths because in those days they

576
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 10: put the oxygen masks to everybody on the plane, you know,

577
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 10: so the other people should have, you know, had the same.

578
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:30,319
Speaker 1: In fact, Maria Luisa tracked down the German pilot many

579
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 1: years after the war. He promised her that poisoning via

580
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: an oxygen mask would have been impossible because his allegiance

581
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,120
Speaker 1: was clearly to the Bulgarian king rather than to Hitler.

582
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 1: He claimed he'd never have let those pigs, as he

583
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:50,360
Speaker 1: called the Gestapo, anywhere near the plane, let alone the cockpit.

584
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:56,359
Speaker 1: But a strange detail about that plane journey raises further questions.

585
00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 1: According to the pilot's account, Boris him health became wary

586
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: when the oxygen masks came out, and he insisted on

587
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: swapping his own mask with the pilots. That seems odd,

588
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: to say the least. Did he suspect Hitler was trying

589
00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 1: to kill him, because, according to accounts from advisers, when

590
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 1: the King arrived home, he didn't rush to see his

591
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,359
Speaker 1: family as he usually did. He went to see a

592
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: close friend who was a former chief of cabinet, and

593
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,720
Speaker 1: he told that friend that he'd had a terrible meeting

594
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,319
Speaker 1: with Hitler, which he knew would cost him dearly. I

595
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: saved Bulgaria, he said, even if I will pay for it,

596
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 1: which of course he did with his life.

597
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 3: Colonel Hamish has his own theory.

598
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 14: Maybe they thought Boris was an annoyance and wasn't helping things,

599
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 14: and if they killed him. Actually, others in the Bulgarian

600
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 14: higher command and raw family might be more sympathetic towards

601
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 14: the cause.

602
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 1: You see, hadn't just duped Hitler over the Jews, He'd

603
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 1: also conned him over the war. Hitler was desperate for

604
00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:13,720
Speaker 1: support on the Eastern Front, where the Germans were fighting

605
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: a losing battle with Russia, and Hitler wanted that backup

606
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 1: from the Bulgarian army. But Boris had made a promise

607
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: when he first ascended the throne. He promised he'd never

608
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,280
Speaker 1: send another Bulgarian soldier to war.

609
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 11: He refused absolutely, He refused to send troops on the

610
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 11: Russian Front or any other front.

611
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 3: Not only that.

612
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 1: In fact, historians George Bosdiganov and Tessa Dunlop say Boris

613
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:46,080
Speaker 1: was doing far more dangerous things and refusing to hand

614
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: over his army. King Boris was actively trying to swap sides.

615
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 15: He already is having conversations back channels, exist conversations about

616
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:03,439
Speaker 15: possibly getting clear blue water from the Nazis.

617
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:05,520
Speaker 3: Did he try? Did he try to?

618
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 4: Yes, he try, Yes, he tried.

619
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 11: In the spring of nineteen forty three, a Sir Boris

620
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 11: began talks with Americans in Switzerland for complete withdrawal of

621
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:22,400
Speaker 11: Bulgaria from the war, which he was enable to complete

622
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 11: due to his sudden death.

623
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 1: So Boris was having secret meetings with the US.

624
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:34,520
Speaker 7: If it got Win learned about it, he had to

625
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 7: stop it. And the way to stop it was one looking,

626
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,840
Speaker 7: because nobody else but the key was shaping the foreign policy.

627
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 1: As writer Michael bar Zohars, Hitler almost certainly did get

628
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:53,439
Speaker 1: wind of those talks. The Nazis had spies everywhere, which

629
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 1: is probably why that final meeting between Boris and Hitler

630
00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 1: was so brutal. It's August nineteen forty three, and we're

631
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:07,360
Speaker 1: back in the Wolf's Lair for eight whole hours. The

632
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 1: fewer rages at the Bulgarian King, and according to eavesdroppers

633
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,040
Speaker 1: listening outside the door at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler goes

634
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 1: absolutely crazy. You don't need to speak German to understand

635
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 1: this friendship is floundering. But Boris speaks perfect German, which

636
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:31,359
Speaker 1: means he's on his own in that room, with not

637
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: even an interpreter to take the sting out of Hitler's words.

638
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 1: It's rumored things got so heated that Hitler even swung

639
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 1: a punch, but Boris won't give an inch. He won't

640
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: send Bulgarian soldiers to fight Russia on the Eastern Front.

641
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,879
Speaker 1: He won't send Bulgarian Jews to the death camps. As

642
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 1: far as Hitler was concerned, that wasn't the deal. That

643
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,120
Speaker 1: wasn't the deal at all. And Hitler feels betrayed. And

644
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 1: no one likes feeling they've been taken for a ride.

645
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: But Adolf Hitler has been taken for a ride. So

646
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 1: when his royal guest leaves, Hitler doesn't bother to wave

647
00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 1: him off yet this is the final goodbye. Boris doesn't

648
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 1: know it yet, but he has barely two weeks left to.

649
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:29,720
Speaker 10: Live, right, little corner are there.

650
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 3: Let's sit down.

651
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: Back at the National Archives in London. We've had some

652
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 1: more luck. Actually it could be a big breakthrough. The

653
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 1: librarians have pointed us towards the Churchill Archives Center in Cambridge.

654
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:50,799
Speaker 1: They've just emailed us a very interesting document. Remember how

655
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 1: the king lay dying surrounded by scores of doctors and specialists.

656
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: This is a parenthlet written by some library society or

657
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:04,400
Speaker 1: historical society ten years after Boris had died. Okay, and

658
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 1: you know those doctors who were there, it says here

659
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:12,839
Speaker 1: the latter appeared to have been of opinion that it

660
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: was no natural death.

661
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:15,719
Speaker 3: No natural death.

662
00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:19,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then it says here a little bit further down,

663
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 1: according to private pronouncements of the official Physician of the court,

664
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:32,000
Speaker 1: the cause of death was subsequently ascertained as a strange

665
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 1: poison of Asiatic origin.

666
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 3: Well, we've not heard that before, have we? Asiatic? I mean,

667
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 3: that's crazy.

668
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:46,840
Speaker 1: And there's even more salient information in the pamphlet, something

669
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 1: which makes my blood go cold. They right here that

670
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 1: that particular poison paralyzes the muscular system of the heart

671
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: and shows symptoms resemble sort of heard attack cardiac areas

672
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: or whatever. And because it looks like that, it could

673
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,600
Speaker 1: obviously be mistaken for that, you know.

674
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 3: I mean I've never heard of that. I mean, what

675
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:11,080
Speaker 3: does it mean?

676
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:12,760
Speaker 13: I know, what's asiatic poison?

677
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 7: Asiatic?

678
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 13: I mean, Bulgaria's next to Turkey. Yeah, he's half in Asia.

679
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:23,560
Speaker 13: But how do they know it was Asiatic? Hang on

680
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 13: that that's really important because that means they must have

681
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 13: found a trace of it and examined it. Yeah, I mean,

682
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 13: everything else we've just read said he was poison. But

683
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 13: if they're saying it's a specific poison to Asia. I

684
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 13: think you're really onto something there. Seriously, I do think

685
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:44,800
Speaker 13: this leads.

686
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:45,960
Speaker 3: It is a lead.

687
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 4: It is.

688
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:54,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's just wind back a minute, back to the

689
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen forty three. A few days after his

690
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,720
Speaker 1: highly stressful meeting, Boris took his family for a breather

691
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:04,759
Speaker 1: in the mountains. It was the school holidays, so the

692
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: days seemed long and carefree. On the Monday, though, Boris

693
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,720
Speaker 1: told his family he had to leave them and return

694
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:16,320
Speaker 1: to Sofia for work. What he didn't tell his wife

695
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 1: or his children was that he was feeling ill. But

696
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 1: Boris had already told his brother that his heart was

697
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:27,239
Speaker 1: thumping and that he felt nauseous. It was a few

698
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: more days before his children found out, and at first

699
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: they weren't told the full story.

700
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,279
Speaker 9: My sister and I drew some painting. I think I

701
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 9: drew a little plain or something with my sister some flowers,

702
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 9: and we sent some mountain flowers to him, but not

703
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:49,239
Speaker 9: suspecting or knowing that he was so gravely ill. And

704
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 9: then on Saturday he passed away.

705
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:56,439
Speaker 10: We were told he was quite ill. Then my mother

706
00:46:56,480 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 10: of course went down to be there, and on the

707
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 10: Saturday afternoon, we were out in the country in the mountains,

708
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:10,240
Speaker 10: and when we came back, the radio was not working.

709
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 10: The nanny said, of course, they had pulled the black.

710
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 8: And then we.

711
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 10: Told that Papa was very very ill, so, you know,

712
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:27,879
Speaker 10: very ill, we should maybe go to Sofia. And then

713
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 10: my father's sister, my Auntie Dorsa, came and she was

714
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:37,440
Speaker 10: dressed in black, and she said it, and I still

715
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 10: didn't believe it. So we drove into Sofia and I

716
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,120
Speaker 10: saw black flags hanging in front of the buildings, and

717
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 10: then you know, I knew it.

718
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 1: Six year old Simeon couldn't get his head around what

719
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:57,399
Speaker 1: had happened until his father's right hand man or aide

720
00:47:57,440 --> 00:48:01,600
Speaker 1: de camp, approached him.

721
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 9: My father's ADC came up to me and he addressed

722
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:12,240
Speaker 9: me as your majesty, not your highness, as was the usual.

723
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 9: And that's when I suddenly realized, my god, I mean

724
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 9: he's addressing me like the king.

725
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 8: I e my father has passed away.

726
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 1: I'm more and more convinced that Hitler was behind King

727
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,280
Speaker 1: Boris's death. And as I've told you, that was aunt

728
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 1: you doxy as hunch too. She always blamed the Nazis

729
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:45,400
Speaker 1: for murdering her brother. Could Hitler have paid someone to

730
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: administer poison asiatic poison? What about one of the doctors

731
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:54,000
Speaker 1: or nurses who were treating King Boris? What do we

732
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:59,160
Speaker 1: actually know about those doctors? There were sixteen doctors in

733
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:02,879
Speaker 1: that sick room. Thirteen of them signed the death certificate,

734
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:05,280
Speaker 1: but three didn't.

735
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,680
Speaker 11: They are concertos that they are well known and will

736
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 11: established names with international.

737
00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 1: In all so, surely we can identify these doctors if

738
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:19,640
Speaker 1: they enjoy worldwide acclaim.

739
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 4: First that they are not Borgaeis. No, they're German doctors.

740
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:30,360
Speaker 1: And that's when King Simeon drops a bombshell, aren't you? Doxia,

741
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:34,480
Speaker 1: who always suspected the Nazis killed her brother, left Simeon

742
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:38,520
Speaker 1: and Maria Louisa a very special letter penned by her

743
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: own hand, to be read only after her own death.

744
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,960
Speaker 9: It's about twenty pages and hands written, and she left

745
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,440
Speaker 9: it in an envelope in Germany when she died in

746
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 9: eighty five, with a huge sort of with a marker

747
00:49:55,280 --> 00:50:00,720
Speaker 9: on the envelope to be given to Simeon married Louise

748
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:05,080
Speaker 9: after my death, and there of course her all her

749
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:09,360
Speaker 9: first hand impressions aren't you.

750
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: Dot here places a distinct question mark over one of

751
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:16,120
Speaker 1: the doctors who attended Boris in his final hours.

752
00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 9: She was sort of pointing or saying that this doctor

753
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 9: Zeites Rudel Zaide's who came from Berlin, was I mean,

754
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 9: there was something suspicious about him.

755
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 1: And there wasn't just one German doctor but three at

756
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:37,799
Speaker 1: the bedside of the king.

757
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 3: Well.

758
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:42,600
Speaker 1: One was Austrian but a known Nazi sympathizer, three of

759
00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:46,520
Speaker 1: them tending to King Boris, who's just betrayed the German

760
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 1: Feura Adolf Hitler motive means and opportunity accept.

761
00:50:55,239 --> 00:51:00,320
Speaker 15: People like you journalists in excavating the archives pptunity together

762
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,680
Speaker 15: and make the wonderful five that is Nazis. Blame it

763
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 15: all on the Nazis, It's not always all the Nazi's fault.

764
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: Have I let my imagination run away with me? Historian

765
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 1: Tessa Dunlops certainly thinks I'm jumping to conclusions.

766
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 15: I commend you, Becky for having swallowed homeless bolus so

767
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 15: much of what's been written about this. But you are

768
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:25,560
Speaker 15: seeing what you want to see. You're looking around the

769
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:27,720
Speaker 15: room and you're only seeing swashtikas.

770
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: Am I just framing the most obvious suspect in the lineup.

771
00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 15: Why would you take out the one man who might

772
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 15: not have gone as far as you wanted him to go,

773
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:39,920
Speaker 15: but has remained consistently loyal in his support. I would

774
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 15: suggest that was even madder than Hitler was by nineteen

775
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:43,520
Speaker 15: forty three.

776
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 1: From a historical perspective, I know that Hitler needed all

777
00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 1: the friends he could get at this point in the war,

778
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,759
Speaker 1: So I accept that logically it doesn't make sense to

779
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: murder your ally. But that's exactly my point. Why does

780
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 1: there have to be logic where Hitler's can concerned he

781
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 1: was insane? But the Palace doesn't seem to be backing

782
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: my theory either. Perhaps I'm being oversensitive or our King

783
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:12,720
Speaker 1: Simeon and Maria Louisa giving me a gentle ticking off.

784
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 9: One thing disturbs me terribly is when I see people

785
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 9: being not objective.

786
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:20,160
Speaker 8: I like objectivity.

787
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:24,040
Speaker 9: All these things, as I say, are simply theories or

788
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:26,400
Speaker 9: hypothesis or just fantasy.

789
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:31,520
Speaker 8: But there's nothing prasional. I have no proof. I'm convinced

790
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 8: it wasn't. It wasn't a dramas.

791
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,560
Speaker 1: Next time on the Butterfly King, we delve deep into

792
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:47,120
Speaker 1: Asiatic poisons.

793
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 11: It was some kind of poison from India, probably slake poison.

794
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 2: That is what he had heard from the doctors.

795
00:52:56,800 --> 00:53:00,160
Speaker 1: We find a new lead as a snake in the grass,

796
00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:02,000
Speaker 1: its ugly head in Asia.

797
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:06,600
Speaker 14: Tropical Asia has a horrendous snake bite death rate every year.

798
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:12,400
Speaker 11: The snake venoms are complicated cocktails of different toxins.

799
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: And Boris's squeaky clean image takes a battering as we

800
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:21,320
Speaker 1: hear dark stories about his very controversial legacy.

801
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 4: It's a story, it's a falsifying history. His hands are

802
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:29,800
Speaker 4: not clean. It's quite a lot of blood.

803
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:52,239
Speaker 1: The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and

804
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:58,120
Speaker 1: Exactly Right Media, hosted by me Becky Milligan. It's written

805
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 1: and produced by Emma Jane Kirk. Original music is by

806
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:08,360
Speaker 1: Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis nank Manell and Toby Mattamong. Sound

807
00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 1: design and engineering by Toby Mattamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans.

808
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:19,040
Speaker 1: Artwork by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is a Mika

809
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:24,880
Speaker 1: Schortino nowa. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye.

810
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 1: The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House

811
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 1: is Lawrence Grisell for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers

812
00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:40,640
Speaker 1: are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and Daniel Kramer, with consulting

813
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:46,440
Speaker 1: producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by the

814
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: book Hitler and the King by John Hall Spencer