REASONS FOR CONFESSIONS TO CHARGES OF ESPIONAGE BY PROTESTANT MINISTERS PRESENTLY ON TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R002500080012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 5, 2001
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 10, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION ''` 25X1 A2g
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT NO. _
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF IN
!ETU1 To,
CD NO.
DATE DISTR. 10 Haroh 1949
NO. OF PAGES 4
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW) N~
SUPPLEMENT TO
25X1 X6 REPORT NO.
X-
1. "The Derjavna Sigurnost, the Bulgarian security Service, secures confessions
to treason by using a combination of psychological pressure, logical
persuasion, mental exhaustion and fear of physical torture. I have never
known of any case in which a 'miracle drug, was used to induce confessions
2. "Perhaps I can best explain these influences through describing to some
extent my own situation. I am a graduate of Robert College in Istanbul
which brands me as a sympathizer with the hest and as an enemy of Com-
munism. Ever since the Communists came to power in Bulgaria on September
9,1944, I have been under surveillance by the Derjavna Sigurnos t and the
various intelligence services of the Communist Party. Like eighty percent
of the people in Bulgaria I am anti-Communist. Like all the rest of the
opposition I wish that I could do something to liberate my country from
Soviet control, and I would actually to whatever I could to assist in this
overthrow of the Communists if only I felt that the Western powers,
principally the United States of America, had some practical program for
the liberation of Eastern Europe with which they would follow through so
that our sacrifices for freedom would not be futile and merely end in the
bloody annihilation of those of us who fight for freedom There was a time,
two or three years ago, when many of us felt that such a struggle would be
worthwhile and it was then that the pastors committed the 'crimes, with
which they are now charged.
3. "Under German controls during the recent war, controls which were actually
extremely loose as we look back at them, some of us were exiled from Sofia
?R y__J..I AIR _k .
Bulgaria
Reasons for Confessions to Charges of
Espionage by Protestant Ministers Presently
on Trial
25X1A6a
Date: 19780
By: __Pf3
Doaumen ~___
NO CHANGE in Class. 0
^ DECLAS^i'';.D
Class. TO: TS S
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 25X1 A2g
but almost none of us, except for the Communists, were tortured for our
political beliefs. We continued to say what we believed and, provided
that we committed no overt acts, we remained reasonably secure in our
homes. Then came the Red Army. At first we hoped that they brought
liberation. American and British officers joined the.Soviets in es-
tablishing an Allied Control Commission, and we thought that it was safe
for us to speak freely to the American and British representatives. Some
of us, like the Protestant pastors now charged with treason, publicly
praised America and welcomed the charity which the Churches of Bulgaria
received from the World Council of Churches in New York City. During 19,
1945 and 1946 certain representatives of American churches visited Bulgaria.
Men like Cyril Black, Mark Ethridge, R.H. Markham and others came. They
asked for information concerning all conditions and we openly supplied
them with what they wanted. That was when we believed that the United
States meant what ryas said in the Peace Treaty, that the freedoms were to
be guaranteed to us. Then came our disillusionment; One by one the
Bulgarian friends of the West were arrested, tortured, imprisoned or
placed in labor camps. On 28 October 1948 a "States Secrets Law" became
operative which almost makes it a crime to talk to a foreigner about any-
thing. Under the provisions of that retroactive law, all the Protestant
pastors, who apparently had been corresponding with American churchmen and
explaining the plight of their churches, became guilty of espionage. As
Christians the churchmen can hardly deny their bontacts with representatives
of the West or their correspondence with the World Council of Churches,
and that automatically makes them guilty. What else can they do but confess
and throw themselves on the (mereyz of the 1courti?
It. "Unfortunately, the ch?:s!'chmen apparently are also guilty of selling on the
)iblackC market dollar contributions received from America. Under Bulgarian
law all foreign currencies must be delivered to the Bulgarian National Bank
which pays 285 lava for each dollar but permits the owner to have not more
than 402000 lava per month. If his salary or other income has already pro-
vided 4O,o00 leva (worth approximately $40.00 in purchasing power), the
proceeds of the dollars must remain in a blocked account in the bank.
If approval is secured to use some of the funds they usually may be drawn
by 'check' only, a document which in Bulgaria is actually not negotiable
and is not wanted by Bulgarians for it invariably can only be redeposited
in the same bank in a fund which is controlled or blocked. Bulgarians who
return from America with dollars receive 450 leva to the dollar while the
'black market' rate for the dollar fluctuates between 1,000 and.1,500.
Wanting to use the dollars in the possession of their churches to the beat
advantage, the pastors have apparently permitted their sale, to private
persona at the unofficial rate. Actually, the crime is one committed by
the Bulgarian Government which does little more than confiscate the dollar
gifts when it pays but 285 levy for them and then blocks the lava account.*
5. Fear psychology plays an extremely important part in bringing about con-
fessions in Bulgaria. When the Communists came to power they arrested
thousands and, without legal proceedings of any kind, executed them,
Throughout the past four years they have constantly been purging their
eneiaies through exile, arrest, and execution. The friends of the United
States and of Great Britain are automatically their enemies. No person,
who had friends or relatives in the West or who attended the American
College at Simeonovo or Robert College at Istanbul is safe. The Protestant
pastors definitely come within this group, having been in correspondence
with the World Council of Churches as well as various denominational leaders
in the United States.
6. "Each day at four a.m. squads of agents from the Derjavna Sigurnost go about
town arresting 'suspects' and searching homes. This is entirely without
any 'due process of law' as it is known in America. The searches last for
hours; every seam, every page, every room is searched for evidence that the
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that the person has been in contact with the West. Once the agents are
ready, the victim, who almost invariably does not know what charges may
be .made against him., is marched to any one of several secret prisons.
Usually he is placed in a cold, damp cell in the basement, without
furniture or accommodations of any kind. Here he may remain for months
without his family knowing where he is and whether he is alive or dead.
There is no writ of habeas corpus; there is no legal process by which the
man can be freed. His situation is hopeless, and usually only a ready
confession can save him from torture.
7. "Usually before being interrogated the prisoner is left in his cell for
days during which time he becomes depressed through the growing fear of
what awaits him. During this time he can see, hear, and smell the treat-
ment given other prisoners who have not confessed readily enough. The
prisoner. hears stories of horrors told by the nearly insane victims
themselves. They have been beaten with rubber hoses, strung up for
hours by the thumbs, doused with ice water in freezing weather, burned
with matches, kept under bright lights for many hours, or confined alone
in unheated darkened cells for weeks at a time. At least one case is
known to me in which a woman political prisoner was beaten and raped
eight times in one night. Perhaps the simplest 'treatment' is the one
in which the victim is required to stand for days facing a blank wall.
After a day of this test, men's feet have been known to swell to the point
that their shoes broke open. And confinement continues for months. Most
of the pastors have been under arrest for three months or-more before
being scheduled for 'trial'. There have been a number of unexplained
deaths. Those who have confessed are permitted to receive food from home
once each week, as well as a change of linen. Those who are 'uncooperative'
must rot in their own filth and soon are nauseated by their own stench for
lav*tory facilities are almost non-e,.stent.
"Then there are the chain interrogations, periods of cross examination and
accusation which go on for many, many weary hours while the interrogators
relieve each other; but the victim has no relief and becomes so mentally
exhausted that he confesses to anything just to terminate the hell in which.
he finds himself. Under the new legal system now in effect in Bulgaria,
even if one secures an attorney he cannot expect his rights to be defended.
The lawyers have been severely purged and only Communists or persons be-
lieved to sympathize with them may practice law. There is no right of
private interview with one's client. Almost invariably the attorney ad-
vi,ses his client to p]e ad guilty, particularly where there is any
indication of 'espionage'. No attorney today could afford to defend honestly
a person facing such a charge.
"But why do the defendants go to such lengths to accuse themselves? Almost
all persons who have been 'in' remark on one thing: they host all sense of
self respect. Their one desire was to end it all, by suicide or by con-
fession. And having chosen confession the next logical step was self-
accusation in an attempt to lighten the sentence. Have the pastors been
told that their entire church will be anniid ated if they do not confess?
Are they fearful for the welfare of their families? Do they feel that the
West has betrayed them and that we never will come to their rescue? What
must not be overlooked in these cases isithat the pastors have been used
for publicity purposes, that the Derjavna Sigurnost had to make them
confess completely to treason for the effect which it would have on the
intimidated Bulgarian public. It would have been much easier to place
them in one of the many slave labor camps, without trial or any process of
law, as has been done with so many thousands of the opposition in Bulgaria.
For political reasons these men had to be made to confess. one clue to
their actions may possibly be found in the case of a men who did not confess:
(Nilcola Petkov) And they say of him that his body was such a shapeless mass
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by the time they were ready to hang him that the hangmen could hardly
find the neck around which to put the rope, and the butchered bleeding
body had to be quickly buried in the night unseen by priest or friend.
There may be sow truth in the saying: 'Wise men confess r
Comment: One exception to this case is provided by a clause con-
tained in the contract of the American Motion Picture Exporters
Association with the Bulgarian government, which clause permits Vat
Association to turn over to certain Bulgarian churches levy earn.+ by
its pictures in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Government pays leva for the
pictures but does not permit these leva to be redeemed with dolla:.?s.
As permitted by the contract, the World Council of Churches has been
paying dollars to AUM in New York City and ADPEA, through jean.
Birkhahn, its representative in Sofia, has been paying leva to one of
the Protestant churches there. Now Birkhahn is accused of being a
"paymaster" while the pastors allegedly were histespy ring". It can be
stated-Ath absolute certainty that Birkhahn, a Latvian Jew, received no
"espionage information" from the pastors.
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