The Belene labour camp, also referred to as Belene concentration camp, was part of the network of

forced labour camps in Communist Bulgaria As in other Eastern Bloc states, Communist Bulgaria operated a network of forced labour camps between 1944 and 1989, with particular intensity until 1962. Tens of thousands of prisoners were sent to these institutions, often without trial. Backgr ...

. It was located on the

Belene Island Belene Island ( bg, остров Белене, ''ostrov Belene'') or Persin Island (остров Персин, ''ostrov Persin'') is the biggest island in Bulgarian waters. The island is formed by the Danube River splitting into two branches passi ...

, between two branches of the Danube river. At the height of Valko Chervenkov's repressions in 1952, the camp had 2,323 inmates - 2,248 men and 75 women. The Belene Prison is still operating as a penitentiary in the western part of the island, while the eastern part is a managed natural reserve. This camp operated officially from 1949 to 1959, though a break in deportations to Belene occurred from 1954 to 1956. Between 1985 and 1989 Turks in Bulgaria who resisted the policy of changing Turkish names and surnames to Bulgarian ones, (see Assimilation Campaign in Bulgaria) were imprisoned in the prison on Belene. During those years, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation broadcast a series named "''Belene Adası''" (''Belene Island'') on the policies of the Bulgarian government against Bulgarian Turks. From 1949 onward, Evangelical Christian pastors in particular were targeted as "enemies of the State" and sent to Belene. In 1949, the infamous " Pastors' Trial" was conducted, trying 13 Protestant pastors as "spies". The men received sentences of varying lengths. Haralan Popov, who survived and later founded the mission "Door of Hope International" to bring Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, published his autobiography under the Bulgarian title "The Bulgarian Golgotha". It was later released in English as "

Tortured for His Faith Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts car ...

". The camp and some its survivors were the subject of a documentary film by

German TV Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90 minutes three times a week. It was home to the first public television station in the world, named ''Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow''. In 2000, the German television market h ...

program

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

''Vorwärts aber nie vergessen - Ballade über bulgarische Helden'' "Moving on, but Never Forgetting - A Ballad of Bulgarian Heroes" directed and authored by

Ilija Trojanow Ilija Trojanow (Bulgarian: Илия Троянов, also transliterated as Ilya Troyanov; born 23 August 1965 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian–German writer, translator and publisher. Life and literary career Trojanow was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1 ...

Notable inmates

* Haralan Popov (1949-1962) * Konstantin Muraviev (1956-1961) *

Lea Ivanova ''Lea Ivanova'' (13 August 1923 – 28 May 1986) was a Bulgarian jazz singer. Biography Ivanova was born in Dupnitsa, Bulgaria on 13 August 1923. She moved to Constantinople ( Underaged?? ), where she spent the rest of her childhood and sang in ...

(Late 70s) * Stoyko Kavrukov (Kavrukov and Perinchev-only successful escape-1953) ''Belene-The Island of the Forgotten'' by Nedyalko Geshev, published in Belgium - 1983 *

Atanas Perinchev Atanas is a name. Its most common use is a masculine given name in Bulgarian and Macedonian, derived from Greek Athanasios, "immortal". It can also be a surname. List People with the name Atanas include: Given name * Atanas Andonov (born 1955) ...

(Kavrukov and Perinchev-only successful escape-1953) ''Belene-The Island of the Forgotten'' by Nedyalko Geshev, published in Belgium - 1983

In popular culture

David, from ''

I Am David ''I am David'' is a 1963 novel by Anne Holm. It tells the story of a young boy who, with the help of a prison guard, escapes from a concentration camp in an unnamed Eastern European country and journeys to Denmark. Along the way, he meets many p ...

'' escapes from Belene in 1952. However the camp shown in the film doesn't resemble the real Belene camp, as it is located inland in a mountainous area rather than on a river island.

References

{{Coord, 43, 39, 28, N, 25, 08, 18, E, region:BG-15_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Belene Political repression Unfree labour by country Buildings and structures in Pleven Province People's Republic of Bulgaria Persecution of Balkan Turks