The Butterfly King - 2: Lies, Lies, Lies

Summary

The Butterfly King – Episode 2: Lies, Lies, Lies

Podcast: Hell in Heaven (The Butterfly King)
Date: March 21, 2024
Host: Becky Milligan (Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts)

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Episode Overview

In this riveting installment of "The Butterfly King," host Becky Milligan investigates the mysterious 1943 death of Bulgaria's King Boris III, asking: Was it assassination, and if so, who ordered it? The episode weaves through personal testimonies, historical records, and expert analysis to explore the tangled relationships between Bulgaria, Nazi Germany, and its Jewish population during WWII. The central focus: Was King Boris a hero who saved Bulgaria’s Jews—a stance that may have made him a target of Hitler’s wrath? And could sophisticated poison, aided by German doctors, be the lethal weapon behind his “official” heart attack?

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Bulgarian Rescue of Its Jews

• National Crisis and Uproar
  • March 1943: Bulgaria begins the deportation of its Jews under Nazi pressure ([01:35-03:03]).
  • Widespread protests among politicians, clergy, and citizens halt the trains.
  • Historians and Holocaust survivors attribute this defiance to King Boris:

    “Somebody had to say stop.” — Michael Barzohar [03:03]
    “The head of the country... Sir Boris.” — George Bozduganov [03:10]

• Hero or Collaborator?
  • King Boris receives a posthumous Jewish community award in LA. Some praise him, others remain skeptical ([05:08-07:43]).
  • Survivor testimonials, such as from Michael Barzohar and Elaine Asa, credit Boris’ actions for lives saved ([07:36-09:11]).

2. Delving Into the Death: Motives, Means, and Poison

• Why Kill Boris?
  • His actions spared the Bulgarian Jews, making him an enemy in Hitler’s eyes ([03:20-03:23], [28:22-29:44]).
  • Boris repeatedly bluffed and resisted Nazi plans, including inventing fake labor camps to keep Jews from deportation ([29:16-30:46]).
• Archives & The Hunt for Evidence
  • British archives become crucial after Bulgarian archives disappear post-Communism ([10:07-11:59]).
  • Host and producer search for proof of poison ([13:35-15:39]).
• Exploring Chemical Means
  • Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden (chemical weapons expert) discusses nerve agents as plausible weapons, fitting symptoms of Boris’s demise ([14:27-15:39], [27:01-27:32], [38:18-39:02]).
  • Poison would be hard to trace and send a chilling message to others ([27:53-28:22], [38:40-39:02]).
• Challenging the Poison Narrative
  • Princess Maria Luisa, Boris’s daughter, and esteemed historians express skepticism about the Nazi-poisoning theory, citing lack of concrete proof ([41:15-42:03], [53:20-56:19]).

3. Shifting Alliances and Political Intrigue

• Bulgaria’s Tough Choices
  • Boris was not a Nazi – instead, a shrewd political survivor walking a treacherous tightrope ([17:19-19:03], [23:46-25:09]).
  • He joined the Axis only under dire pressure, desperately trying to protect his country ([20:29-20:46], [26:06-26:29]).
• Duping Hitler
  • Despite Axis alliance, Boris covertly hinders Nazi objectives (especially Jewish deportations and troop deployments), angering Hitler further ([43:22-45:19]).
  • Secret negotiations with the Allies suggest Boris aimed to switch sides ([44:31-45:03]).

4. The Final Days and Contested Legacy

• The Meeting with Hitler
  • A last, brutal confrontation at the Wolf’s Lair, with eyewitnesses suggesting violence ([45:19-45:53]).
  • Boris returns home unwell, keeps illness secret from his family, deteriorates, and dies after 14 days ([50:10-51:28]).
• Suspicious Circumstances
  • Multiple German doctors at Boris’s bedside raise suspicions ([52:43-54:11]).
  • Eudoxia (Boris’s sister) leaves a posthumous letter highlighting her suspicions about Dr. Seitz, a Berlin doctor ([53:20-54:11]).
  • Newly discovered archival document points to an “Asiatic poison” paralyzing the heart, mistaken for a heart attack ([47:00-49:00]).
• Debate Among Historians
  • Tessa Dunlop cautions against seeing only the Nazi hand:

    “You are seeing what you want to see. You’re looking around the room and you’re only seeing swastikas.” — Tessa Dunlop [54:54]

  • Princess Maria Luisa:

    “All these things...are simply theories or hypotheses or just fantasy. But there’s nothing rational. I have no proof. I’m confident, convinced. It wasn’t...the Germans.” [55:50-56:19]

5. Legacy — Hero, Villain, or Both?

• A Divided Memory
  • George Bozduganov: "King Boris, third Bulgarian national hero of 20th century." [35:04]
  • Yet his image, as teased for the next episode, may be more complicated, with hints at “blood on his hands” ([56:59-57:05]).

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Notable Quotes

• On Saving Bulgaria’s Jews:

  “Not a single Jew, Bulgarian or foreigner living in the kingdom was killed or deported from the country to the Nazi camps. Neither one.” — George Bozduganov [34:40]
  “King Boris was playing here a very subtle game.” — Michael Barzohar [31:18]

• On the Nature of the Alliance:

  “So Boris had two options. Resist Hitler, knowing that he’d invade anyway...or give in and save all that bloodshed.” — Becky Milligan [20:09]

• On Poison as a Weapon:

  “The idea behind using deadly toxins and chemicals is actually—they’re very difficult to attribute. There’s a lot of uncertainty, there’s a lot of deniability.” — Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden [27:53]

• On Conspiracy and Evidence:

  “She was sort of pointing...saying that this Dr. Seitz...from Berlin, was...something suspicious about him.” — Princess Maria Luisa [53:54]

• On Historian Skepticism:

  “You are seeing what you want to see. You’re looking around the room and you’re only seeing swastikas.” — Tessa Dunlop [54:54]
  “I have no proof. I’m confident, convinced. It wasn’t...the Germans.” — Princess Maria Luisa [56:08-56:19]

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Important Timestamps

• 01:35-03:17: Protests halt Jewish deportations in Bulgaria
• 07:36-09:11: Personal testimonies credit Boris for Jewish survival
• 14:27-15:39: Introduction of nerve agents as possible method of assassination
• 27:53-28:22: Poison’s deniability as an assassination tool
• 34:08-35:04: “Not a single Jew...not one” – survivor testimonial
• 50:10-51:28: Boris’s last days and his children’s memories
• 53:20-54:11: Suspicion cast by family on German doctors
• 54:54 & 56:08: Historian and family push back on Nazi-poison theory

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Memorable Moments

• Boris’s Bluff: Outsmarting Hitler with faux-labor camps, saving thousands ([29:16-30:46]).
• Eudoxia’s Secret Letter: Family legacy of suspicion over German doctors ([53:20-53:54]).
• Contradictory Legacies: Celebrated by some Jewish communities, distrusted by others ([05:08-07:43], [37:25-38:18]).
• Archival Breakthrough: Discovery of “Asiatic poison” reference ([47:00-49:00])—key forensic lead and thriller moment.

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Episode Tone & Style

• Blends deeply-researched history, journalistic skepticism, and conversational warmth.
• Balances survivor memory, expert insight, and archival sleuthing.
• Keeps a pace both dramatic and reflective, unafraid to question even its own theories.

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Next Episode Tease

The investigation will delve further into the nature of "Asiatic poison," with hints at a possible connection to snake venom and darker shadows in Boris’s legacy ([56:25-57:05]).

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This episode grapples with the murky boundaries between heroism, survival, and complicity—leaving listeners with a sense of the enduring mystery and the moral gray zones of history’s most dangerous times.

Transcript

[Tessa Dunlop]

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[Becky Milligan]

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[Princess Maria Luisa]

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[Becky Milligan]

See mintmobile.com March 1943, and Bulgaria suddenly wakes up to what being an ally of Nazi Germany really means. A top secret mission has begun to round up thousands of Bulgarian Jews. They're being taken to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second biggest city. Everyone is terrified. From there, the Jews will be forced onto trains headed for concentration camps in Poland. But someone has leaked the secret plan and now there's uproar. Across the country, politicians, intellectuals and leaders from the Orthodox Church are openly protesting. And just as the guards are about to start loading in the middle of.

[Michael Barzohar]

The way, they were stopped.

[Becky Milligan]

Michael Barzohar had Jewish friends who were already on their way to the rail station.

[Michael Barzohar]

And police told him, go back home.

[Becky Milligan]

You're free. The police announce the trains pull away. Empty. There was only one explanation. Someone must have signed the order to let those people go.

[Michael Barzohar]

Somebody had to say stop.

[Becky Milligan]

Who was responsible for that then? Who made that happen?

[George Bozduganov]

The head of the country.

[Becky Milligan]

And who was the head of the country.

[George Bozduganov]

Sir Boris.

[Becky Milligan]

It's down to him. Is it?

[George Bozduganov]

Yeah.

[Becky Milligan]

Yeah.

[George Bozduganov]

Well, Boris is hero.

[Becky Milligan]

And if you guessed who it was, you can bet Hitler did too. And we know the Fuhrer is unlikely to shrug off disobedience. Forgive and forget are not words in his vocabulary. In Hitler's eyes, King Boris has committed the ultimate crime. King Boris has saved the Jews, is the culprit and is the motive for Boris murder staring us right in the face from Blanchard House and exactly right. Media. This is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky milligan. Sam. Chapter two lies, lies, lies. It's 1994 and we're partying in LA. It's Friday night and it's a big posh dinner. White tablecloths and candlesticks and some very decent wine. Everyone's dolled up. Well, they would be. There's royalty present.

[George Bozduganov]

Thank you. It is our honor tonight to welcome no other than His Majesty, Simeon Saxco.

[Elaine Asa]

All I remember is sitting and having dinner with the King of Bulgaria. That's what I remember. I don't remember what he said. I remember him being charming, absolutely charming. And so, you know, I don't know, just very regal, very real.

[Becky Milligan]

That's Elaine Asa. All these years on, and she still can't believe her luck. The seating plan that evening put her right next to King Simeon of Bulgaria, Boris son, the man I've been chatting to in the Royal palace in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. For Elaine, this night back in 94 was a wonderful evening, one she'll never forget.

[Elaine Asa]

Who would not be impressed with a king, since I'd never met a king in my life. So, yeah, I was impressed.

[Becky Milligan]

This wasn't just any old party. It was a very special award ceremony. And Simeon was there to collect a prize, but not for himself.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Remember someone who for so long has.

[George Bozduganov]

Been forgotten, Boris III of Bulgari.

[Becky Milligan]

Simeon was there on behalf of his late father, King Boris. And this party is actually a Shabbat celebration. Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. Pretty much all the guests here are Jewish, including Elaine Asa. Her husband is Rabbi Haim Asa, and he's organized this whole ceremony.

[Elaine Asa]

I remember just being awestruck because it was just so beautiful.

[Becky Milligan]

The King, who was in partnership with the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, is getting an award from the LA Jewish community. And I'm not the only one who finds this hard to square, because not everyone in the LA Jewish community was invited to this fancy party. And if they had been asked, many would have declined because, well, not all of them agreed with Rabbi Haim and Elay NASA about King Boris. But let's leave that for a little later. For now, this is Elaine's view.

[Elaine Asa]

As a historical figure in the story of the saving of the Jews, he played an important part.

[Becky Milligan]

Elaine should know.

[Elaine Asa]

I have proof the king saved my husband.

[Becky Milligan]

Well, I think I can safely say we have a possible motive here. Any friend of the Jews was, by default an enemy of Hitler's. A bit of a backstory. Elaine met her husband Haim at summer camp in the us but he was Bulgarian, born and bred. Sadly, Haim passed away a few years ago, so we only get to meet him through her. But I get the feeling we all would have liked to have bumped into Haim. Back in the day.

[Elaine Asa]

I saw this cute Israeli guy picking corn, you know, from the waist up. He didn't have anything on. And I sort of fell in love at that moment.

[Becky Milligan]

I love that. So it was pretty much seeing his body and saying, he's the guy. For me, that was the start. That was the start. But it was. No.

[Elaine Asa]

I have to tell you what really intrigued me, our dating was really his sharing his stories, his life stories. And I was really so intrigued. I mean, first of all, Bulgaria. I didn't even know where it was on the map. I was 17. What did I know?

[Becky Milligan]

After a few more dates and a very long marriage, Elaine became well versed on Bulgarian history. At rabbinical school, Haim wrote his thesis on the saving of the Bulgarian Jews, and he spent his life campaigning to get King Boris the recognition he felt he deserved.

[Elaine Asa]

You know, he spoke about this forever, and he found a space in telling his story, a space to thank Boris for what he did.

[Becky Milligan]

Boris, children King Simeon and Princess Maria Luisa have heard many similar testimonies. They're immensely proud their father defeated.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

Bulgarian Jews. Many of them that I come across time and again say, bless your father's soul and this and that. He was behind the fact of not extraditing our Jewish population to camps in Germany. Orders must have come from him.

Wherever I've gone in my 90 years and come across Bulgarian Jewish people have always had the greatest and most wonderful welcome Papa and all that. They all remember it.

[Becky Milligan]

But did saving the lives of the Jews cost Boris his own? This is an amazing building, isn't it? I mean, I never knew it was. Have you been here before? Yes. Yes, I have. I love it. To try and find out, my producer EJ and I are a little closer to home than you might imagine. I love it. What is it? Sort of. It looks like brutalist Architecture, it's like all concrete. This is the National Archives in southwest London. You're probably thinking we're a little bit off patch here, maybe about one and a half thousand miles off patch. And that we ought to be looking in the Bulgarian National Archives. Yes, that would be great, except that the Bulgarian Archives, well, they've been stolen. When the Russians ended their communist occupation of Bulgaria in 1991, they took the National Archives with them. That means that all those vital records are still in Russia. And right now, I'm sure you're aware Russia isn't really the kind of place where journalists can just rock up and go digging around for information. But there's another paper trail we can follow. Until Bulgaria joined the pact with Germany in 1941, Britain had an embassy in Sofia, and most of the paperwork from that embassy is now declassified. And here at the London Archives, somewhere among the millions of records and documents, I don't know, is it all computerized as well? It is, it's. It's a bit fiddly, but it's going to take us some time, I think, but I think it's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

We'll.

[Becky Milligan]

We're reappearing in a couple of weeks, won't we? Oh, have you got your sleeping bag? This certainly isn't going to be easy. I bet lots of people can't be bothered to come here, actually. And look, I had to drag you, obviously.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

I.

[Becky Milligan]

Obviously, I. I've never bothered before. But not drag, exactly. But I do have a confession. Most of my journalistic scoops have come through talking to people. I put them at ease and ask the right questions. Then sometimes, without even knowing it, people, well, they just tell the truth. But when your murder investigation is nearly a century old, eyewitnesses are a bit thin on the ground. So all we have is the paper trail and that's really time consuming. If we don't find anything, I'll blame you for wasting weeks in here. Okay. I can't believe we'll find anything. Of course we will. Of course we will. I mean, what kind of things do they have in an archive like this? I mean, you know, documents from the Foreign Office that have been declassified now that were secret. I'm sure we're going to find things marked secret. Top secret, I promise. Don't they also have, like, really secret at the top? Ultra secret, ultra secret. Although King Boris officially died of a heart attack, even at the time the rumours were rife that he'd actually been poisoned. But what was he poisoned with. That's where I'm hoping the archives will deliver some clues, because my own experience of poison is rather limited. Unless you count crime fiction, of course. I've devoured enough Agatha Christie books to know that arsenic is always on the suspect list. But that seems unlikely here, because by the Second World War, doctors could detect arsenic pretty quickly. Cyanide is another famous poison, Agatha Christie's favourite. Quite a few Nazis used it to kill themselves after the war, including Hitler's wife. But cyanide leaves a distinctive almond smell and again, that would have been immediately identified. So I'm looking for something more sophisticated. A chemical weapon, basically, something designed in a laboratory for a targeted killing. I think I need a briefing from someone whose knowledge extends beyond detective thrillers. Someone who could at least give me some context as I scan the archives.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

My name's Hamish de Brechengorden. My area of expertise is chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear counterterrorism.

[Becky Milligan]

This man knows everything about state of the art toxins. Colonel Hamish is ex British Army. He's served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has worked all over Syria and is currently advising the Ukrainian government. He's an expert on the history and use of chemical weapons.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

After the First World War, chemical weapons developed into much more deadly weapons called nerve agents, which basically destroy your nerves. Now, Hitler had a vast stock of nerve agents and he developed them.

[Becky Milligan]

Nerve agents. But before I get too carried away with this, Boris was in agony. His organs were failing and crucially, his heart shut down. Do nerve agents affect the heart?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

These nerve agents do impact your nerves and your heart is probably the first thing to break down. So some sort of nerve agent would seem vaguely to fit the bill of some of the symptoms that you're mentioning. If it was the Germans, who seem to be the most likely, I would have thought it's something out of their chemical weapon portfolio.

[Becky Milligan]

This is significant information. I now have a motive and a potential means. I just need the archives to give me some proof that the King somehow fell foul of a nerve agent. Keywords Boris. King Boris, Boris. They don't have to be in order, do they? It's just the keywords. King. You don't have to do plus or minus or whatever. King. Bulgaria. Bulgaria and World War II. Right. Enter. Oh, good grief. Quite. Quite a few. Oh, great. While we're waiting for those documents to arrive, let's just wind back a few years. I want to examine how Hitler and King Boris became allies, because on the face of it, they certainly don't look like natural bedfellows. Boris hadn't banked on being in Hitler's camp at all. As war brewed, he spent months traveling around the European capitals trying to negotiate a peaceful way out. He knocked on pretty much every leader's door because Boris knew Bulgaria was ill prepared for conflict. Under the ill fated leadership of his father, Foxy King Ferdinand, it had suffered a brutal, brutal defeat in the First World War. It lost huge tracks of territory as a result, including Macedonia and the area known as Thrace. And more than that, says historian Tessa Dunlop, it lost its army.

[Tessa Dunlop]

Remember, Boris didn't start rearming until about 1935. He wasn't allowed to. Bulgaria had been totally de armed. So this is a dude who's got basically a country without a protective shell. He has no real soldiers. Why on earth would he want to go to war?

[Becky Milligan]

Boris was a seasoned soldier, but he was terribly marred by the brutal conflicts he'd fought in both Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913, and then the First World War. When he became king, age 24, he swore he would never allow Bulgarian blood to be spilled again. Which was why, at the start start of the Second World War, he declared Bulgaria was neutral. But the war spread like wildfire.

[Tessa Dunlop]

Little Bulgaria was in the middle of a giant world feud. And there's no way on earth it couldn't get sucked up into the drama.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, this next bit of history is crucial to understanding who might have killed the king and whether it might have been Hitler. I'll explain as clearly as I can. Here's what forced Bulgaria to stop being neutral and put it slap bang into Hitler's camp. So Germany and Russia were allies at the start of the war. That suited Boris just fine. Germany was Bulgaria's biggest economic partner and the Soviets had rescued Bulgaria from Turkish occupation only 50 years back. So the Bulgarians felt an affinity with the Russians. It was all just about manageable until the summer of 1941 when Hitler tore up his non aggression pact with Russia.

[Tessa Dunlop]

The problem is when Hitler has this idea that actually, nah, I'm gonna head east, you know, I'm gonna build my empire in Russia. I'm gonna kick down the rotten door. And that means Boris has to get off the neutrality tightrope. He's got to call it, is it going to be Germany or is it going to be the ussr?

[Becky Milligan]

And the crunch point came when Hitler decided he fancied his chances in Greece. There was only one route, and that was straight through Bulgaria. Boris now had to pick a side.

[Tessa Dunlop]

Look at the map. The Germans need to get to Greece, okay, to Shore up the Italians. How are they going to get there? They got to put boots on the ground and they've got to go through Bulgaria. Better they go through as friends than as enemies. We know what happens if you're Germany's enemy. We already know that by 1941.

[Becky Milligan]

Bulgarian historian George Bozduganov spells out the stark choice facing King Boris.

[George Bozduganov]

The Germans have only one friend or foe that don't care what Bulgarian king is thinking about at all.

[Becky Milligan]

Right?

[George Bozduganov]

Friend or foe.

[Becky Milligan]

So Boris had two options. Resist Hitler, knowing that he'd invade anyway and accept the consequences of that would be brutal, or give in and save all that bloodshed. His daughter, Princess Maria Louisa, is certain he made the right choice.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

Had we opposed Germany, there would have been nothing left, as they did to other countries in Europe. Run us over, kill everybody.

[Becky Milligan]

So there was no choice.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

Absolutely no choice. Absolutely no choice.

[Becky Milligan]

So, to protect his country, King Boris chose Germany. He signed a pact with Germany, Italy and Japan in March 1941. And from that moment on, Boris was a marked man. Overnight, he became an enemy of the Allies. Oh, right, here we go. At the Kew Archives in London, the first batch of the documents we called up has arrived. There's a whole bunch of declassified telegrams and letters from Sir George Rendell to the Foreign Office marked secret. Rendell was the British ambassador to Sofia during the war. He seemed to get on well with Boris. But when the King signed that pact with Hitler, Rendl was furious. He freaked out. He felt the King did have a choice about throwing in his lot with Hitler. And now that the Nazis were walking the streets of Sofia, Rendl was panicking. He was stuck in enemy territory and he wanted to go home. He demanded permission to break off all ties with Bulgaria immediately, in one particular document. He's pretty dramatic.

[George Bozduganov]

Bulgaria had not only been able to prevent the burglar from entering, but had opened the window to him and beckoned him in.

[Becky Milligan]

A few days later, the British Embassy in Sofia was closed and Rendell left the country for good. The Allies certainly gave Boris the cold shoulder. But whether he liked it or not, the newfound friendship with Germany meant the King would get plenty of face time with Hitler. And at first glance, the King seemed very happy to hang out with the Fuhrer and his henchmen. Boris would sometimes go hunting and shooting with them. He spoke perfect German, of course. Remember, his father Ferdinand was German. And whenever the King met Hitler, it was all big smiles and handshakes and slaps on the back. A real bromance.

[George Bozduganov]

Or was it only on Film footage. They are friends only in film footage.

[Becky Milligan]

So if they didn't share a friendship, did they share an ideology?

[George Bozduganov]

He's very clever in diplomacy.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, George Bozduganov isn't just a historian. He's Bulgaria's leading historian. He's unbelievably learned. Now, I've done my best. I've digested all the books out there on King Boris and the Second World War. But it's fair to say that I'm not quite as up to speed as Mr. Bozduganov on the minutiae of Balkan history. And I get the impression that sometimes frustrates him, like when he grits his teeth and asks for a timeout.

[George Bozduganov]

Maybe a little brick.

[Becky Milligan]

Of course, yes. Luckily, my producer EJ's on hand to back me up. I can always rely on her. So if I can just. I'm not recording you yet, Lu.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

Sorry.

[Becky Milligan]

It's fine. I thought we were on a break. No, we're not on a break now. Are you ready to go now where eventually we all get on the same page?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

No.

[Becky Milligan]

Yes.

[George Bozduganov]

No.

[Becky Milligan]

No.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

No.

[Becky Milligan]

What do you mean, no?

[George Bozduganov]

Right, yeah, yeah.

[Becky Milligan]

Finally I get to ask my question. Was he a Nazi? No.

[George Bozduganov]

Never. Not at all. He was never been a Nazi fan.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

Never.

[Becky Milligan]

Did he make that clear to Hitler?

[George Bozduganov]

Boris would be afraid to make this very clear to Hitler. Because of Hitler's power, everybody in the world was afraid by Hitler. English too, British too, of course.

[Becky Milligan]

So this alliance between Hitler and Boris was because.

[George Bozduganov]

Have no choice, really. Absolutely have no choice.

[Becky Milligan]

But Hitler hoped the King was onside with the whole Nazi project. Boris walked the walk, and he walked it well.

[Tessa Dunlop]

He wasn't intimidated by the Fuhrer. He wasn't intimidated by Hitler. He is more politically experienced in many levels than Hitler is, but he is an incredible political operator.

[Becky Milligan]

So, I mean, kind of. I mean, sly.

[Tessa Dunlop]

Hitler says. Hitler says of Boris he had never met a politician as intelligent and shrewd.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, that's interesting, because I've read that Hitler's nickname for Boris was the Fox. Not Foxy like his father Ferdinand, but the Fox, which suggests to me that he had Boris number. And Hitler was right to be suspicious. Suspicious. King Simeon is sure his father joined the Axis, the alliance with Germany, only through political expediency, not because he shared Nazi values.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

I think he distrusted Hitler deeply and with good reason. So to join the Axis was not any love of hit or because our family is of German origin. But this is what happens in these extreme situations in wartime.

[Becky Milligan]

And according to Simeon, Boris, nickname for Hitler, was the big dirty swine. Did Hitler know that? What we do know, of course, is that Hitler always took revenge on those who displeased him. Colonel Hamish De Breton Gordon is our expert on chemical weapons, like nerve agents. He tells me that by the time Boris died in the summer of 1943, Hitler had a whole pharmaceutical empire of poisons at his fingertips.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

We do know the Nazis developed nerve agents, starting off with something called soman, then taban, and then sarin, which, you know, the Syrian regime has used recently in Syria. Now, the sad thing to say is actually they are morbidly brilliant weapons, and if you had no morals or scruples, you'd use them all the time.

[Becky Milligan]

I think we'd be hard pushed to find anyone who could defend Hitler's morals and scruples. So nerve agents do seem to fit the bill.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

If it's the Germans who see, most likely it'd probably be something out of their chemical warfare factory.

[Becky Milligan]

So if it's 1943 and you want to kill a head of state and you have access to a whole stock of sophisticated synthetic weapons, why wouldn't you use them? Especially if you thought you could get away with it?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

The. The idea behind using deadly toxins and chemicals is actually they're very difficult to attribute. There's a lot of uncertainty, there's a lot of deniability. So if it was the Nazis who killed Boris, but didn't want to be directly fingered by it, because actually they were supposed to be allies, they were supposed to be working together. If you don't want to be found out, then certainly one surmise is that you would use a toxin that would do that.

[Becky Milligan]

Yeah, they were certainly supposed to be allies who were supposed to be working together. But the problem is, it turns out Boris just kept on refusing to play by the rules. After Boris cancelled the deportation of the Jews in March 1943 and sent those trains away, Hitler ordered Boris to Germany to have a little chat. Or rather, he gave him a stiff. Talking to Hitler insisted all Bulgaria's Jews must now be rounded up and sent to Poland by the autumn. So Boris did something quite extraordinary, something that might well have cost him his life. He pretended to be on the same page as Hitler when it came to the Jews. Basically, he gaslit him.

[Michael Barzohar]

The King said, I'm dying to send them. I want to send them away. I don't like these people.

[Becky Milligan]

But then the King told Hitler, unfortunately, he couldn't send the Jews away, as they were otherwise engaged in forced labor.

[Michael Barzohar]

The King said, but I need them for building roads and railroads. And that was the biggest bluff of the Second World War.

[Becky Milligan]

Boris Bluff saved Michael Bar Zohar's family. Michael is a writer and former politician who now lives in Israel. Forgive the audio quality, but zoom was the only way I could get to speak to him. And he's certainly worth speaking to. He was just a young boy in Bulgaria when the King invented his fictitious road building scheme. Every able bodied Jewish man in Michael's town was to be sent to camps in the countryside, away from the prying eyes of the Nazis, out of harm's way.

[Michael Barzohar]

King Boris told them, now we are going to mobilize all the able Jews men to labor camps. And by doing that, we are going to prevent the sending of the Jews to Poland.

[Becky Milligan]

And the King's scheme worked.

[Michael Barzohar]

And indeed they mobilized the Jews to the labor camps. My father was one of them.

[Becky Milligan]

According to Michael, his father's life in the camp was not exactly arduous. He often played cards and socialized with his Bulgarian guards. Now, this was hardly a holiday. These men had been forced to leave their homes and families behind and their livelihoods completely uproot themselves. Not easy, but it was still a far cry from a Nazi concentration camp.

[Michael Barzohar]

I have pictures of him at the camp, drinking together, singing together. And it was unbelievable because they did not work very hard in these camps. They didn't build any railroads. King Boris was playing here a very, very subtle game.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

He bluffed.

[Michael Barzohar]

He was a very wily man.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, nobody likes to be made a fool of. And we know that Hitler clocked what Boris was up to because his henchmen visited the camps and reported back. So in May 1943, the deportation trains destined for Poland were prepared again. All that was needed was Boris's signature. If only someone could find find him. It was a public holiday in Bulgaria. As usual, crowds flocked to the city center to see the King waving on the palace balcony. But Boris didn't show for three whole days. He went missing. And all the while, the train drivers were waiting for their orders. In fact, the butterfly King had holed himself away in his beloved mountains. And a few years ago, Michael Barzoha tracked down the man who helped him disappear.

[Michael Barzohar]

I found the driver. He was a simple man.

[Becky Milligan]

The chauffeur told Michael that the King didn't leave his mountain hut for three days. And while he was hiding inside, Boris confessed his worries to him and his valet.

[Michael Barzohar]

He told them, I'm very much afraid that I might get a phone call from Berlin to carry out a certain operation. And I know very well if I get this phone call, I can't refuse. So I decided to be, for a few days, incommunicado, to be unreachable.

[Becky Milligan]

And just in case that wasn't clear, Michael's saying that the king deliberately cut himself off so that he couldn't receive orders from Hitler about deporting Bulgaria's Jews on the trains and without the king's signature and say so no one had the authority to load those trains. When Boris came back, he quickly evacuated all the remaining Jews to the countryside. The elderly, the women and children, including Michael, were all sent away out of reach of the Gestapo, who were billeted in the capital. How many Jewish people from mainland Bulgaria were deported to camps, concentration camps, Death camps in Poland?

[Michael Barzohar]

Not even one.

[Becky Milligan]

Not one.

[Michael Barzohar]

Not even one? No, no, no one. Of course not. There was not one Bulgarian Jew was deported.

[Becky Milligan]

Forgive the skeptical journalist in me, but I need to check that fact myself because it is pretty incredible. Bulgaria's preeminent historian, George Bozdoganov, always has the facts and figures at his fingertips.

[George Bozduganov]

Not a single Jew, Bulgarian or foreigner living in the kingdom was killed or deported from the country to the Nazi camps. Neither one.

[Becky Milligan]

Not one.

[George Bozduganov]

No, not one.

[Becky Milligan]

And for George, that makes Boris a legend.

[George Bozduganov]

King Boris, third Bulgarian national hero of 20th century.

[Becky Milligan]

What kind of man would let this happen to his family? Inspired by shocking actual events, I'm working on a story about the Murdochs.

[Podcast Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Becky Milligan]

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[Michael Barzohar]

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[Becky Milligan]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Becky Milligan]

It's extraordinary. Such an incredible act of resistance. Especially when you remember Bulgaria was an official ally of Nazi Germany and that the Gestapo walked the Bulgarian streets. Of course, not everyone tells these stories in quite the same way because the definition of a hero is never universal. It's very, very personal. And as we'll hear in the next episode, every hero is someone else's villain. But you can bet Hitler wasn't rushing to congratulate Boris. Quite the opposite. Although since Boris had gone so far off message, why bother with subterfuge? I mean, why didn't the Nazis just cut their losses and shoot him?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

There would be no, no plausible defense. I mean, there's not much plausible defense anyway. But I think that's the point.

[Becky Milligan]

Our weapons expert, Colonel Hamish DeBreton Gordon, thinks assassination with a nerve agent is about much more than deniability. It's also about scaring the living daylights out of everybody around the King.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

These weapons are incredibly effective because of their psychological impact. So half the message, or probably more than half the message in these assassinations is to other people. You know, trying to tell anybody else who wanted to oppose the regime, you know, would get the same thing. And it's. It's incredibly effective at doing that.

[Becky Milligan]

Anyone who witnessed Boris's awful and prolonged death would have felt distinctly uncomfortable, especially if the word poison was. Was whispered in the sick room. But how could Hitler have administered the poison without Boris noticing? Remember that plane that Boris took to meet Hitler for the last time? The one that took him right into the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's top secret base in Poland? It's also the one little Simeon was so excited to see when it landed back in Sofia. Here's some key evidence. It wasn't a royal jet. It Wasn't even Bulgarian. It was a German plane and it belonged to Hitler. I've read a few history books which mention the following story. On the way home from the Wolf's Lair, the King was subdued. But after a moment, he left his seat and went into the cockpit. You'll remember how keen he he was on all things mechanical. And he asked the pilot if the plane could climb a little higher to see if the altitude would affect his ears the way it did when he went climbing in the mountains. The pilot agreed, and that's when the oxygen masks were handed out. So what if that's how Hitler did it, Substituting oxygen, oxygen for some sort of poisonous gas in Boris's mask?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

Actually, if it was a nerve agent, he breathed it in, it would probably kill him pretty quickly.

[Becky Milligan]

Well, Boris died 14 days after he returned from that meeting with Hitler. Could it have been a delayed reaction to cyanide gas?

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

For instance, if you breathe stuff in, it's going straight to your lungs, your lungs straight to your bloodstream, your bloodstream straight to your heart. So if they wanted a delayed reaction, they would probably want a dermal ingestion, in other words, through the skin. If it was a nerve agent on an oxygen mask type of thing, then that scenario, I would think, would be less likely with the outcome that we know happened.

[Becky Milligan]

But here's something I learned from Simeon and Maria Luisa, our two living links to these events. Boris's sister Eudoxia told them that she was sure the Nazis burned his lungs. So Boris's children carefully examined this theory.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

My aunt herself, she thought that it was the oxygen mask that my father used on his way back. But apparently in those days, there was no poison which would work with X days delay. So there we exclude another story.

You know, it's a myth, because in those days, they put oxygen masks to everybody on the plane, you know, so the other people should have, you know, had the same.

[Becky Milligan]

In fact, Maria Luisa tracked down the German pilot many years after the war. He promised her that poisoning via an oxygen mask would have been impossible because his allegiance was clearly to the Bulgarian King rather than to Hitler. He claimed he'd never have let those pigs, as he called the Gestapo, anywhere near the plane, let alone the cockpit. But a strange detail about that plane journey raises further questions. According to the pilot's account, Boris himself became wary when the oxygen masks were came out, and he insisted on swapping his own mask with the pilots. That seems odd to say the least. Did he suspect Hitler was trying to kill him? Because according to accounts from Advisors. When the King arrived home, he didn't rush to see his family as he usually did. He went to see a close friend who was a former Chief of Cabinet. And he told that friend that he'd had a terrible meeting with Hitler, which he knew would cost him dearly. I saved Bulgaria, he said, even if I will pay for it. Which, of course, he did with his life. Colonel Hamish has his own theory.

[Colonel Hamish de Brechengorden]

Maybe they thought Boris was an annoyance and wasn't helping things. And if they killed him, actually, others in the Bulgarian higher command and royal family might. Might be more sympathetic towards the cause.

[Becky Milligan]

You see, Boris hadn't just duped Hitler over the Jews, he'd also conned him over the war. Hitler was desperate for support on the Eastern Front, where the Germans were fighting a losing battle with Russia. And Hitler wanted that backup from the Bulgarian army. But Boris had made a promise when he first established. He promised he'd never send another Bulgarian soldier to war.

[George Bozduganov]

He refused. Absolutely. He refused to send troops on the Russian front or any other front.

[Becky Milligan]

Not only that, in fact, historians George Bozdoganov and Tessa Dunlop say Boris was doing far more dangerous things than refusing to hand over his army. King Boris was actively trying to swap sides.

[Tessa Dunlop]

He already is having conversations. Back channels exist, conversations about possibly getting clear blue water from the Nazis.

[Becky Milligan]

Did he try. Did he try to reach out to.

[George Bozduganov]

Yes, he tried. Yes, he tried. In spring of 1943, Sir Boris began talks with Americans in Switzerland for complete withdrawal of Bulgaria from the war, which he was unable to complete due to his sudden death.

[Becky Milligan]

So Boris was having secret meetings with the us.

[Michael Barzohar]

If Hitler got wing of this, you heard about it, he had to stop it. And the way to stop it was one kill the King. Because nobody but the King was shaping.

[Becky Milligan]

The foreign policy, as writer Michael Barzoha knows. Hitler almost certainly did get wind of those talks. The Nazis had spies everywhere, which is probably why that final meeting between Boris and Hitler was so brutal. It's August 1943, and we're back in the Wolf's Lair. For eight whole hours, the Fuhrer rages at the Bulgarian King. And according to eavesdroppers listening outside the door at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler goes absolutely crazy. You don't need to speak German to understand this. Friendship is floundering. But Boris speaks perfect German, which means he's on his own in that room with not even even an interpreter to take the sting out of Hitler's words. It's rumoured. Things got so heated that Hitler even swung a punch. But Boris won't give an inch. He won't send Bulgarian soldiers to fight Russia on the Eastern Front. He won't send Bulgarian Jews to the death camps. As far as Hitler was concerned, that wasn't the deal. That wasn't the deal at all. And Hitler feels betrayed. And no one likes feeling they've been taken for a ride. But Adolf Hitler has been taken for a ride. So when his royal guest leaves, Hitler doesn't bother to wave him off yet. This is the final goodbye. Boris doesn't know it yet, but he has barely two weeks left to live. Right here. Little corner over here. Let's sit down. Back at the National Archives in London, we've had some more luck, actually. It could be a big breakthrough. The librarians have pointed us towards the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge. They've just emailed us a very interesting document. Remember how the King lay dying surrounded by scores of doctors and specialists? This is a pamphlet written by some library society or historical society ten years after Boris had died. Okay. And you know those doctors who were there. It says here, the latter appeared to have been of opinion that it was no natural death. Okay. No natural death. Yeah. And then it says here, a little bit further down, according to private pronouncements of the official physician of the court, the cause of death was subsequently ascertained as a strange poison of Asiatic origin. Well, we've not heard that before, have we? Asiatic origin? Yeah. I mean, that's of kind crazy. And there's even more salient information in the pamphlet. Something which makes my blood go cold. They write here that that particular poison paralyzes the muscular system of the heart and shows symptoms resembling sort of heart attack, cardiac arrest or whatever. And you. And because it looks like that, it could obviously be mistaken for that, you know, I mean, I've never heard of that. I mean, what. What does it mean? I mean, what's Asiatic poison? Asiatic? I mean, Bulgaria is next to Turkey. Yeah, Turkey's half in Asia. But how. How do they know it was Asiatic? Hang on, that's really important because that means they must have found a trace of it and examined it. Yeah, I mean, everybody. Everything else we've just read said he was poisoned. But if they're saying it's a specific poison. Yeah. To Asia, I think you're really onto something there. Seriously, I do think this leads. It is a lead. Yeah. Let's just wind back a minute. Back to the summer of 1943. A few days after his highly stressful meeting, Boris took his family for a breather in the mountains. It was the school holidays. So the days seemed long and carefree. On the Monday, though, Boris told his family he had to leave them and return to Sofia for work. What he didn't tell his wife or his children was that he was feeling ill. But Boris had already told his brother that his heart was thumping and that he felt nausea. It was a few more days before his children found out. And at first they weren't told the full story.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

My sister and I drew some painting. I think I drew a little plane or something, my sister, some flowers. And we sent some mountain flowers to him, but not suspecting or knowing that he was so. So gravely ill. And then on Saturday he passed away.

We were told he was quite ill. Then my mother, of course, went down to be there. And then on the Saturday afternoon, we were out in the country, in the mountains. And when we came back, the radio was not working. The nanny said, of course they had pulled the plug. And then we're told that papa was very, very ill. So, you know, very ill. We should maybe go to Sofia. And then my father's sister, my Aunt Euroxia, came and she was dressed in black. And she said it, and I still didn't believe it. So we drove into Sofia and I saw black flags hanging in front of the buildings. And then, you know, I knew it.

[Becky Milligan]

Six year old Simeon couldn't get his head around what had happened until his father's right hand man, or aide de camp approached him.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

My father's ADC came up to me and he addressed me as your Majesty, not your Highness, as was the usual. And that's when I suddenly realized, my God, I mean, he's. He's addressing me like the King, I. E. My father has passed away.

[Becky Milligan]

I'm more and more convinced that Hitler was behind King Boris's death. And as I've told you, that was Aunt Eudoxia's hunch too. She always blamed the Nazis for murdering her brother. Could Hitler have paid someone to administer poison? Asiatic poison? What about one of the doctors or nurses who were treating King Boris? What do we actually know about those Doctors? There were 16 doctors in that sick room. 13 of them signed the death certificate. Certificate, but three didn't.

[George Bozduganov]

They are consultants. That they are well known and well established names with international renown.

[Becky Milligan]

So surely we can identify these doctors if they enjoy worldwide acclaim.

[George Bozduganov]

First, they are not Bulgarians. No, they are German doctors.

[Becky Milligan]

And that's when King Simeon drops a bombshell. Aunt Eudoxia, who always suspected the Nazis killed her brother, left Simeon and Maria Luisa a very special Letter penned by her own hand to be read only after her own death.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

It's about 20 pages and handwritten. And she left it in an envelope in Germany when she died in 85, with a huge sort of. With the marker on the envelope to be given to Simeon and Marie Louise after my death. And there, of course, are all her firsthand impressions.

[Becky Milligan]

Aunt Eudoxia places a distinct question mark over one of the doctors who attended Boris in his final hours.

[Princess Maria Luisa]

She was sort of pointing or saying that this Dr. Seitz, Rudolph Seitz, who came from Berlin, was. I mean, there was something suspicious about him.

[Becky Milligan]

And there wasn't just one German doctor, but three at the bedside of the King. Well, one was Austrian, but a known Nazi sympathiser. Three of them tending to King Boris, who's just betrayed the German folks. Adolf Hitler. Motive, means and opportunity.

[Tessa Dunlop]

Except people like you journalists, you know, excavating the archives. Put two and two together and make the wonderful five that is Nazis. Blame it all on the Nazis. It's not always all the Nazis fault.

[Becky Milligan]

Have I let my imagination run away with me? Historian Tessa Dunlop certainly thinks I'm jumping to conclusions.

[Tessa Dunlop]

I commend you, Becky, for having swallowed holus bolus so much of what's been written about this. But you are seeing what you want to see. You're looking around the room and you're only seeing swastikas.

[Becky Milligan]

Am I just framing the most obvious suspect in the lineup?

[Tessa Dunlop]

Why would you take out the one man who might not have gone as far as you wanted him to go, but has remained consistently loyal in his support? I would suggest that was even madder than Hitler was by 1943.

[Becky Milligan]

From a historical perspective. I know that Hitler needed all the friends he could get at this point in the war, so I accept that logically, it doesn't make sense to murder your ally. But that's exactly my point. Why does there have to be logic where Hitler's concerned? He was insane. But the palace doesn't seem to be backing my theory either. Perhaps I'm being oversensitive. Or are King Simeon and Maria Luisa giving me a gentle ticking off?

[Princess Maria Luisa]

One thing disturbs me terribly is when I see people being not objective. I like objectivity. All these things, as I say, are simply theories or hypotheses or just fantasy. But there's nothing rational. I have no proof.

I'm confident, convinced. It wasn't. It wasn't the Germans.

[Becky Milligan]

Next time on the Butterfly King, we delve deep into Asiatic poisons.

[George Bozduganov]

It was some kind of poison from India, probably snake poison. That is what he had heard from the doctors.

[Becky Milligan]

We find a new lead as a snake in the grass rears its ugly head in Asia. Tropical Asia has a horrendous snakebite death rate every year. The snake venoms are complicated cocktails of different toxins and Boris Squeaky Clean image takes a battering as we hear dark stories about his very controversial legacy.

[George Bozduganov]

It's a a story.

[Becky Milligan]

It's a falsifying of history. His hands are not clean.

[George Bozduganov]

It's quite a lot of blood.

[Becky Milligan]

The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and Exactly Right Media, hosted by me, Becky Milligan. It's written and produced by Emma Jane Kirby. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanel and Toby Matamong. Sound design and engineering by Toby Matamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Artwork by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is Amica Shortino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grizzel for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers are Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstock and Daniel Kramer with consulting producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by the book Hitler and the King by John Hall Spencer.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through November 4th. Shop the annual beauty event and save $5 when you spend $25 on select beauty products. Shop in store or online for items like Dove Body Wash, Native Body Wash, Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser, Dr. Squatch body wash, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel, Dial Liquid Hand Soap and Olay Body wash. And save $5 when you spend $25 or more. Offer ends November 4th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.

[Michael Barzohar]

This is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately.

[Podcast Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Tessa Dunlop]

To unravel the story piece by piece.

[Becky Milligan]

Was really surprising because you don't want to believe it.

[Podcast Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Becky Milligan]

Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

[Podcast Narrator/Advertiser]

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