To the Editor:

Maureen Dowd's Feb, 26 column about Bulgaria overlooks one profoundly important hisorical fact. During World War II, when France was busy helping the Germans send French Jews to the gas chambers, Bulgaria, in one of the most heroic acts of the ghastly era, rallied around its Jewish citizens and saved virtually the entire community, almost 50,000 people, from the Nazis.

The bravery of the Bulgarians in the face of the evil stands in stark contrast to the appeasement of the French -- a policy the French seem determined to repeat today. Yes, we should be drinking Bulgarian wine.

JEFFREY MIPEL
Ann Arbor, Mich., Feb. 26, 2003