Based on the Nuremberg Laws, Belev's decrees instituted the wearing of identification stars, corralling into ghettoes and strong restrictions on the movement of Jews.
[10] During this time Belev was a close associate and political ally of SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Theodor Dannecker, chief of the Gestapo in Bulgaria and deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
[11] Belev's role had officially been to resettle Bulgaria's Jewish population but in June 1942 he reported that such a solution would be impossible during wartime, unless the Bulgarian government was prepared to turn the task over to the Germans.
[16] In October 1943 the newly appointed government of Prime Minister Dobri Bozhilov dismissed Belev from his position as chairman of the Commissariat of Jewish Affairs, replacing him with the more moderate Christo Stomanyakov.
Other rumours circulated that he had fled to Germany or even the United States and so widely was it believed that he was still alive that the People's Court tried, convicted and sentenced him to death in absentia.
Belev had fled to Kyustendil, from whence he intended to travel to Germany, but when he arrived he was captured by partisans who arrested him and sent him back to Sofia.