When Bulgaria switched sides in the second World War, he was taken prisoner by the Germans on 4 September 1944.
In October 1944, he refused to join the creation of a Bulgarian military unit to fight on the German side.
In December he also refused to enter in the Anti-Communist government in exile of Alexander Tsankov.
In the period December 1944 - May 1945 he was a prisoner of war in the Oflag-8 camp in Germany.
On 15 March 1945 he was sentenced in absentia to death by the Fourth Supreme Chamber of the People's Court of Bulgaria, but the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the sentence because it had been proven he was a prisoner of war.