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At the beginning Shemuel was in a forced labor camp [29]. No man from our family was mobilized into a labor camp. My brother was too young and my father was too old.
I first met my future husband’s sister. Her name was Miriam, she was a year younger than me and she said she had a brother in the labor camps, and another brother called Benzhamen. Their mother died in 1932.
Shemuel came back from the camp in the winter, in December, because that was the routine. They were allowed to go home in December or January and returned to the camp in February or March. It turned out that my beloved from Maccabi, Miko Kalev, was with my husband-to-be in the same labor group in Saranevo and when they returned in December I went on walks with Miko. Shemuel met us, they greeted each other and Miko introduced us. Some time had elapsed; Shemuel saw me in the street and asked me, ‘Why aren’t you greeting me?’ ‘It’s not true – I’m greeting you!’ A belt of mine was missing and years later he admitted that he had stolen it from me. That was how our love started – with the theft of my belt. At first I didn’t want to start a relationship with him because it seemed as a betrayal but later Miko went to Sofia to study, he became a student and his life took him in another direction.
Even today I can’t say what I liked in Miko and also in Shemuel. They both had their good sides. At that time all the girls on the Jewish street had a boyfriend. I had to have one, too. I was very attracted to intelligent men. They arouse in me the interest towards the things I wasn’t familiar with. For example, in the labor corps around Pazardzhik there were a lot of students from Sofia. One of them came to the dentist in Pazardzhik and we, three girls, immediately fell in love with him because he was a second-year student of medicine. He knew so many things. And my friends and I decided to spend the night together, reading the books we had, so that we could make a brilliant display of our knowledge.
I first met my future husband’s sister. Her name was Miriam, she was a year younger than me and she said she had a brother in the labor camps, and another brother called Benzhamen. Their mother died in 1932.
Shemuel came back from the camp in the winter, in December, because that was the routine. They were allowed to go home in December or January and returned to the camp in February or March. It turned out that my beloved from Maccabi, Miko Kalev, was with my husband-to-be in the same labor group in Saranevo and when they returned in December I went on walks with Miko. Shemuel met us, they greeted each other and Miko introduced us. Some time had elapsed; Shemuel saw me in the street and asked me, ‘Why aren’t you greeting me?’ ‘It’s not true – I’m greeting you!’ A belt of mine was missing and years later he admitted that he had stolen it from me. That was how our love started – with the theft of my belt. At first I didn’t want to start a relationship with him because it seemed as a betrayal but later Miko went to Sofia to study, he became a student and his life took him in another direction.
Even today I can’t say what I liked in Miko and also in Shemuel. They both had their good sides. At that time all the girls on the Jewish street had a boyfriend. I had to have one, too. I was very attracted to intelligent men. They arouse in me the interest towards the things I wasn’t familiar with. For example, in the labor corps around Pazardzhik there were a lot of students from Sofia. One of them came to the dentist in Pazardzhik and we, three girls, immediately fell in love with him because he was a second-year student of medicine. He knew so many things. And my friends and I decided to spend the night together, reading the books we had, so that we could make a brilliant display of our knowledge.
Period
Location
Pazardzhik
Bulgaria
Interview
Sofi Eshua Danon-Moshe