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The men between the age of 19 and 40 were mobilized in the labor camps [31]. My father was getting on and I was too young for the labor camps. In 1942 my father was sent to the village of Gorno Voroshilovo because of his party membership. The village used to have the same name before 9th September but then it was quite a forlorn place. Now the highway is going through it.
There were also some men of the same age from present-day Greek territories, from towns like Drama, Salonika, Xanti whose relatives had been deported. They were mobilized in the labor camps of Kingdom Bulgaria which at that time used to have an outlet to the Aegean Sea. [50 000 Jews from Salonika were deported to Poland in 1943 but that has nothing to do with Bulgaria. The mobilization was of Jews-relatives who were from the old territories of Bulgaria – otherwise there are no facts about Jews from the newly-annexed lands who were mobilized to work.] When they were demobilized in winter they used to sleep in one of the rooms from the synagogue in Plovdiv. There were five such rooms in the yard. There were about 40 or 50 of those Greeks. There is an interesting story with them. The Branniks started bullying us again. They were attacking us ruthlessly. Somebody saw them coming and shouted: ‘Call the Greek boys’ (the Greek boys because they could only speak Greek). They quickly came out and there was such a fight. In the end there was a pile of the members of Brannik, like dogs, and they were severely beaten. But suddenly there was a shout ‘Police!’ and we disappeared into thin air. That was possible because the streets ‘Angel Kunchev’, ‘Vodoprovodna’, ‘Tsar Samuil’ and ‘Yuri Venelin’ formed a square. The houses and yards of those houses were connected by little doors and we could move from yard to yard. We entered a house in ‘Angel Kunchev’ and went out from a house in ‘Yuri Venelin’.
There were also some men of the same age from present-day Greek territories, from towns like Drama, Salonika, Xanti whose relatives had been deported. They were mobilized in the labor camps of Kingdom Bulgaria which at that time used to have an outlet to the Aegean Sea. [50 000 Jews from Salonika were deported to Poland in 1943 but that has nothing to do with Bulgaria. The mobilization was of Jews-relatives who were from the old territories of Bulgaria – otherwise there are no facts about Jews from the newly-annexed lands who were mobilized to work.] When they were demobilized in winter they used to sleep in one of the rooms from the synagogue in Plovdiv. There were five such rooms in the yard. There were about 40 or 50 of those Greeks. There is an interesting story with them. The Branniks started bullying us again. They were attacking us ruthlessly. Somebody saw them coming and shouted: ‘Call the Greek boys’ (the Greek boys because they could only speak Greek). They quickly came out and there was such a fight. In the end there was a pile of the members of Brannik, like dogs, and they were severely beaten. But suddenly there was a shout ‘Police!’ and we disappeared into thin air. That was possible because the streets ‘Angel Kunchev’, ‘Vodoprovodna’, ‘Tsar Samuil’ and ‘Yuri Venelin’ formed a square. The houses and yards of those houses were connected by little doors and we could move from yard to yard. We entered a house in ‘Angel Kunchev’ and went out from a house in ‘Yuri Venelin’.
Period
Year
1943
Location
Plovdiv
Bulgaria
Interview
Bitoush Behar