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When the war started in 1939 [10] I was six years old. We usually played on the streets in the neighborhood. Once we heard that the German army was coming. It must have been 1941 or 1942. [Editor’s note: the passing of the German army through Bulgaria took place on 5th March 1941. On 1st March 1941 the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Bogdan Filov signed the protocol for the country’s accession to the Axis.] The people in our old neighborhood took flowers to welcome the German tanks. My brother and I decided to go and welcome them too. We went home and asked my mother to give us some money. She simply said, ‘But, children, they don’t bring good times for us…’ She let us go because we were very insistent. She also gave us money for flowers.
We went to Ruski Boulevard. Then they started settling the German officers in houses; one or two officers lived opposite our house. They had orderlies who cleaned their shoes. In the evening we, the children, went outside to play in a small dead-end street. One of the orderlies would also go out to get some fresh air in the evenings. One evening one of the children turned to him and said, ‘They are Jews!’ My brother and I got scared and stopped going out to play in the neighborhood.
Danger was in the air.
We went to Ruski Boulevard. Then they started settling the German officers in houses; one or two officers lived opposite our house. They had orderlies who cleaned their shoes. In the evening we, the children, went outside to play in a small dead-end street. One of the orderlies would also go out to get some fresh air in the evenings. One evening one of the children turned to him and said, ‘They are Jews!’ My brother and I got scared and stopped going out to play in the neighborhood.
Danger was in the air.
Period
Year
1941
Location
Plovdiv
Bulgaria
Interview
Sarina Chelibakova