Selected text
People were talking about the concentration camps in Europe. When 10th March 1943 [Plan for deportation of Jews in Bulgaria] [13] came, we knew that we would be deported. On 9th March we were at my grandmother’s; there was no bathroom in our apartment and we used to go and have a bath there. We always stayed there for a while before we went home. Isak Katalan, my uncle, was a member of the communist party. He came home in the evening and told us, ‘Sit down and listen to me. Jews are about to be deported. There are lists made. Probably not everyone will be deported, but you never know. Now, when you go home, prepare a suitcase or a small bag for each one of you.’ And really, on 10th March the deportation started.
Our family wasn’t deported, but all my grandmother’s family together with my uncles and aunt, who had already married and was seven months pregnant, were taken to the school. People were saying there was a second list, including the names of all the other Jews. A cousin of ours came and told my mother the news. My mother and I got dressed and at half past four in the morning, we left for my grandmother’s. There were policemen in front of Grandmother Zelma’s house. Of course, we weren’t allowed inside and stood in front of the house.
Later I understood from my grandmother that she did everything she could to prevent them from taking her family out in the dark. She tried to slow things down. She went from policeman to policeman saying, ‘Do whatever you want, but wait until the morning so that the Bulgarian citizens of Plovdiv will see what you’re doing.’ My grandmother was an intelligent woman, despite not having any formal education. Thanks to her the family was led out at seven thirty with much effort from the policemen. The houses belonging to all the Jews who were taken to the school were sealed.
I remember that my grandmother and my mother’s relatives started walking up the street and we walked behind them. When we reached the Monument of Gratitude many people saw them and many lawyers ran to hug my uncles. They were saying, ‘Where are they taking Katalan?’ The policemen pushed them with the butt-stocks of their guns. The Jews were taken to the yard of the Jewish school. We waited in front of the yard and talked about what was happening, ‘Now they are making them do this, now they have to do that etc.’ We heard cries and shouting from inside. We wanted to pass some things to our relatives, but we weren’t allowed. It was very frightening, but they were released at four o’clock in the afternoon.
My aunt was taken to the school on 10th March and gave birth to my cousin Rozi on 16th March. The delivery was normal, but the baby was born prematurely. I don’t remember if she gave birth in a hospital or not.
From this apartment here I saw how Bishop Kiril [14] passed along this street, near this garden, with all his people. He went to the Jewish school to tell the people that they wouldn’t be deported. Yes, he went to them and said resolutely, ‘I will lie on the rails, I will not allow it.’ I don’t remember any Jews from Sofia being deported. They interned them [15] to smaller towns such as Yambol, Gorna Djumaya and Shumen.
All our family survived the Holocaust. No one was sent to jail, although my uncle Isak Katalan was a communist and before that a member of Maccabi [16] and the UYW [17]. Our property was also preserved, because we lived in these two apartments and we had nothing to confiscate and nationalize. But life was very hard financially. We had to live very frugally.
Our family wasn’t deported, but all my grandmother’s family together with my uncles and aunt, who had already married and was seven months pregnant, were taken to the school. People were saying there was a second list, including the names of all the other Jews. A cousin of ours came and told my mother the news. My mother and I got dressed and at half past four in the morning, we left for my grandmother’s. There were policemen in front of Grandmother Zelma’s house. Of course, we weren’t allowed inside and stood in front of the house.
Later I understood from my grandmother that she did everything she could to prevent them from taking her family out in the dark. She tried to slow things down. She went from policeman to policeman saying, ‘Do whatever you want, but wait until the morning so that the Bulgarian citizens of Plovdiv will see what you’re doing.’ My grandmother was an intelligent woman, despite not having any formal education. Thanks to her the family was led out at seven thirty with much effort from the policemen. The houses belonging to all the Jews who were taken to the school were sealed.
I remember that my grandmother and my mother’s relatives started walking up the street and we walked behind them. When we reached the Monument of Gratitude many people saw them and many lawyers ran to hug my uncles. They were saying, ‘Where are they taking Katalan?’ The policemen pushed them with the butt-stocks of their guns. The Jews were taken to the yard of the Jewish school. We waited in front of the yard and talked about what was happening, ‘Now they are making them do this, now they have to do that etc.’ We heard cries and shouting from inside. We wanted to pass some things to our relatives, but we weren’t allowed. It was very frightening, but they were released at four o’clock in the afternoon.
My aunt was taken to the school on 10th March and gave birth to my cousin Rozi on 16th March. The delivery was normal, but the baby was born prematurely. I don’t remember if she gave birth in a hospital or not.
From this apartment here I saw how Bishop Kiril [14] passed along this street, near this garden, with all his people. He went to the Jewish school to tell the people that they wouldn’t be deported. Yes, he went to them and said resolutely, ‘I will lie on the rails, I will not allow it.’ I don’t remember any Jews from Sofia being deported. They interned them [15] to smaller towns such as Yambol, Gorna Djumaya and Shumen.
All our family survived the Holocaust. No one was sent to jail, although my uncle Isak Katalan was a communist and before that a member of Maccabi [16] and the UYW [17]. Our property was also preserved, because we lived in these two apartments and we had nothing to confiscate and nationalize. But life was very hard financially. We had to live very frugally.
Period
Year
1943
Location
Plovdiv
Bulgaria
Interview
Sarina Chelibakova