Tag #127986 - Interview #78014 (Matilda Israel)

My brothers and all Jewish men were sent to labor camps [see forced labor camps in Bulgaria] [8] and many people from the capital were interned in 1942 [see Internment of Jews in Bulgaria] [9]. Even my brother Haim wasn't able to come to our wedding, because he was sent to a labor camp. Some Jews were accommodated in Karnobat. I remember that my sister Ana shared her house in Karnobat with six other families. Three families were living in one of the rooms in Ana's house, hanging sheets from the ceiling to have some privacy. They didn't work and had no money. They had free lunch prepared for them every day. [Editor's note: The Jews interned to small towns throughout Bulgaria usually lived with Bulgarian families, but the authorities in Karnobat decided to accommodate them in Jewish houses, as Karnobat had a higher than average number of Jews.