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My relatives started to leave one by one after the formation of Israel. Most of my aunts left in 1949-1950. My mother and I were the last to leave in 1953. I was studying at the language school in Lovech then. The language school was founded in the place of the American college after 9th September 1944. I went to Lovech when I was twelve and I studied there for four years. I had studied at the French College [8] on Lavele Street in Sofia for four years before that - there was a special class in which we studied French. I had studied in the secondary school on Shipka Street and continued to study French at the language school. My mother was preparing the documents for our departure to Israel at that time.
My grandparents went to Israel and my mother and I remained here. So we already had information about the place where we would go, and there were also people there to welcome and help us. My father remained in Bulgaria as he and my mother were already divorced.
We left for Israel from Italy in 1953. We crossed the whole of Yugoslavia and arrived in Naples where we had to stay for ten days before we got onboard a big ship called Jerusalem along with a group of other Bulgarian Jews who were also leaving for Israel. There was a constant stream of people leaving for Israel after 1948 [see Mass Aliyah] [9]. We departed from Naples and arrived in Haifa. Our relatives who had settled in Tel Aviv were waiting for us there. The first years in Israel had been very hard for them, as they had lived in barracks but gradually, with the help of my uncle Solomon who lived in France, each of my aunts managed to build a small house in Tel Barukh. These houses existed until recently but then Tel Baruh was turned into a modern quarter of Tel Aviv and they built new buildings there instead.
When we went to Israel my grandfather had already died in the barracks near Haifa. He got severely ill because the climate there wasn't good for him. He had a foreboding that he would be a burden to his family. He stopped eating intentionally and he withered bit by bit. We settled in a house in Tel Baruh with my grandmother and the family of my aunt Mara with whom we had been together during the internment in Berkovitza and afterwards in Sofia.
My grandparents went to Israel and my mother and I remained here. So we already had information about the place where we would go, and there were also people there to welcome and help us. My father remained in Bulgaria as he and my mother were already divorced.
We left for Israel from Italy in 1953. We crossed the whole of Yugoslavia and arrived in Naples where we had to stay for ten days before we got onboard a big ship called Jerusalem along with a group of other Bulgarian Jews who were also leaving for Israel. There was a constant stream of people leaving for Israel after 1948 [see Mass Aliyah] [9]. We departed from Naples and arrived in Haifa. Our relatives who had settled in Tel Aviv were waiting for us there. The first years in Israel had been very hard for them, as they had lived in barracks but gradually, with the help of my uncle Solomon who lived in France, each of my aunts managed to build a small house in Tel Barukh. These houses existed until recently but then Tel Baruh was turned into a modern quarter of Tel Aviv and they built new buildings there instead.
When we went to Israel my grandfather had already died in the barracks near Haifa. He got severely ill because the climate there wasn't good for him. He had a foreboding that he would be a burden to his family. He stopped eating intentionally and he withered bit by bit. We settled in a house in Tel Baruh with my grandmother and the family of my aunt Mara with whom we had been together during the internment in Berkovitza and afterwards in Sofia.
Period
Year
1953
Location
Haifa
Israel
Interview
Anelia Kasabova