Tag #137631 - Interview #98439 (Juliet Saltiel)

I was born in the village of Slatina, near Sofia, on 17th December 1925. Our family was often forced to move from one place to another, because it was difficult for our father to find a permanent job. That is why my brothers and I were born in different places in Bulgaria. All this, however, didn’t mean that my childhood wasn’t good. But I should mention I never attended a Jewish school. All the schools I studied at were Bulgarian, except for the first one. I started my primary education in Ruse. There I studied up to first grade only. It was the local Catholic school, and I don’t know why my parents decided to choose exactly this one, but it was perhaps because of the better education it seemed to provide. In my second grade I was already at the Sofia’s school ‘Father Paisii’. In fact, I studied there up to my fourth grade. After that the Law for Protection of the Nation was introduced and I didn’t study during this period [1941-1944]. In 1946, however, I continued my education at a night school. At this point all my relatives had already emigrated to Israel. After the night school I attended the so-called Rabfac [4]. My favorite subject in the workers’ faculty was Physics. I don’t remember who the teacher was. I remember only my teachers in Bulgarian and Mathematics – Mrs. Denkova and Mr. Radulov. I can’t remember any other details about my early childhood.