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After 1989 democracy did a lot of good for me. You could breathe now, speak, tell jokes – but nowadays I don’t hear jokes any more. 10th November 1989 brought greater freedom, but I was in a way ostracized by the Jewish community in Sofia. They called me a traitor, because my daughter, Leah, signed up with the opposition party called Union of Democratic Forces. Once I met an acquaintance who was with another Jew and he asked me why I didn’t visit the Bet Am [21], just next door. I answered, ‘Why should I come, you’ve turned it into a branch of Pozitano? [The headquarters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party is located on Pozitano street] Why do you invite Aleksander Lilov [one of the ideologists of the Bulgarian Communist Party during the time of Todor Zhivkov] on your holidays and anniversaries?’ And the other man grabbed me and shouted, ‘You, fascist, do you know that my brother was killed by the fascists before 9th September?’ ‘But that was 60 years ago, even Israel and Germany have shaken hands since then’, I told him. ‘And your brother was revenged immediately after 9th September – the People’s Court and so on, so stop talking about this!’ And now when he sees me in the Jewish Center he tells me, ‘Every time I see you, my mood is spoiled!’ And I seldom go there. I find it boring. I prefer to take a walk in Borisova Gradina [the central park in Sofia] than listen to their silly conversations.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Tinka Kohen