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There were two cinemas - a Jew living in Kaleto owned one, the other was in the center of the town in the community house 'Tsviat' [color in Bulgarian]. There was a curfew for the students in the high school and we couldn't stay outside until late. There was a teacher in our high school, of whom everybody was afraid. His name was Balabanov and he walked around the streets looking for students who were not observing the regulations. I don't remember at what time we should have been at home - 8 or 9pm - but we never broke that rule.
After the Jewish school we studied in a junior high school, which had three grades - first, second and third. Then we went to high school, which started from the fourth grade. I link this period with my best friend, Jina Mashiah: we were simply inseparable. Her real name was Reyna, but we called her Jina. She was a very poor girl without a father. Her mother, a poor woman, supported three children by sewing shirts at home. I remember that my mother helped them a lot by giving them money and clothes. We lived on the same street; our houses faced each other. We went to school together in the mornings and sat together in the classroom. I was one of the shortest children, she was one of the tallest, but nevertheless we sat together in the first row. We returned home together, she often came to have lunch with us and then we started studying.
My brother teased us the entire time saying that we were 'klyutskarki' - this word is not used any more. It means someone who likes studying - that we were reading all the time. Since we studied Latin in high school, which was very hard for us, we sat for hours translating from Latin into Bulgarian and from Bulgarian into Latin. My mother would usually bring us some food while we were studying and when we finished, she gave us some money to go for a walk in the town's garden. It was the so-called 'stargalo' - the garden was located along the Danube and all young people arranged their meetings and went for a walk there. At that time uniforms were obligatory - the school uniforms and the berets. There was a confectionery nearby - we went there to eat some cakes and drink boza [11]. We often went to the cinema.
In Vidin before 9th September 1944 [12] there was no theater, concerts, and philharmonic orchestra at all. The town was a small one - around 16,000 people. But we had the chance to learn a lot about music from the Military orchestra. The military club was in the park in Vidin and in front of the club there was a nice platform. Every Sunday afternoon the military orchestra, which was mostly a brass band, went out to play. Usually they played overtures from various operas, popular pieces and they always put a notice outside what they would be playing. We went to listen to them and in this way we enriched our music knowledge, this being the only way to do it.
We had a piano at home and my mother insisted that I learn to play it. I started taking lessons and my brother did so too. I was more eager than him, but I wasn't very gifted. My brother didn't want to do it at all: he was always looking at the clock on the piano, counting the hours. My mother was very persevering and stayed beside us during our lessons, listening to our teacher. Although they bought the piano for us, my mother was also eager to learn something. She listened to our teacher and later reproduced it by herself.
After the Jewish school we studied in a junior high school, which had three grades - first, second and third. Then we went to high school, which started from the fourth grade. I link this period with my best friend, Jina Mashiah: we were simply inseparable. Her real name was Reyna, but we called her Jina. She was a very poor girl without a father. Her mother, a poor woman, supported three children by sewing shirts at home. I remember that my mother helped them a lot by giving them money and clothes. We lived on the same street; our houses faced each other. We went to school together in the mornings and sat together in the classroom. I was one of the shortest children, she was one of the tallest, but nevertheless we sat together in the first row. We returned home together, she often came to have lunch with us and then we started studying.
My brother teased us the entire time saying that we were 'klyutskarki' - this word is not used any more. It means someone who likes studying - that we were reading all the time. Since we studied Latin in high school, which was very hard for us, we sat for hours translating from Latin into Bulgarian and from Bulgarian into Latin. My mother would usually bring us some food while we were studying and when we finished, she gave us some money to go for a walk in the town's garden. It was the so-called 'stargalo' - the garden was located along the Danube and all young people arranged their meetings and went for a walk there. At that time uniforms were obligatory - the school uniforms and the berets. There was a confectionery nearby - we went there to eat some cakes and drink boza [11]. We often went to the cinema.
In Vidin before 9th September 1944 [12] there was no theater, concerts, and philharmonic orchestra at all. The town was a small one - around 16,000 people. But we had the chance to learn a lot about music from the Military orchestra. The military club was in the park in Vidin and in front of the club there was a nice platform. Every Sunday afternoon the military orchestra, which was mostly a brass band, went out to play. Usually they played overtures from various operas, popular pieces and they always put a notice outside what they would be playing. We went to listen to them and in this way we enriched our music knowledge, this being the only way to do it.
We had a piano at home and my mother insisted that I learn to play it. I started taking lessons and my brother did so too. I was more eager than him, but I wasn't very gifted. My brother didn't want to do it at all: he was always looking at the clock on the piano, counting the hours. My mother was very persevering and stayed beside us during our lessons, listening to our teacher. Although they bought the piano for us, my mother was also eager to learn something. She listened to our teacher and later reproduced it by herself.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
sophie pinkas