Tag #139716 - Interview #77961 (sophie pinkas)

Usually we met at some big house. Once we organized a meeting in our house. We often disguised our meetings as youth gatherings and we kept them secret from our parents. My father was more conservative, but I didn't have any problems with him. My mother often gave us money and clothes for the organization. At some point my brother became the person in charge of a new UYW group. When Jews from Sofia came, we accommodated them. There were a lot of Jewish families from Sofia in our house. There was a room in the attic where my brother lived, because it was too crowded in the house. In fact, this room became an illegal UYW office - there was a mimeograph used for printing leaflets, weapons were hidden and then sent to the partisans. Sometimes Bulgarian boys from the organization hid there.

When we graduated from high school in 1942 we [Jewish students] weren't allowed to go to the traditional students' graduation ball, which was organized in the Officers' Club. Then we, the boys and the girls, because we were divided into a girls' high school and a boys' high school, decided to gather at home and listen to the gramophone. We decided not to dress up, but to wear our school uniforms. We had a great time eating, drinking and dancing all night.