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My father was mobilized as an officer in one of the [forced] labor camps [25]. He was a lieutenant. He was mobilized somewhere around Svoge [near Sofia], but I don't know where exactly. He didn't work as a labor service man; he was in his officer's rank. My mother was very worried about her relatives in Yugoslavia. At that time there were so many rumors, and only vague information in the newspapers. We didn't have any news from our relatives; we didn't know what was happening. We heard about the death camps, about Poland, the Czech lands, but we didn't know what was happening in Macedonia. We had more information only after 9th September and we tried to get more details through the International Red Cross, but we weren't successful. When my mother's relatives were deported in 1943, we knew nothing about that. Later we learned that they died in Treblinka. Only uncle Zdravko Beraha and two cousins - Jacques Beraha's son, David Beraha, and Yosif Beraha's, son David Beraha, who was known as Bato, saved themselves by escaping from Yugoslavia through Albania and Italy and from there on to Sao Paolo, Brazil.
The Bulgarian police, who was then in Skopje gathered the Jews in warehouses and schools in order to deport them to the death camps [see Bulgarian Occupation of Macedonia in World War II] [26]. Before they sealed the house in Skopje, my grandmother Sarah hid her son Zdravko and the two grandsons in the basement, thinking that they would be sent to labor camps where it would be hardest for the men. All of my other relatives went to the meeting points and from there they were transported to Treblinka where they were killed right away. We learned the truth about our relatives in the camps much later. We made a lot of attempts to understand what had happened with them; we also contacted the International Red Cross.
Some years ago two volumes on the history of the Skopje Jews were published in Macedonia, written in Macedonian and English. I found them at the place of a fellow-countryman here in Bulgaria, who had brought them from Macedonia. The title of the book is 'Evreite vo Makedonia vo Vtorata svetska voina 1941-1945' ['The Jews in Macedonia in World War II, 1941- 1945']. Its authors are Jamila Kolonomos and Dr. Vera Vangeli. The two volumes described in minute detail the facts around the deportation and the painful death of the Macedonian Jews in Treblinka. They also included a complete list of the deported people. I copied the page with the list, which included the name of my relatives.
During that time my uncle Zdravko and the two boys, thanks to the help of Albanian and Turkish neighbors, escaped disguised as veiled women riding donkeys to Albania. There they met the other brother, Albert, who, sensing the direction the events were taking, had gone there to find if it would be possible to escape with the whole family. They started working there. From Albania they moved to Italy where they also worked. Then Zdravko remained in Switzerland and Albert and the two boys left for Latin America: Brazil and Venezuela.
The Bulgarian police, who was then in Skopje gathered the Jews in warehouses and schools in order to deport them to the death camps [see Bulgarian Occupation of Macedonia in World War II] [26]. Before they sealed the house in Skopje, my grandmother Sarah hid her son Zdravko and the two grandsons in the basement, thinking that they would be sent to labor camps where it would be hardest for the men. All of my other relatives went to the meeting points and from there they were transported to Treblinka where they were killed right away. We learned the truth about our relatives in the camps much later. We made a lot of attempts to understand what had happened with them; we also contacted the International Red Cross.
Some years ago two volumes on the history of the Skopje Jews were published in Macedonia, written in Macedonian and English. I found them at the place of a fellow-countryman here in Bulgaria, who had brought them from Macedonia. The title of the book is 'Evreite vo Makedonia vo Vtorata svetska voina 1941-1945' ['The Jews in Macedonia in World War II, 1941- 1945']. Its authors are Jamila Kolonomos and Dr. Vera Vangeli. The two volumes described in minute detail the facts around the deportation and the painful death of the Macedonian Jews in Treblinka. They also included a complete list of the deported people. I copied the page with the list, which included the name of my relatives.
During that time my uncle Zdravko and the two boys, thanks to the help of Albanian and Turkish neighbors, escaped disguised as veiled women riding donkeys to Albania. There they met the other brother, Albert, who, sensing the direction the events were taking, had gone there to find if it would be possible to escape with the whole family. They started working there. From Albania they moved to Italy where they also worked. Then Zdravko remained in Switzerland and Albert and the two boys left for Latin America: Brazil and Venezuela.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
sophie pinkas