Tag #139723 - Interview #77961 (sophie pinkas)

I started studying medicine. I was admitted easily because I had been at the front. I rented a room at the flat of one of the families, who lived in our house during the internment. I started studying in December 1944. I started studying in Sofia, but I was recalled to work in the UYW in Vidin. Then I left my studies and I went back. In UYW I did some political work, which had to be paid, but since they had no money, I worked almost for free. When my brother graduated from high school he left for Sofia and finished his medical university education earlier than me. My parents remained in Vidin; my father did not have a job anymore, because his shop had been confiscated. After the war a Bulgarian family had replaced the Turkish family who had been our neighbors and who had left for Turkey. Our new neighbors were a lawyer and his wife and we got along very well with them.

During the mass aliyah in 1947-1948 two of my father's brothers, Sami and Yosef, left with their families for Israel. His third brother, Jacques, who had been to Israel before, remained in Bulgaria. Our family also stayed here. Since we were enrolled in university, we didn't discuss the subject of leaving at all. But there was a period when my father wanted us to leave very much. He even tried to persuade my mother, but she was absolutely against it. She said that she was not going to leaving without us. The reason why I didn't leave was because of my studying and because my husband and I had different political views and opinions.