Tag #139807 - Interview #78193 (Rosa Kolevska)

During the war [WWII] I wasn't that young anymore, already about fifteen, and still I was very naive. As though I didn't realize what exactly was going on. Whether it was my mother who kept me aloof of everything, I don't know. I remember some incidents. There was a sweet shop in Sliven, whose owner was an Albanian. We loved to go there and have something sweet. During the war a sign appeared on its front door saying 'Entry forbidden for dogs and Jews!' My parents were well informed of what was happening on the front. Radio sets were forbidden for us, Jews, and they were jammed. Somehow my grandfather switched ours on and used to listen to it quite often, frequently exclaiming aloud, 'There is no logic!'

We knew about the existence of anti-fascist organizations in Bulgaria during the war, moreover many of the members of these organizations served their sentences in the Sliven prison, including Jews. I remember that even in the Jewish community center they explained to us what was happening to the Jews in other countries, but this information seemed distant to me. On 9th September [1944] [13] I was in Bourgas. I was working temporarily in a socks factory. People went out in the streets for a manifestation and all of them had put red ribbons on their clothes. I suppose that this day was more moving in Sliven, as the partisans had come down from the mountains and had liberated the political prisoners.