Tag #140745 - Interview #96750 (Sabat Pilosof)

After 9th September 1944 [23] work became my priority. First I worked in the tobacco warehouse. I also worked as an apprentice-shoemaker. In 1947 a shoemaker’s co-operative was set up. I wanted to enroll in it but there weren’t enough work materials and not everyone was accepted. Then Uncle Avram, my father’s brother, and I opened a workshop. But as there were no materials, we couldn’t work. We didn’t have enough funds to buy a large amount of shoemaker’s materials. Then I started working in a vegetable oil refinery where we produced oil from sunflowers. It was a seasonal job. Then I worked in a tobacco warehouse again for a while. In 1950 I became a shop assistant. Thus I ended up with shoemaking. Until 1980 I was in the trade. Then I retired. The shop was state-run and I couldn’t be away from work. I became a supervisor at a large trade store whose staff numbered 14 people. I was obliged to go to work. We rarely gathered with relatives on high holidays. I felt like it was holiday time when there was a delicious meal on my table, as well as when I was resting.

Life during the 1950s was quite calm. I never encountered problems after 9th September 1944 because of my Jewish origin. It was different in the Soviet Union. In Bulgaria, after 1944 there weren’t manifestations of anti-Semitism, or if there were any of the kind, they were isolated cases. Nobody has ever differentiated between Bulgarians and Jews. Life was much calmer than compared to the current situation. Before 1989 [see 10th November 1989] [24], I could go out of the house without locking the door, but now it’s not safe. When you visit a doctor nobody acknowledges whose turn it is, the ones who pay always go first. My wife and I had a normal life. We went on holidays organized by our workplaces.