Tag #141186 - Interview #78603 (Jul Efraim Levi)

I also remember that at that time my mother went down with a disease. Her blood vessels couldn’t stand the cold and turned blue because her blood had stopped flowing. So, she couldn’t move her arms and legs. That was the main reason why my parents immigrated to Israel. I promised them to immigrate too, but only after I graduated from the Musical Academy. But inadvertently I lied to them. Another time I upset my parents was when I told my father that I wouldn’t become an architect like him. He asked me why all the time and once said, ‘Get a degree in architecture and be a composer as well. Be a musician, but have another profession as well!’ And I said to him, ‘Alright, if you want me to build houses that fall down!’ He started crying, he was very upset. And he went to Leon Lazarov, a conductor who was also a Jew and a close friend of my father’s. Leon told my father, ‘I don’t know if your son will become a good architect, but he will definitely become a great musician.’ And my father believed him.

The first time I felt anti-Semitism towards me was in my first days in Sofia in fall 1939. The Law for the Protection of the Nation hadn’t been adopted yet, but people were talking about anti-Jewish laws to be passed. So, it was no surprise that one morning the shop windows of Jewish shops were all broken and with anti-Semitic slogans painted on them such as ‘Death to Jews!’ My heart sank. Soon after that, Branniks [15], Legionaries [see Bulgarian Legions] [16] and Otets Paisii [17] members appeared on the streets and chased us to beat us. During the Law for the Protection of the Nation one of them caught me in front of the door of our house, hit me hard a couple of times, swore at me and left.