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When Bulgaria entered the war on the side of Hitler's Germany, we - the young people - started to search for a way to prevent our country from getting involved in that war. Of course, at first we started distributing anti-military leaflets. At the age of 16 and a half I was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for the distribution of anti-government and anti-fascist leaflets. Not only Jews did that but Bulgarians also. We got on very well with the Bulgarians as they were workers just like us and we had no reason to fight with them. The trial aiming at convicting us was a completely 'Jewish one'. We were 22 people and the majority of us was sent to prison.
There were anti-Semitic acts in the prison in Skopje as well. I remember a day when a prosecutor came from Skopje. At that time Skopje was under Bulgarian authority. When he realized that there were Jews there, he put us in another room - under special conditions - no fresh air, no letters, no parcels, and no additional food. We only had the right of the prison's ration. I neither had the right to receive nor to send anything to my family. No messages whatsoever, nothing at all. And the reason for that was that we were Jews. He even told us then that the Jews from the Aegean region had already been sent to the gas chambers. I stayed in prison for more than two years. I was tortured for 45 days until a trial was fabricated. I spent more than two years in the prisons in Sofia and in Skopje. Then, at the end of August 1944, we organized an escape.
In prison there were also Macedonians and Serbs although Bulgaria had occupied part of former Yugoslavia and annexed Macedonia to the so-called Great Bulgaria. We got along well with them. There were some 'underground' leaders, who decided that we should organize an escape because free Macedonians had informed us that a mass slaughter of prisoners, including the common criminals, was planned. We were among them.
There were anti-Semitic acts in the prison in Skopje as well. I remember a day when a prosecutor came from Skopje. At that time Skopje was under Bulgarian authority. When he realized that there were Jews there, he put us in another room - under special conditions - no fresh air, no letters, no parcels, and no additional food. We only had the right of the prison's ration. I neither had the right to receive nor to send anything to my family. No messages whatsoever, nothing at all. And the reason for that was that we were Jews. He even told us then that the Jews from the Aegean region had already been sent to the gas chambers. I stayed in prison for more than two years. I was tortured for 45 days until a trial was fabricated. I spent more than two years in the prisons in Sofia and in Skopje. Then, at the end of August 1944, we organized an escape.
In prison there were also Macedonians and Serbs although Bulgaria had occupied part of former Yugoslavia and annexed Macedonia to the so-called Great Bulgaria. We got along well with them. There were some 'underground' leaders, who decided that we should organize an escape because free Macedonians had informed us that a mass slaughter of prisoners, including the common criminals, was planned. We were among them.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Leon Levi