Tag #141543 - Interview #78604 (Adela Nissimova Levi)

At that time I was also a member of the Union of Young Workers [see UYW] [16], the youth branch of the Bulgarian Communist Party, which together with the other organizations organized this demonstration against the anti-Jewish law: the Law for the Protection of the Nation, and the deportation of Jews. Students and adults gathered at the yard of the school. Haribi [rabbi] Daniel [Zion] [17] had also come and he spoke first. He said that we had to stand up against the deportation of Jews. Then some young Jews came out of a neighboring building and starting speaking about what our future was and what we had to do.

Then we started walking along the present Stamboliiski Boulevard towards the Palace in order to hand a petition to King Boris III [18]. On Opalchenska Street some mounted policemen were waiting for us and started beating the people with their batons in order to disperse us. Many people were arrested, especially the older ones, because they couldn’t run fast, and were transported to a school. Those who had been arrested were sent to a camp in Somovit, a town on the Danube coast. I had been beaten badly on the leg, the head, the arms, and wherever else they could, because I was in the second row and we were walking hand in hand. I managed to escape and was returning home along the small streets when suddenly a hand grabbed me and pulled me into a yard. It turned out to be my mother. ‘You’ll sit here and you won’t move!’ she said.