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My mother always had me accompany her while she was to go shopping, so that I might carry the baskets. Tuesdays and Fridays were the market days. Ruse was a big industrial town. Outside the city there were many gardens so we used to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. My mother used to buy only kosher meet. There was only one seller that she would buy meat from. In the Jewish neighborhood there was a confectioner – the Turk Tahir Nuri, where we, the young people, used to go; our parents visited this place in the evenings, too. Pastries and cakes were offered there and in winter they made halva [19]. If you sit in there they would bring you a plate with pastries and you’ll have to choose. From this period I remember 19th May 1934 [The military coup d’etat after which King Boris III established a totalitarian regime, the Parliament was dismissed and all the parties were banned.]. I was 9 years old then. I remember the martial law, the mounted police. I remember also the entry of the German allies in Ruse through Romania– it was in March 1941. [On 1st March 1941, the Government of Bogdan Filov signed the protocol under which Bulgaria joined the Axis. On 6th March the dislocation of German troops on the Balkan Peninsula began and it started from Romania to Bulgaria via Ruse.]
My parents used to read also newspapers, mainly Jewish ones, and from Bulgarian newspapers they preferred ‘Utro’ [Morning] [20] and ‘Zora’ [Dawn] [21] [popular newspapers without any particular political focus]. Dad could speak Hebrew, because he read the prayers in Hebrew. In Ruse there were two clubs where the libraries were located, but I haven’t borrowed books from there because I used to buy them. I read ‘Captain Dreyfus’, the five volumes of Victor von Falk [‘Auf ewig getrennt? Oder Kapitän Dreyfus und seiner Gattin ergreifende Erlebnisse, Schicksale und fürchterliche Verbannung. Sensationsroman von Victor von Falk’ (On eternally separately? Or Captain Dreyfus and his wife moving experiences, fates and dreadful banishing. Thriller by Victor von Falk) (Berlin: A. Weichert 1898) - a novel in five volumes by Victor von Falk, considered to be a pseudonym of several authors] – my mother read them, too, as well as the novels by Victor Hugo: ‘The Miserables’, ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’, all of them. Dad used to give me 20 levs a week and I saved it. In Ruse there was a famous bookshop ‘Simeon Simeonov’, where I could find the book I liked.
My father was in the administration of General Zionists. He was a member of the board of directors of the Jewish bank ‘Avoda’ Bank. [There is no further information on it]. There were several accountants in it, several tradesmen and several industrialists. My parents had Zionist political views – they were not in the politics because the Jews were out of the political institutions then. We had not only Jews for neighbors – there were Bulgarians, too. We got on well with them, and with their kids. However, my parents made friends more easily with Jews. My father attended the Jewish Bet Am [22]. After World War II he used to work with Bulgarians only.
My parents used to read also newspapers, mainly Jewish ones, and from Bulgarian newspapers they preferred ‘Utro’ [Morning] [20] and ‘Zora’ [Dawn] [21] [popular newspapers without any particular political focus]. Dad could speak Hebrew, because he read the prayers in Hebrew. In Ruse there were two clubs where the libraries were located, but I haven’t borrowed books from there because I used to buy them. I read ‘Captain Dreyfus’, the five volumes of Victor von Falk [‘Auf ewig getrennt? Oder Kapitän Dreyfus und seiner Gattin ergreifende Erlebnisse, Schicksale und fürchterliche Verbannung. Sensationsroman von Victor von Falk’ (On eternally separately? Or Captain Dreyfus and his wife moving experiences, fates and dreadful banishing. Thriller by Victor von Falk) (Berlin: A. Weichert 1898) - a novel in five volumes by Victor von Falk, considered to be a pseudonym of several authors] – my mother read them, too, as well as the novels by Victor Hugo: ‘The Miserables’, ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’, all of them. Dad used to give me 20 levs a week and I saved it. In Ruse there was a famous bookshop ‘Simeon Simeonov’, where I could find the book I liked.
My father was in the administration of General Zionists. He was a member of the board of directors of the Jewish bank ‘Avoda’ Bank. [There is no further information on it]. There were several accountants in it, several tradesmen and several industrialists. My parents had Zionist political views – they were not in the politics because the Jews were out of the political institutions then. We had not only Jews for neighbors – there were Bulgarians, too. We got on well with them, and with their kids. However, my parents made friends more easily with Jews. My father attended the Jewish Bet Am [22]. After World War II he used to work with Bulgarians only.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Mois Natan