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My family was accommodated in a school and lived very miserably. At that time my wife developed a very serious form of diabetes. In October 1943 I was released from the camp and I went straight to Chirpan. I saw that my wife's condition had deteriorated. Her whole organism was weakened from the illness and her breath smelled of acetone. I rushed to the municipality and asked to be transferred to Plovdiv where my parents lived. There were also good Jewish physicians in Plovdiv. They allowed us to move to Plovdiv and we took my wife for a medical check. Three distinguished Plovdiv Jewish physicians decided that my wife should take insulin three times a day. My wife and I settled in an old house and my wife's parents went to live with some relatives.
My release from the labor camp was temporary because I was once again mobilized in April 1944. I once again took part in the construction of roads in Belovo and Sestrino in Central Bulgaria. There was a rumor that King Boris III had reached an agreement with Hitler to leave 22,000 Jews in Bulgaria to work, as I did, and deport the remaining women, elderly people and children, who were more than 22,000. That would have been a great tragedy...
In Plovdiv I saw how the Jews were saved by metropolitan Kiril [15], who later became bishop. He was friends with the distinguished Jews in the city and after the authorities in Plovdiv began gathering the Jews in the school to deport them, he arrived in Sofia to meet with the regents, since Boris III had already died, and declared that he would lie on the railway lines in front of the train and wouldn't allow the Jews to be deported. That was how we were saved. Meanwhile, the Soviet army was already winning the war and in July-August I was released from the labor camp.
My release from the labor camp was temporary because I was once again mobilized in April 1944. I once again took part in the construction of roads in Belovo and Sestrino in Central Bulgaria. There was a rumor that King Boris III had reached an agreement with Hitler to leave 22,000 Jews in Bulgaria to work, as I did, and deport the remaining women, elderly people and children, who were more than 22,000. That would have been a great tragedy...
In Plovdiv I saw how the Jews were saved by metropolitan Kiril [15], who later became bishop. He was friends with the distinguished Jews in the city and after the authorities in Plovdiv began gathering the Jews in the school to deport them, he arrived in Sofia to meet with the regents, since Boris III had already died, and declared that he would lie on the railway lines in front of the train and wouldn't allow the Jews to be deported. That was how we were saved. Meanwhile, the Soviet army was already winning the war and in July-August I was released from the labor camp.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
haim molhov