This is my elder brother Ruben shortly before he married Ester Sachi in 1941. After that all the family moved to Asenovgrad to stay with Ester's sister - Lili Videva - well ahead of the execution of the regulation for internment of Sofian Jews, according to the Law for Protection of the Nation (1941).
Ruben was born in Sofia in 1923 and died in Israel in 1999. He was an electrician. From his wife Ester (nee Sachi), he had three children: Yosif, Sima and Dafna. They live in Haifa in Israel. His wife was a housewife and now she is a pensioner. As far as I know it was Ruben who took care of our mother until she died.
My brother Ruben was the first in the Fridmans family to marry - he married Ester (nee Sachi). Their wedding took place in 1941 in Sofia. These days our family, together with the young couple Ruben and Ester had not yet moved to Asenovgrad to stay with Ester's sister Lily Videva (whom we called Stela). Until 1942 we all lived in Sofia, in Skobelev Boulevard.
How did we earn our living during the Law for Protection of the Nation? My brother Ruben was an electrician and he often went to the nearby villages to practice his profession, although it was forbidden; he used to take off his yellow star before that. Of course, the villagers could give him away to the authorities, because his activity was against the law [Jews could work only in the field of manual labor, thanks to which they could earn something for their living.] But they didn't do that.
As I have already mentioned after 1946 - the year when my parents emigrated - I remained to live alone in a half-empty rented room. There were five more people living in the same apartment. In the next room were my brother Ruben with his wife Ester. They earned their living making for example paper packaging for seeds out of newspapers.
