The wedding picture of Ana and Mladen Mladenov

Here Ana is 18-years old. Her husband Mladen Mladenov is a construction engineer. He together with Ani [Ana] graduated from the Construction Institute in Sofia.

As a matter of fact, I don't know when my children understood they were Jews. We used to celebrate all the Jewish holidays at home, although we didn't always observe the tradition very strictly. My children graduated from Bulgarian schools. So I am not sure if they have an increased Jewish self-consciousness. What is for sure, no one can remember of anti-Semitic incident against a member of our family.

During our internment to Asenovgrad [1942] before my marriage I suffered very badly from peritonitis. My parents took me as far as Plovdiv so that I might have an operation done. In order to go there we had to ask the police for permission. Before that I had suffered from pleurisy. That's why doctors told me I could not have any children. So, before marrying Mois I was convinced I wouldn't have children. Despite that we have three children with Mois: Solomon, Yosif, and Ani. They all were born in Sofia.

Ani is an architect yet, but she is not working at present. As a matter of fact she was the first to marry - yet as a schoolgirl in 1973. My husband and I even had to ask for permission for their wedding, because they hadn't completed their high school education yet (Ani was then almost 18 years old). Her husband's name is Mladen Mladenov, they were classmates. She was still a schoolgirl when she gave birth to her first child Nikolay (1973). Nikolay graduated from the Sofia's High School of Mathematics, after which he married and went to Canada. At present he lives there together with his wife Stanislava, also a mathematician, and their two children Mladen (1996) and Anton (2001). Ani's daughter is called Elena (1978). She graduated from the Construction University in Sofia and is a water conduit and sewerage engineer. Now she is practicing her profession with a company.

Photos from this interviewee