The Ishakh family and the Markus family

The Ishakh family and the Markus family in Ruse in 1994.

I am the first from left to right, and beside me is my wife Bela Ishakh, her sister Victoria Markus and her husband Leon Markus. Behind us is my elder daughter Sonia and our relative Puyu from Israel, who came to visit us. He is the son of my wife's cousin, but I don’t remember the cousin’s name.

We have two daughters - Sonia, born in 1946 and Roza, born in 1953. My older daughter graduated from the mechanical technical school ‘Yuriy Gagarin’ in Ruse. Now she works in ‘Shalom’ and chairs the finance division at the local ‘Shalom.’ She collects the rent from the organization's properties. This money is used to run the Jewish organization in Ruse. My younger daughter works as a statistician. Roza is divorced. Her surname was Dalakmanska by her husband, now she is Ishakh once again. My elder daughter's surname is Grigorova. Her son, Aron, lives in Ramat Gan. He graduated from college in trade and industry management and is now in his last year of studies for a degree in engineering. He works in a company and the management is very happy with his work. His name was Roman before, because there was a regulation in Bulgarian law that children from mixed marriages were Bulgarian nationals and could not have Jewish names. That law was adopted during the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria. Emil, who was born in 1973, is Roza’s child. Victor, born in 1997, is our great-grandson, Emil’s son. They live with us in Ruse.

After the democratic changes in 1989, I received aid from a Swiss fund three times. But my political views as a communist do not square with all that democracy brought to Bulgaria. Unemployment, the misery of the people, I don't approve of them. In 1989 everyone had a job; people lived more or less well: we could build our own houses; we had a piece of land, which we cultivated. Now my family is also affected by unemployment. My grandson Emil is without work. He is 30 years old. His wife is unemployed too - we helped them with our pensions and with the help of the girl's parents.