Chelebi Yulzari

This is my uncle Chelebi Yulzari, my father's brother, photographed in the 1920s, but I don?t know where. My uncle Chelebi was a tall, strong man with big blue eyes and a good heart. The whole family on my grandfather Kemal and my grandmother Gracia's side are blue-eyed. Before the war my uncle Chelebi was a peddler, a vendor of sweets. He did all kinds of work, whatever he could find. He was even a candy shop assistant. He married Perla, a Haldeyan ['Haldeyan' or 'Tudesk' is how the Sephardi Jews called the German Jews in Bulgaria] from Sofia. There was a time when they quarreled so much that they were on the verge of getting divorced. Then he came to live with us. He lived in our house for a year and worked as a seller for his cousin Sebata Yulzari. Uncle Chelebi left for Israel with his family in 1948, where they stayed until they died. Regina became a well-known journalist in Israel, while Sami was a dental surgeon.

Centropa Collection acquired by USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. 

USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". Please contact collection [at] centropa.org.