Gracia Albuhaire in the Karnobat city garden

When my friends - young boys and girls from Bourgas - came to visit us in Karnobat in 1941, we went to the Karnobat city garden. We were introduced to each other and several couples were formed. This picture of me was taken in the garden in 1941. These normal aspects of life lasted only until the war began in 1941-1942. The joy and walks ended the moment when the Jewish neighborhood was shut and turned into a ghetto. During the Holocaust youth excursions took place extremely rarely. We did meet though in the drawing-room of Yako Gart's house and in the yard of Roseta's house, which had a wall and no one could stare at us from the outside. There were no longer merry companies of boys and girls. We were forbidden to gather together. There were no holidays, no celebrations. Everything was empty, sad and dark. People died without receiving medicine. Men were waiting for someone to send them money for cigarettes, and women had nothing to eat. Men were thinking of their wives, women worried for their husbands.