This is a photo of the brigade from Galenov Factory. It was taken in the 1950s in Dupnitsa. I’m second on the right in the first row. Mati, a Jew, is the first on the left in the first row. We got along very well. The picture was taken in the yard.
In 1954 I started work in the Galenov Factory in Dupnitsa producing medicine. I started work when the factory was founded. My colleagues were very nice. Some of them were Jewish. The job wasn't easy, we had quotas to fulfill.
I was respected at my workplace. I worked there for 21 years. It was later transformed into 'Pharmahim.' I retired from there with a small pension. I was easygoing and sang a lot. I was in the factory choir and had some solo performances in the community house of the town. I was also a soloist in the choir. I know songs in Ladino, which I learned from my mother.
Ida Alkalai in the factory for medicine
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.
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