Korina Solomonova on a picnic near Sliven

Korina Solomonova on a picnic near Sliven

This is a photo from a picnic on 'Manastircheto' - a hill situated near Sliven. This location is about an hour's walk from the town. The photo was taken in 1940s during a vacation. My sister Luisa Alhalel, nee Solomonova, is the first from the right in the first row and I am right behind her. Our friends, both Bulgarians and Jews, can also be seen in the photo. We were not more than 17 years old then. Most of us were members of the Union of Young Workers and we got along very well. My sisters and I were more involved with the UYW than with the Jewish organizations. We became UYW members very early - while we were studying in high school. I was a student in the fourth grade, when I became a UYW member (the fourth grade corresponds to the contemporary eighth grade). At first we helped the Sliven partisan group. We sew clothes, knitted socks for the partisans. In my last grade I became a leader of the UYW in my high school. We distributed leaflets against the Germans from house to house, which was very risky. We wrote leaflets in block letters so that our handwriting wouldn't be recognized. One of us distributed the leaflets. One of the leaflets, for example, appealed that no food and clothes be sent to the German soldiers. We did that secretly, because we could have been sentenced to death if caught.
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