Leon Beraha with students of the Jewish school

This is my future husband Leon Yosif Beraha as a first grade student in the Jewish school in Sofia. He is third from right in the second row. The picture was taken in 1933. I became friends with many of the boys you can see here. Later on some of them also became members of the UYW like my husband Leon and me. Unfortunately I cannot remember anything else about them. I became a member of the UYW on 5th May 1942, right after I finished the 3rd grade of the Jewish junior high school. Leon was redirected to our group as a more experienced UYW member. At the age of 15 I carried out my first action with him, and at 16 we decided to be a couple. For three or four years we were only holding hands. In Iuchbunar there was a conspiracy, a traitor within our organization and a lot of members were imprisoned. My future husband was also arrested. He simulated that he was an imbecile, he was released as an underdeveloped person and was acquitted for lack of evidence. His second arrest was a more serious one. In fascist times [in the late 1930s - early 1940s] he worked as an electrician. At that time the newspapers wrote about the Totleben conspiracy. The gang of Totleben bandits was raging, etc. My husband and his brother electrified a hospital. In an outhouse behind that hospital they hid two outlaws. Actually the conspiracy was called this way because the hospital was on Totleben Street in Sofia. During a police action a shooting started. Anyway, the authorities never proved that it was my husband who had shot. Yet, all this resulted in his internment to the forced labor camp in Dupnitsa. They dug trenches there. By a 'happy' coincidence my family was also interned to Dupnitsa.