Leon Moshe Seliktar as a student of the 3rd Men's High School in Sofia

Leon Moshe Seliktar as a student of the 3rd Men's High School in Sofia

I am in the center in the second row, the one resting his head on his hand. I was a student of the 3rd Men's High School in Sofia at the time. The photo was taken in 1943.

I was born in Sofia on 11th September 1927. I went to kindergarten. It was called nursery then. We went to it one year before we started school. At that time we started school at the age of eight, so we went to the nursery at the age of seven. Before that our mother looked after us at home. My brother was older and the two of us went together to the Jewish school. My favorite subjects were history and geography. I loved my elementary and nursery teacher. My elementary school teacher's name was Suzana. She was beautiful and taught us Bulgarian. Our other teacher, Batia, was also very nice. She taught us Ivrit. My friends at school were my classmates, who were all Jews. After high school I had other friends as well. I studied in a Bulgarian high school as there wasn't a Jewish one then. I studied at the 3rd Men's High School.
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The first more serious limitations for Jews started after the Law for the Protection of the Nation was passed. At that time I was a high school student. There were Brannik, Legionaries, and Otets Paisii All-Bulgarian Union members among my classmates. I wasn't made to discontinue my education. There were some anti-Semitic incidents in my high school: students from other classes sometimes chased Jews and beat them up. But there were no such people in our class; on the contrary, the Bulgarians in it protected us. Maybe this was because all the students in the class were from poor families. We were four Jews in our class. There were Branniks and Legionaries among the students, but they didn't beat us or harass us.
 

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