These are my parents Rashel and David Levi with my sister and me. The photo was taken in Vidin [port city on the right bank of the Danube in Bulgaria, 220 km. away from Sofia] in the distant 1939.
I was born in one of the most beautiful Bulgarian towns on the Danube River, which was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom [After the establishment of the Bulgarian state there are a number of significant historical periods in its development: the period of the First Bulgarian State from 681 until 1118. That was the period from the establishment of the Bulgarian state until its fall under Byzantium rule. The period of the Second Bulgarian State starts with the restoration of the king's institution as a form of state government in 1185.]. My hometown is Vidin, or Bdin, as they called it in the past. Every Jew born in Vidin remains in love with this town and the country. As a child I loved going for long walks along the river. If you stop at the bend of the river, you can see Kalafat straight in front of you. Here, in Vidin, people like saying metaphorically that the lights of Kalafat are like the lights of life, because at first they are broad, then the river waters shrink them more and more until they dissolve in one single ray. I have a sister - Ester David Fintsi (nee Levi), who is five years older than me. She was born in 1925 in Vidin. She lives in Sofia now and she worked as a clerk. She has two daughters: Madlena and Sheli Fintsi, who also live in Sofia.
My parents have different origin. My father David Avram Levi (1898 - 1969) is a Sephardi Jew born in Vidin. My mother Rashel Avram Levi (nee Benjosef, 1899 - 1975) was also born here, but she is half Ashkenazi Jew. That is, her mother, my grandmother Ester, whose family name I do not know, moved from Germany to Bulgaria due to reasons unknown to me. My father was a middleman and my mother - a housewife.
