Luna Davidova with family and friends on their internment day

This is a picture of my family, taken on 11th June 1943, the day when we were interned from Kazanlak, at the street in front of our lodging of the time, Dr Bukovsky's house. From right to left are Petar, a friend of my father, his son Ivan, Dr Bukovsky, Petar's wife Mara, Dr Bukovsky's wife Radka, my mother Sara Katalan, nee Bidjarano, Petar Arnaudov, a photographer, my father Buko Katalan, a friend of ours named Kosta, and me. We were given a couple of days to sell our household goods before the internment on 11th June 1943. Peasants came from the villages with their carts to make the dirt-cheap bargains but they had no guilt - we were to be led away and we didn't have the right to take anything except a bundle with some clothes and a blanket. We gave my father's library and a beautiful office desk to our Bulgarian friends. Afterwards they returned them to us. We were interned in Lom, on the bank of the Danube. There were many Jewish families there who welcomed us at the railway station and took us to a big school called Fotinov. We settled down in the classrooms. It was summertime, vacation for the students, and we were about 50 people in one room - men, women and children. We slept on the ground. There was a vast yard where we washed ourselves, we kindled a fire and our mothers cooked beans, lentils or potatoes. We had strictly fixed hours to do the shopping in certain stores. Some friends of ours sent us parcels with food. One night we even had policemen in our room - one of the officers across the street had taken a look at two splendid sisters. They were 20 years old, they had black hair and green eyes; they were incredibly beautiful creatures and he came at night to do some zulumlutzi [zulum, pl. zulumlutzi - from the Turkish, meaning outrage, harm].