This is a photogarph of my parents, Sabat Baruh and Rashel Baruh, nee Gheron. It was taken in 1908 in Sofia, soon after their marriage.
I don't know how my parents met but they were an ordinary couple. I don't know either of my paternal grandparents, nor my maternal ones, because they died long before I was born.
My mother was born in 1882 in the town of Pazardjik. She graduated from the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Pazardjik - something very unusual for that time because women were not supposed to study. She had three sisters - Roza, Beya and Victoria who were housewives and one brother, Avram who was a businessman. My father was born in 1878 in the town of Kjustendil. In 1907 he came to Sofia to work as a teacher and translator of Spanish and French.
When I think back, we lived very poorly - my father had a salary but he fell ill so we lived rather below the average. We could hardly make ends meet. In my childhood we have never gone on holidays, but there was one very beautiful girl on our street, Smaragda, whose parents were wealthy so they could afford to go the seaside, and she told us about it. The Jews lived very united - we went to the synagogue on holidays but we've never had any close relationships with other Jews. It was the relatives who came to our place more often - Roza and her husband Yosif came to visit us and drink coffee.