Roza Benveniste with family and friends on a day trip
This photograph was taken in 1937. It is an excursion to the border of Greece with Bulgaria with friends and family. The soldiers who were doing their military service at the border lent us their guns and helmets for the photograph. I am in the middle of the bottom row.
We didn’t use to go on vacation much. My mother had arthritis so she would go somewhere outside Thessaloniki, to some hot springs. One time that I was with mother there, they had this dancing contest for couples, and I was awarded the title of ‘Miss.’ I was the ‘Miss of the dance floor.’
When the Zionistic movement had started in Thessaloniki there were unions like the AJJ that where organizing balls and excursions. These were just day-trips, of course, because our parents wouldn’t let us sleep outside the house. We also visited Prespes Lakes. My aunts used to go on vacation and sometimes they would invite me over; they had younger children so I would go to keep them company.
