This is my uncle Solomon Elazar's certificate for graduating from secondary school in Kyustendil in 1923.
Uncle Solomon was born on 27th December 1908 in the town of Kyustendil. He went to France after the family had moved to Sofia. He started working with some firm in Sofia first. His boss highly valued his work and took my uncle to France with him when he was just 19 years old to work in a sock factory, Chesterfield. He made a fortune there and started to support the whole family. He supported my grandparents all his life, even after they went to live in Israel. Uncle Solomon never returned to Bulgaria. Maybe because he was aware of the fact that he hadn't served in the Bulgarian army.
My uncle had a very interesting period while he was in France. He used to hide for a few months in the basement of his boss's daughter who was in love with him. He was literally walled up there so that he couldn't be found. There was just a small opening through which he received his food. That's how he survived during the German occupation of France during World War II. My uncle didn't marry his boss' daughter; he married a Bulgarian Jew. He was a very noble man and, as I said before, he supported his relatives in both Bulgaria and Israel.
