Sophie Pinkas with her family and interned Sofia families

This photo was taken in Vidin in front of our house, in August 1943. We had a picture taken of us with the families we accommodated in our house. After the Jews from Sofia were interned to Vidin, we voluntarily vacated some of our rooms and accommodated some of them there. A small part of the Jews were accommodated in the Jewish school, but the conditions there were very miserable. Plank beds were placed in the classrooms. A number of families lived in each classroom. There was a canteen for the poor families in the yard of the school, supported by the Jewish Consistory; I don?t know where they got the money. Meals were cooked in a big cauldron and we, the young Jews, distributed the food. There were a lot of lice and fleas there. Most of the Jews were in the houses of the other Jews. They didn't pay rent or anything. I don?t remember how many people we were, but there was a family in every room. Each family consisted of four people. Our family - my mother, my father, my grandmother, my brother and I occupied two rooms. The other four rooms we gave as a shelter to four families. So, five families lived in one house. We had two kitchens - on the first and on the second floor. The one on the second floor was used by our family and by one of my father's brothers Josef and his wife Sterina, who lived with us. The other kitchen was used by the interned Jews. They cooked and cleaned by themselves. You can see our yellow stars on the photo. Although the situation was very hard, we got along very well and didn't despair. We tried to look a bit more positively on what was happening. We didn't have serious antagonistic attitudes and problems in our life together. From left to right: I, my mother Lenka Pinkas, nee Beraha, my father Leon Pinkas, my uncle Josef Pinkas and his wife Sterina. Next to us is the Haravon family; on the right is the man and the woman with their two boys. Mrs. Ronko on the right - a widow with two daughters who lived in one of the jetties. Next to her is the Shaulov family. Next to them is my grandmother. Next to her is the mother of my aunt Sterina - tanti Buka. In the upper row are my uncle - my father's younger brother and my aunt with her two sons - Avram and Jacko - they emigrated in 1948. Not all members of the interned families are on the photo.