Yosif Levi and his relatives

This is a photo from one of the visits of my brother David Levi's children in Sofia. The picture was taken in 1993 at my home in Sofia.

First from left is my wife Matilda Levi, I’m behind her. Next to me is one of my brother David's daughter's boyfriend. Then comes David's oldest daughter, Rashel, my daughter Sonya Levi, the other daughter of David - Mazal, and to the far left is my brother Isak Levi. There are boyos on the table - sweet and salty pastry bites traditional for Bulgarian Jews.

My eldest brother is called Isak Levi and he is a textile technician. He is a widower already with a daughter: Ema. They both live in Sofia. My other brother is called David Levi. He wasn't very ambitious, he remained uneducated and he used to be a laborer. He used to sell seeds, ice-cream or something like that. He felt underprivileged in our family because we didn't pay much attention to him. We treated him well, although as a child he began speaking only when he was four or five years old. He got married in Bulgaria and had four children: his two daughters were born here. He used to work in a textile factory then and was given a small room, which he used to live in. He moved to Israel as early as 1949, where he continued to work: he did whatever job he got. But his kids are very good. One of his daughters used to be a bank clerk, and the other one has a career as well and they both have nice families. The kids born in Israel aren't as skillful as their parents.

I met my wife Matilda accidentally at a youth club. We didn't know each other before the war at all, because at that time I was in prison for half a year, while she had been interned to Shumen. After 9th September 1944 she went back to Sofia from Shumen. We got married in August 1948 and a few days ago we celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary. We have been together for a long time. After 9th September 1944, she worked at the Ministry of Interior for a while, which also contributed to our meeting as I worked there as well.

I have two children: Sonya Avramova and Albert Levi. They both graduated from the French Language School. My son finished international economic relations, while my daughter did home trade. My son is married, his wife isn't Jewish and her name is Elena. She has a degree in English philology, but she couldn't start working anywhere, she never liked anything for real and she always found obstacles, and as soon as she got married to my son, she stopped working completely. She is taking care of their child, she helps her husband but obviously she would never start working on her own. Their daughter is eleven years old and is in the fifth grade.