My father Zhoudi Behar holding my sister Viky by the hand. The photo was taken in the ‘Simeonova’ Garden (Simeon’s garden) in Plovdiv in 1941 – 1942. There is no stamp of a photo shop on the back of the photo, nor any other inscription.
My father took part in World War I. He was a signaler. He was wounded in the leg by a metal fragment but I don’t know more details.
In 1924 he married my mother who was born in Sofia. At that time he was 26 or 27 years old. Before that, they had met in the capital city while my father was working there for a year and a half. I can’t say what exactly he was doing and why he had decided to live in the capital for a while. I don’t know any details about the first meeting of my parents. It was probably someone from the family who talked to my father about her or they were introduced to each other on purpose. I can’t say what the circumstances were but they liked each other – this is something I can state without any doubt. They were engaged for a year and they were having a great time while engaged. They used to often go on outings, to Vitosha Mountain – there were two more couples and they were having a really good time. They got married in the synagogue in Plovdiv according to all the traditions. They were living in agreement afterwards.
In our neighborhood my father was known as Zhoudi. He was very sociable. Everybody in Plovdiv knew him. He was friends not only with Jews but with Bulgarians as well. I recall that he was the heart and soul of the group of friends he communicated with. He used to often go to the Chitalishte [Reading House] after 9th September 1944 [The day of the communist takeover in Bulgaria. In September 1944 the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria. On 9th September 1944 the Fatherland Front, a broad left-wing coalition, deposed the government.]. At that time there was a dance school and my father was teaching quadrille and polka. He was perofrming at the dancing-parties, he was going out on stage and was telling jokes and funny stories. He never joined a Jewish Zionist organziation because he was a socialist. He became a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1936.
