Tag #124081 - Interview #98839 (Aron Nissim Alkalai)

On 9th September 1944 I was in Dupnitsa. Before that other Jewish craftsmen and I were ordered to go to the barracks in the town to sew soldiers' boots. In Dupnitsa there were soldiers from 7th Rila Division [a unit of the Bulgarian army before 9th September 1944]. On 8th September we left the barracks because we could see the turn of events. On 9th September 1944 the partisans came down from the mountain and took over the town. I enrolled as a volunteer in the Bulgarian army. The Bulgarian army turned on the side of the Red Army. [17] We, the Jews, valued what the communists had done for us and sympathized with them. I have heard that there were 50 volunteers to serve in the army from Dupnitsa only. I was a soldier in 3rd Guard Regiment at elevation 711 near Boyanobats in south Serbia. Elevation 711 was controlled by the Germans who did not have many soldiers. They had a good elevated position. One day our aviation and artillery attacked that elevation and the next day the Germans withdrew. Then we headed for Skopje but we did not manage to get there and we returned to Bulgaria. There were Albanians shooting at us from the forests. The commander of the partisans from Dupnitsa was Zhelyu Demirevski [18]. He died during an attack at the front.