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While I was in the camps, I kept regular correspondence with Roza, my friends and my mother. I hadn’t received a letter for ten days, neither from her, nor my mother, or friends. Then a friend of mine came to see me in Chuchuligovo. His name was Sasho. At the railway station he told me that Roza had been arrested. He gave me a letter from my friend Aaron Galvi which explained the whole situation. Roza had been a member of UYW, like me, since 1939. When we, the men, were sent to labor camps, she became a sub-sector person in charge of UYW, which meant a leader of four autonomous UYW groups. The members of one group didn't know the members of the others; neither did they have any idea about their activities. Roza was the connection between the four groups and was supposed to monitor and coordinate their activities. From the letter I found out that there was a trouble-maker in one of the groups who betrayed the members of the whole group.
The leader of the group didn’t know anyone else, so he betrayed only Roza. The policemen arrested her and took her to the Police Directorate where she was kept for a whole month. I was very worried about Roza and additionally, because she had letters from me, and it was possible for her to give in during the torture and give out information about our UYW activities. But I knew that if she happened to betray me it would have been because I had written those letters to her. I was edgy and started wondering what to do, whether to escape or become a partisan. There were some hills around but without a secret meeting place and people to help you it was very difficult. You can’t walk on the mountain just like that. I was on the edge all the time.
Some of us became partisans although the chances for that were slim. And I was looking for some way to save myself. One of our people who was in the same camp was a student. They gave him a leave of absence to go to Sofia for three days and I told him what the situation was but he didn’t come back for ten days. I still didn’t get any letters and kept wondering what to do. I sought advice from two of my friends. One of them told me to wait. The other one wanted us to escape but where to, we didn't know.
Several days passed and I got a whole heap of overdue letters from my mother and friends who had written that Roza had been arrested and kept in custody, but there had been no failure and my student friend, who was in Sofia, came back and told me that Roza had betrayed no one, that there had been a trial at which she was acquitted because of the fact that she hadn’t betrayed anyone and there was no evidence for her activities. We used to have a code and instead of writing that she had been arrested, we wrote that she was ill or something else. We used to say, ‘She’s in hospital, Roza’s ill, she’s in hospital.’ It was enough to make it clear that she was arrested. The date was 19th February 1943. And after that I was calm that there would be no problems.
The leader of the group didn’t know anyone else, so he betrayed only Roza. The policemen arrested her and took her to the Police Directorate where she was kept for a whole month. I was very worried about Roza and additionally, because she had letters from me, and it was possible for her to give in during the torture and give out information about our UYW activities. But I knew that if she happened to betray me it would have been because I had written those letters to her. I was edgy and started wondering what to do, whether to escape or become a partisan. There were some hills around but without a secret meeting place and people to help you it was very difficult. You can’t walk on the mountain just like that. I was on the edge all the time.
Some of us became partisans although the chances for that were slim. And I was looking for some way to save myself. One of our people who was in the same camp was a student. They gave him a leave of absence to go to Sofia for three days and I told him what the situation was but he didn’t come back for ten days. I still didn’t get any letters and kept wondering what to do. I sought advice from two of my friends. One of them told me to wait. The other one wanted us to escape but where to, we didn't know.
Several days passed and I got a whole heap of overdue letters from my mother and friends who had written that Roza had been arrested and kept in custody, but there had been no failure and my student friend, who was in Sofia, came back and told me that Roza had betrayed no one, that there had been a trial at which she was acquitted because of the fact that she hadn’t betrayed anyone and there was no evidence for her activities. We used to have a code and instead of writing that she had been arrested, we wrote that she was ill or something else. We used to say, ‘She’s in hospital, Roza’s ill, she’s in hospital.’ It was enough to make it clear that she was arrested. The date was 19th February 1943. And after that I was calm that there would be no problems.
Period
Year
1943
Location
Chuchuligovo
Bulgaria
Interview
Leon Yako Anzhel