Tag #137532 - Interview #79544 (Sofi Uziel)

I worked for a communist in Pleven. He was a Bulgarian, whom I called Uncle Tsonyo. I didn’t know how to sew, but he taught me. I learned to sew trousers within 15 days. He used to pay me a wage of 120 leva per day. Then a [secret] agent started to entice me – he used to come every day for me to iron his pants. Uncle Tsonyo noticed what was going on and said, ‘Sofi, I’m going to send you to work in the back room!’ So I joined the other two of his workers in the room behind the shop – one of the workers was a Turk, Mehmed, the other one a Bulgarian; both young men and tailors. Uncle Tsonyo told them, ‘She can sew trousers well now. She can make a whole pair of trousers.’ So, I kept on sewing – what else could I do? The shop was at a corner of the main street and a smaller one. Whenever I had to go out, I had to put on my badge [yellow star]. I lived like that for a long time.