Tag #138656 - Interview #98186 (Matilda Ninyo)

I was a little girl when my family left Karnobat. I was born in 1928. We moved to Sofia in 1933 or 1934, soon after my father’s death. I returned to Karnobat only once when I was still at the high school in Sofia. It was right after our internment to Kyustendil. My aunt Rashel still lives there. We left Karnobat together with my mother’s father. Her brother, Israel Danon, was also of a great help for us. When my mother became a widow my grandfather decided to move with us and help earn the family’s living. My mother and my grandfather decided that this was the way for them to work together and to help each other. My grandmother Simha died in 1928, which wasn’t long before that. My grandfather was left alone and this was one of the reasons for him to come and live with us. I don’t know if my father had left any savings. But several years after he died my mother didn’t work so I suppose she had some money. After that she started working as a tailor. We didn’t live in the Jewish quarter in Sofia. I don’t know the precise reason, but I suppose my mother didn’t like it there. Many poor people lived in the Jewish quarter called Iuchbunar [3]. There was a great poverty in the Jewish quarter. Of course, there were some very nice people who lived there. My maternal grandmother’s brothers lived there: Aron and Vitali Bali, as well as their sister Doreta.