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My parents, Efraim and Victoria Levi, have always been the nicest couple on earth, according to me. My father was born in Samokov to the large family of the local rabbi. He was one of seven children. My grandfather was called Avraam Levi and his wife was Reyna. Obviously, my grandfather was able to ensure his children a good start in life, because when my father graduated from high school in Samokov, he left for Bucharest [today Romania] where his elder brother, Uncle Buko, had already settled. There my father continued his education in a polytechnic boarding school, where they studied technology, painting and applied arts: wrought iron, ‘chekanka,’ which is the art production of copper dishes, as well as all general subjects such as math, physics, chemistry, history, geography, literature, languages and a lot of physical education. My father once told me that they also had a farm in the school and once one of the cows gave birth to a calf. After the polytechnic school, in 1912, he graduated in architecture and just as he received his degree, he got the news on the start of the wars: the First Balkan War [4], the Second Balkan War [5] and World War I [see Bulgaria in World War I] [6]. He decided to return to Bulgaria immediately.
My father had a proverbial sense of duty and responsibility. When he got back to Bulgaria, he joined the engineer forces and fought at the front for eight years. For some well-done task, of which I don’t know any details, he received a Medal of Valor, two more medals and some stripes. Besides all the awards and victories in the wars, he achieved another victory of a different kind. And it was the greatest one!
During his leave my father went to Seres. There was a Bulgarian garrison there and his eldest brother Buko was serving there. [Aegean Thrace, including Seres, was an integral part of Bulgaria prior to the end of World War I.] Since my uncle was in the supply service, my father had permission to sleep outside the barracks and he was accommodated with the family of Mr. Jeuda Merkado Ovadia. He had four sons and one daughter. The daughter was the youngest and obviously the most wanted. Her name was Victoria. Whenever my father visited his brother he slept at the same house. During his last day before he returned to his company, my father shared with his brother that when World War I finished and if he was still safe and sound, he would go back and ask Mr. Ovadia for the hand of his daughter, because he was sure she was ‘the lady of his heart.’ My uncle told his landlord that, but he answered that his daughter was too young: she was 16 years old, and they would have to ask for her consent. Then, the door opened ‘by accident’ and the young girl said, ‘I’ll wait for him!’
When the wars ended my father was demobilized. He passed through Samokov to receive the blessings of my grandparents and told them that he was going to Seres to ask for the hand of a young girl. And so he left. My mother’s parents also blessed the young couple and they got engaged. At that time there were advertisements in the Greek papers [Aegean Thrace was attached to Greece after World War I.] that young architects and engineers were wanted by an Italian construction company, ‘Modiano,’ which had received a concession to recover the city of Salonica, which had been afflicted by the war. My father applied for the job immediately and was accepted. So the Ovadia family and the young Levi family moved to Salonica. There the aunts and uncles started enlarging the Ovadia family with children, and our family, the Levis, had only three children: my sister Rene, my brother Albert, who died very young, and me.
My father had a proverbial sense of duty and responsibility. When he got back to Bulgaria, he joined the engineer forces and fought at the front for eight years. For some well-done task, of which I don’t know any details, he received a Medal of Valor, two more medals and some stripes. Besides all the awards and victories in the wars, he achieved another victory of a different kind. And it was the greatest one!
During his leave my father went to Seres. There was a Bulgarian garrison there and his eldest brother Buko was serving there. [Aegean Thrace, including Seres, was an integral part of Bulgaria prior to the end of World War I.] Since my uncle was in the supply service, my father had permission to sleep outside the barracks and he was accommodated with the family of Mr. Jeuda Merkado Ovadia. He had four sons and one daughter. The daughter was the youngest and obviously the most wanted. Her name was Victoria. Whenever my father visited his brother he slept at the same house. During his last day before he returned to his company, my father shared with his brother that when World War I finished and if he was still safe and sound, he would go back and ask Mr. Ovadia for the hand of his daughter, because he was sure she was ‘the lady of his heart.’ My uncle told his landlord that, but he answered that his daughter was too young: she was 16 years old, and they would have to ask for her consent. Then, the door opened ‘by accident’ and the young girl said, ‘I’ll wait for him!’
When the wars ended my father was demobilized. He passed through Samokov to receive the blessings of my grandparents and told them that he was going to Seres to ask for the hand of a young girl. And so he left. My mother’s parents also blessed the young couple and they got engaged. At that time there were advertisements in the Greek papers [Aegean Thrace was attached to Greece after World War I.] that young architects and engineers were wanted by an Italian construction company, ‘Modiano,’ which had received a concession to recover the city of Salonica, which had been afflicted by the war. My father applied for the job immediately and was accepted. So the Ovadia family and the young Levi family moved to Salonica. There the aunts and uncles started enlarging the Ovadia family with children, and our family, the Levis, had only three children: my sister Rene, my brother Albert, who died very young, and me.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Jul Efraim Levi