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My mother’s father is Yuda David Komforti and her mother is Sara Yuda Komforti [nee Aron Bardevid]. At that time women took the two names of their husbands, not only their family names. My mother came from a very poor Jewish family. Her father was a tobacco worker, who was promoted to a tobacco manager in one of the tobacco warehouses in Dupnitsa. They were all born in Dupnitsa. Later the family came to live in Sofia, except for my mother, who was already married to my father in Dupnitsa. For a while they lived in Kyustendil, because my grandfather went to work there. I don’t know how long they lived there. Around 1939 they moved to Sofia, maybe earlier, because I know that one of their sons married a girl from Dupnitsa, another one married a girl from Kyustendil and the others married in Sofia.
They were a big family. My mother had four brothers and three sisters. They were eight children in all: Samuel, Rufel, Nissim, Alfred, Mois, Sterina, Rebeka and my mother, Buka. They had one more daughter, but she drowned very young in the river, poor thing! My mother was the eldest, which is why she was named Buka. She told me that they were so poor that they didn’t even have beds. When she got older, her father bought her a bed and she was the only one in the family to have one.
My grandmother Sara was a housewife and looked after the children; there were eight of them, after all! My grandfather had elementary education from the Jewish school. He was a very polite man. I can’t say that he was religious, my grandmother wasn’t either. Only Ladino was spoken at home. They also knew Bulgarian, although my grandmother didn’t know it very well. I don’t know whether they knew any other languages.
They were a big family. My mother had four brothers and three sisters. They were eight children in all: Samuel, Rufel, Nissim, Alfred, Mois, Sterina, Rebeka and my mother, Buka. They had one more daughter, but she drowned very young in the river, poor thing! My mother was the eldest, which is why she was named Buka. She told me that they were so poor that they didn’t even have beds. When she got older, her father bought her a bed and she was the only one in the family to have one.
My grandmother Sara was a housewife and looked after the children; there were eight of them, after all! My grandfather had elementary education from the Jewish school. He was a very polite man. I can’t say that he was religious, my grandmother wasn’t either. Only Ladino was spoken at home. They also knew Bulgarian, although my grandmother didn’t know it very well. I don’t know whether they knew any other languages.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Leon Mordohay Madzhar