Selected text
In 1940 the Defense of the Nation Act [see Law for the Protection of the Nation] [12] was passed in Bulgaria. In 1941 we started receiving calling orders for mobilization to labor camps, which were set up after the adoption of the Defense of the Nation Act. So my son was born while I was in such a camp.
One day in 1942 a priest came to our house in downtown Sofia with an accommodation order for our home. We realized that we had to move out. That priest was appointed to teach theology to the son of King Boris III [13], Simeon II [see Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Simeon] [14]. We moved out of our house and didn't return to it until 1945. During that period I was mobilized three times to labor camps - in 1941 I spent five months in a Jewish labor group building the railway line Kulata-Blagoyevgrad, in 1943 I spent nine months in the same camp and in 1944 I was in Belovo. My wife, my son and her parents were interned. After my first mobilization I returned to work in the wine company because I was useful to them there and they had kept my place for me. After that I lost my job. Our life then was very hard, but we helped each other as much as we could.
In January 1943 I received a calling order for the labor camp in Marikostino. That village was located along the river Struma. During that year all Jews were mobilized, even those who had the so-called 'paragraph'. According to military laws 'paragraph' means that because of some illness, one can be exempt from the labor camp. But new commissions were formed then, who sent even the seriously sick Jews to work. I had the misfortune of also being mobilized in 1943. In 1942 I didn't go to a labor camp, thanks to my employers in the wine company. They needed me and procured for me a document stating that I was ill and in accordance with the 'paragraph' I wasn't sent to a camp.
I took part in the construction of a railway road and the Pirin railway station from Gorna Djumaya [present-day Blagoyevgrad] to Kulata. By that time there was a narrow-gauge line along the Struma River. We were around 2,500 Jews working there. We were divided into groups of 300-400 people. We had a supervisor, a sergeant major, responsible for us. The biggest malaria epidemic broke out in our camp.
One day in 1942 a priest came to our house in downtown Sofia with an accommodation order for our home. We realized that we had to move out. That priest was appointed to teach theology to the son of King Boris III [13], Simeon II [see Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Simeon] [14]. We moved out of our house and didn't return to it until 1945. During that period I was mobilized three times to labor camps - in 1941 I spent five months in a Jewish labor group building the railway line Kulata-Blagoyevgrad, in 1943 I spent nine months in the same camp and in 1944 I was in Belovo. My wife, my son and her parents were interned. After my first mobilization I returned to work in the wine company because I was useful to them there and they had kept my place for me. After that I lost my job. Our life then was very hard, but we helped each other as much as we could.
In January 1943 I received a calling order for the labor camp in Marikostino. That village was located along the river Struma. During that year all Jews were mobilized, even those who had the so-called 'paragraph'. According to military laws 'paragraph' means that because of some illness, one can be exempt from the labor camp. But new commissions were formed then, who sent even the seriously sick Jews to work. I had the misfortune of also being mobilized in 1943. In 1942 I didn't go to a labor camp, thanks to my employers in the wine company. They needed me and procured for me a document stating that I was ill and in accordance with the 'paragraph' I wasn't sent to a camp.
I took part in the construction of a railway road and the Pirin railway station from Gorna Djumaya [present-day Blagoyevgrad] to Kulata. By that time there was a narrow-gauge line along the Struma River. We were around 2,500 Jews working there. We were divided into groups of 300-400 people. We had a supervisor, a sergeant major, responsible for us. The biggest malaria epidemic broke out in our camp.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
haim molhov