Haim Molhov in the labor camp

This is a photo of my first mobilization to a labor camp in 1941 near the village of Markostino. My rights had not been taken away yet and I was mobilized as a soldier in reserve. I am wearing a soldier's uniform on the photo. 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 Boris III, Simeon II. 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.