Mordohay Sabitay Madzhar

This is a photo of my father, Mordohay Sabitay Madzhar. He took part in the Balkan War (1912-13). The picture was taken in Dupnitsa on 22nd October, 1916. My father was born in Dupnitsa in 1892. He was a very kind man. My father's ancestors are Sephardi Jews; his family comes from Salonika. My father's father, Sabitay Aron or Rahamin ? I don?t remember exactly which of the two names was his second name ? Madzhar, came to Bulgaria as a young man and settled in Dupnitsa. I don?t know when that happened, probably when he was young. I know nothing about his parents, or his brothers and sisters. But I know that he had siblings. They remained in Salonika. After World War II my father and I tried to find them, but we found no one. Most probably, they died in the death camps. Dad inherited his father's gut processing trade, which had nothing to do with the kashrut; the guts were sold to Bulgarians who produced sausages. My father was a very kind man and was not strict; he never hit me. I remember that once he was very angry with me, and yet he didn't beat me. He was a kind-hearted man. He very much believed in people, he was kind of naive. He had many Bulgarian friends. That's why during the Law for the Protection of the Nation we didn't experience much hardship. We had friends in the villages and in town, who brought us flour and bread; there was a miller, who was a friend of my father. The baker also respected him. My father was a well-known man and everyone was willing to help him. But sometimes his faith in people got him into trouble. Once he came to work in Sofia with a fellow man from Dupnitsa. They earned a lot of money, but his so-called partner cheated him and gave him nothing. My father was very kind, but maybe because of his job and his fellow workers, butchers, who are on the whole ruder, wild and unrestrained, he was very brave. I can?t say that he was rude, but he reacted very fast in dangerous situations.