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This is a photo of my husband Pepo Kohen (first from the right) with a yellow badge, next to him is his brother's wife and the third man on the photo is an unidentified friend. The exact year and the city where the photo was taken are unknown.
I graduated from high school in 1937, when, unluckily, Simeon [Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the son of King Boris III] was born and then I don't know why, all graduation balls were banned and they raised all students' marks. That was the generous gesture of King Boris III so that no student would have to repeat a grade the year that his son was born. To fill up the university with even more incompetent students! And since we didn't have a graduation ball, the following year we gathered in the BIAD Restaurant in Sofia. I had a Bulgarian boyfriend, with whom I was platonically, but beautifully in love. But he graduated in law and went to Plovdiv, and so I was free. I don't know if I was very pretty that evening in BIAD, but I was constantly invited to dance. We danced the waltz and tango. I received notes, flowers, and when I went back home - a serenade. My future husband was at that dinner with a cousin of mine. Josif Menahem Kohen - his nickname was Pepo - was born in Skopje [today Macedonia] on 11th June 1911. While they were talking with each other, Pepo asked my cousin to introduce him to me. I married him in 1939, but not because he was Jewish. If my former friend, the Bulgarian, had not been so prejudiced, maybe I would have married him.
