These are my parents Solomon and Rebecca Saltiel, me and my youngest brother Yako. The photo was taken in Sofia in 1936.
My youngest brother Yako was born in 1928. He died in 1997 in Israel. He spoke Bulgarian and Ladino, had a secondary education and studied in the same Jewish school as I did.
During the Holocaust the anti-Jewish legislation was fully in force and in 1943 my parents as all Jews in Bulgaria received orders for internment to Razgrad. My younger brother, Yako, and my parents went there, while my two brothers were sent to labor camps. My mother's health deteriorated, because while still in Sofia my family was often beaten by the police who were searching the house for me. The life of my family in Razgrad was very hard. My mother died in 1943 while I was still in prison. I was not allowed to go to her funeral. I know that her funeral was done in accordance with the Jewish traditions.
Yako lived in Bulgaria until 1948 and then moved to Israel. He was the first to move to Israel, followed later by my other relatives. He worked as a salesman in a shop in Yaffo. Yako also had a religious wedding, but in Israel in the 1950s. He was not very religious, but he observed the traditions. Yako's children are Rivka and Shlomo.
