Carolos Beraha

This is my father Carolos Beraha. The photo was taken in Thessaloniki in the 1910s.

My father was born in 1898 in Salonica. He didn’t live anywhere else but in Greece, and died in Athens in 1982. Appearance-wise he looked very much like me; he was a well built man but not too tall. My father wore a ‘republica’ style hat.

I even remember the brand: they were Italian made, very expensive, and were called ‘Borsalino.’ He had many of them and changed them according to what he was wearing. These hats actually survived, my daughter Nineta has them at her house, but I haven’t seen them for a while.

Anyway, my father didn’t have ginger hair; he only became ginger during the occupation when he let his mustache grow. He was a loud and talkative man. I am not sure if he had a sense of humor as we understand it today, but he was popular and had lots of friends.

He read the newspapers at home; in our house there were always French newspapers. He had finished high school at the Alliance School. Everyone in Salonica spoke French back then as many people finished the Alliance Schools, which were spread throughout the Middle East and Persia.

My father was a currency broker; for example he bought and sold Russian rubles and would exchange them for liras in Salonica and then sell them in Athens.

Photos from this interviewee