Juliet Yosif Salteil and Blanche Israel Fridman

Here I am together with my mother in Israel - our first meeting after my parents emigrated there (in 1946). I remember that when I first went there, my father Yosif Faivel Fridman had already died. My elder brother Ruben was the person who looked after my mother in Israel, although my younger brother Shraga [Faivel], lived then nearer to my mother's place. Israel of 1974 seemed to be a nice and calm country for the time being.

After 9th September 1944 [the day of the communist takeover in Bulgaria] my family came back to Sofia convinced that we all must emigrate to Israel [Palestine] after two years (in 1946). My brother Faivel, however, emigrated ahead of all yet in 1945 together with some friends of his. In the meantime my relatives lodged their documents in the police so that their emigration might be legally organised. I ran away from home for everybody's surprise. The reason for my flight was that I wanted to stay in Bulgaria. For a certain period I lived with a friend of mine who hid me. Eventually, I plucked up courage and decided to meet with the head of the police office to tell him in person I didn't want to leave. I still remember him finding my passport in the file with all other ready documents of my family that were required for our departure, he opened the page with my picture and crossed it out. That meant he practically had nothing against my remaining in my country. That is how I remained here despite my parents' opinion. As it happens in life, my relatives found me several days later and I got a thrashing for what I did. But what's done can't be undone. They left and I stayed here.

My parents Yosif and Blanche Fridman both moved to Israel and are no longer alive. My parents were relatively religious, which means that they observed the Jewish traditions, but not every single detail of them. My father was of Ashkenazi origin, that is a Russian Jew, and my mother Blanche Israel is of the Sephardic Jews in Bulgaria. After they left for Israel, they lived in the town of Yagur.

Photos from this interviewee