Matilda Israel's family

The photo was taken in Karnobat. This is my family. In the row sitting on chairs from left to right are my mother's sisters Sophie Levi, nee Perets, Regina Natan, nee Perets, my mother Rebecca Yulzari, nee Perets, and I, my father Meshulam Yulzari and my maternal grandmother Ester Perets. Behind them, standing, are Yosif (Regina's husband), my brother Jacques, Buko (my mother's sister Sophie's husband ). The children sitting from left to right are Haim Benaroya (my half-brother from my mother's first marriage), Olga and Leon (Sophie's children). I am the baby in my mother Rebecca's arms, in the center. My father's first wife passed away. I don?t know the exact cause, but I know that she had been bedridden for quite some time, because my sisters used to tell me how they did all the household chores then. From his first wife my father had six children: Sabetay, Jacques, Sophie, Buka, Ana, Albert. Neither of the women worked, they were all housewives. Jacques was a dentist; he graduated in France and in 1951 moved to Israel with his family. His son, Mihael Bar Zoar, was a deputy in the Knesset. He wrote a book on the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews - 'Outside Hitler's Grasp'. A movie was made based on it two years ago. He often comes to Bulgaria and we always see each other when he is here. Albert died very young, only 17 years old, of typhus. I know from my mother that he was a very good man. Once she noticed that the cheese supply at home ran out very quickly and that Albert would wear one and the same shirt. She asked him about that and he admitted that he gave all his clothes as well as the cheese to a poor family. My other sisters and brothers moved to Israel in 1948 where they settled. Now their families live there. I feel closest to the children of my brother Haim, Yitzhak and Rebecca.

Photos from this interviewee