This is my husband Mois Solomon Saltiel (1923) together with our daughter Ani Saltiel (1955). Here Ani is a first-grader. The picture was taken in front of a modern synagogue in Haifa.
After we married with Mois, he came to live with me - in my poor, big, half-empty room in Bacho Kiro Str. [in Sofia]. We found a wardrobe and brought it in. But actually we had nothing interesting in this room. I was already pregnant. So we decided to ask urgently for a stove from the commissariat (it was practice to ask for help in cases such as ours). But it had to be not only a stove, but a cooking range, too - multifunctional, made in Bulgaria to serve us both for heating and for cooking.
During our internment to Asenovgrad [1942] before my marriage [1947] I suffered very badly from peritonitis. My parents took me as far as Plovdiv so that I might have an operation done. In order to go there we had to ask the police for permission. Before that I had suffered from pleurisy. That's why doctors told me I could not have any children. So, before marrying Mois I was convinced I wouldn't have children. Despite that we have three children with Mois: Solomon, Yosif, and Ani. Now Ani is an architect, but she is not working at present. As a matter of fact she was the first to marry - yet as a schoolgirl in 1973.
All my children were born in Sofia As a matter of fact, I don't know when they understood they were Jews. We used to celebrate all the Jewish holidays at home, although we didn't always observe the tradition very strictly. My children graduated from Bulgarian schools. So I am not sure if they have an increased Jewish self-consciousness. What is for sure, no one can remember of anti-Semitic incident against a member of our family.
