Zhana Santo Avramova with her daughters Suzi and Klara

This is my mother Zhana Santo Avramova, nee Almalech, with my sister Suzi Eshkenazi, nee Solomonova, and me. I am the younger one. The photo was taken in Bankya resort, near Sofia, during our vacation, around 1935. I was born in 1930 in Stara Zagora. My childhood was wonderful. I studied in the Jewish school the first four years, where I also learned Ivrit. Later, in the three years before the Holocaust, when Bulgarian children had religious classes, we went to the Jewish school, which was very close in order to continue studying Ivrit. I understand a little of it even now. My sister also studied in a Jewish school, then in a high school, and as soon as she graduated from it, we were interned to Targovishte. After the four grades in the Jewish school I attended the Bulgarian junior high school. Of all school subjects I loved languages most, but since I didn't want to study German, I studied Italian. German sounded rather harsh to me, and it even became more unpleasant to me because of the events that took place at that time. I liked the 'music' of Italian and Spanish. I also took private lessons in French. My mother influenced my choice to study French as her father had connections in France. She also insisted that I should learn to play the piano but my time was preoccupied with languages and I couldn't pay attention to it, for which I felt sorry for the rest of my life. I was deeply attracted to music and I had a nice voice. I never went on vacations with friends. My father was very strict - he had what we call a 'Turkish' moral. Until I got married he didn't let me be late or go out with people, let alone when I was younger. I remember that I went for a drive in a car only after I got married. My husband bought a car around 1970. Anyway, I got on a plane for the first time as early as 1955, when I traveled from Stara Zagora to Sofia to get married. And I boarded a train when I went on vacations to Burgas with my parents. We stayed there for two or three weeks and we used to go to the beach. Sometimes we had vacations at the Stara Zagora spa and in Bankya, close to Sofia.