Testimony of Matilda Mati (Bachar) Alkalai, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1934, regarding her experiences in Sofia, Kyustendil and Razgrad

Testimony of Matilda Mati (Bachar) Alkalai, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1934, regarding her experiences in Sofia, Kyustendil and Razgrad Childhood, displays of antisemitism before the war; anti-Jewish decrees including yellow badge; confiscation of property; restrictions in movement and more. Drafting of her father to a camp and forced labor paving roads and laying train tracks; visiting her father in the camp together with her mother; deportation from her home to a Jewish area in Sofia; concentration of Jews in Sofia and release the next day three times before being deported to Auschwitz; assistance from the head of the Church in organizing a meeting between community leaders and the Bulgarian king and assistance to the Jews; murder of Jewish community leaders by Bulgarian police; exile to Kyustendil, transfer to Razgrad a few months later; aid from Bulgarian farmers in providing food; her mother's labor as a seamstress; liberation by the Red Army, September 1944. Reunion with her father after the liberation; return to Sofia, January 1945; aliya to Israel, 1948.