Tinka Assa: Bulgarians Who Get to Know Jews Well, Love Them And They Become Great Friends

Bulgarians who know Jews well, love them and become great friends, Tinka Assa said in a BTA interview on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews.

Tinka Assa is 91 years old and calls herself "100% Plevenite“ as her mother, father and grandfathers we are all from the northern town of Pleven. She remembers the Second World War and the time when the Law for the Protection of the Nation came into force. Tinka Assa was a little girl then, 10 years old. "I was very young but also old enough to wear a yellow star on the lapel of my coat. I remember my father bringing a bag of such stars. My mother used to sew them on my outerwear like buttons and I told her to put one on my vest, which I used to wear over everything," she said. 

She remembers never leaving the neighborhood as Jews were not allowed on the main street or downtown.

One of her memories is about the so-called Branniks, who were members of a youth nationalist and pro-Fascist organization. "Across the street from us lived a literature teacher who couldn't walk and students, among them  many Branniks visited him for private lessons. They saw that there was a Jewish dwelling here and during the day they threw stones and broke our windows," she recalls. 

"There were years when my parents had absolutely no work. Those were our worst years," Tinka Assa said. Tinka's mother, Rachel Lopu, was a stay-at-home mon and her father, Gershon Lopu, had a grocery shop. After his shop was taken away, he worked in another one owned by a Bulgarian, then became a supervisor in a factory, but later he was banned from that job even.

At that time her brother was a student at the all-boys high school in Pleven. "He was a hard-working and quiet boy, but he was a member of a youth communist organization and they arrested him briefly. The offence for which he and other boys got arrested was that they erased their Jewish names from their identity cards and wrote Bulgarian names instead. “The purpose of that was to give them a chance to escape in case they were taken to Poland,” explained Tinka Assa. 

Her brother was in custody during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, which is celebrated in September. Her mother prepared crackers and cookies, and since Tinka was a little girl, they decided to send her to take the food to her brother. "I was shaking all over, but they told me, ‘They won't take it from us, but from you, a child, maybe they will’. Outside the remand centre was a tower where a guard sat. He asked me what I was doing here. At that very moment I saw my brother in a group of 6-7 boys being let out, and I started shouting my brother’s name," says Tinka Assa. The guard started asking her questions, she said she was there to bring food to her brother. The guard promised to give the pack of crackers to her brother even though she could see him crushing the crackers into crumbs.

When they authorities started expelling the Jews from Sofia, many of the expelled found shelter in the Lopu home. "My mother would see expellees from Sofia every day and bring them home for a few nights until they found a place to settle," she said. Her mother's younger sister also came to their home with her young child. She was initially displaced to Ruse, but Tinka's father managed to help move her to Pleven. 

When rumour started spreading like fire that Bulgarian Jews might be deported to Poland, everyone was worried, but neighbours who were friends of Tinka's mother told her, "Rachel, we will hide your children in the cellars, we will raise them, but we will not let them go there.”

After the end of the war, Tinka Assa continued her studies at a junior high school and then at a technical school. "I was very good in the art classes. I graduated with honors and with a diploma from the Ministry of National Education and a prize - six books. The whole high school was decorated with my drawings and models. The teacher told my parents to send me to study at the Art Academy in Sofia, if possible. But then my brother was studying medicine, my mother was not working, we subsisted on my father's salary only," says Tinka Assa. 

After finishing school she started working in a tax department. She got married at the age of 18. Later, she started working as a designer in a knitwear factory and, thanks to her profession, travelled abroad a lot. 

She has two children, a son and a daughter. Her son is the famous artist Greddy Assa. Her daughter Elza Kirilova now lives with her in their home in Pleven. Tinka has two granddaughters and three great-grandchildren.