My first Publication Alumni Magazine21-online | Page 15

ISSUE 21, JUNE 2019
As the war broke out, a negative attitude towards
Jewish people emerged and spread. It was felt at the
College too, where there were some students bullying
our Jewish classmates – always away from teachers’
eyes, so that teachers never found out and intervened.
After the events in September 1944, anyone
connected to the Western educational system
experienced difficulties. Was this your case too, as
a university student and in your career afterwards?
No, I had no difficulties. I got into university and
graduated from the Economy Higher Institute
Field Day 1939
with a major in banking, and so did my College
buddy Radionov. Afterwards banking became my
profession.
Finding work wasn’t difficult either. Accounting
specialists were much sought after and I immediately
got a spot at Sofjilfond, the state housing fund. After
spending a couple of months there, I was made head
of the accounting department of their Kolarov area
branch, close to the Central Railway Station. Next, I
started at the State Computing and Organizational
Technology Institute, today situated at the 4th
kilometer. I was promoted to Head of the Financial
Department there and a couple of years later, I
transferred to the State Economic Union for Plastics
and Rubber 2 up in the Krasno Selo neighborhood.
I worked in the field of accounting until the end of
my working days, slowly but surely climbing up the
career ladder. At the end, I joined the Central Labor-
Union Council as a main economy and accounting
expert and accountability methodologist. Part
of my job was to manage the financial aspects of
the recreational facilities in the whole country,
in addition to managing the accountants at the
facilities who reported to me. I retired after 11 years
of employment there.
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“For me, it was as if a different period
started when I enrolled at the College
in 1938. This period lasted long and was
spent in a very beautiful Bulgaria.”
I recall how I once stood on Vasil Levski Blvd. chatting
with my direct manager at the Labor-Union Council.
A woman I was acquainted with passed by and the two
of us greeted each other and exchanged a few sentences.
When she went her way, my boss asked me: “How
do you know her?” “From my days at the College,” I
replied, and he exclaimed,
“But why didn’t you mention the College in your
application then?” “Well, I did write that I graduated
from a Foreign Language High-School, which is what
I did.” “How smart of you!” he said.
State economic unions are organizations created in the
1960’s and 1970’s in an attempt to improve industrial
factories’ efficiency by centralizing their management by
field. The unions were a stratum in the state management
of industrial factories, they managed factories and research
institutes and reported to their respective ministry.
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