The Bulgarian School Boy Album 20

Done.  The Bulgarian school boys (and girls) have come to an end.   As I noted in an earlier post, I bought this album from an eBay seller in Bulgaria who told me that these photos showed school uniforms.  With the passage of time, some of those school uniforms got traded in for military uniforms, but there was a war going on and more than likely the young men in this collection didn't have much choice in the matter.  Making out the dates on the backs of these images was pretty easy but I didn't do as well with the writing.  When I was growing up I was a paperboy.  Does that job even exist anymore?  Anyway, some of my customers were elderly Russians who had come to the United States, after the revolution, and worked in the local coal mines.  I picked up a bit of the language from them.  I can't remember much anymore, but I can still make out the Cyrillic alphabet.  I thought about spelling the words out phonetically and running them through Google translate, but when I realized that I had trouble deciphering the actual handwriting, I gave up, so if there are any native Bulgarian speakers who would like to help me out, I'd appreciate it.  Anyway,  Stara Zagora was easy, and I'm fairly certain that the girl on this page is named Ivanka, but that's as far as I'll go on this page.  I hope they all survived the war and the post war dictatorships. 

As usual, click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in the labels section at the bottom of the post.  It's now possible to see the whole album, from front to back.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 19

The penultimate Bulgarian School Boy Album page!  Some of the earliest photos from this album are dated from the mid 1930's.  So, are the men in the top photo the school boys from those pictures?  If those students were in their mid to late teens in those pictures, they'd be pushing thirty after the war was over.  Is the woman in the second photo a school girl from of those pictures a mother by 1946?  Well, there's nothing written on the back of that photo, so we can't know when it was taken. 

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see other album pages.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 18

 

There's nothing written on the back of the bottom photo, but I suspect it's a family photo.  Once again from Stara Zagora.  Click on The Bulgarian School boy Album in labels to see more. 

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 17

The top photo had exactly one thing on the back, "VII", too vague to scan.   It's the second photo that's more interesting to me.  1943, Bulgaria is in the war and ruled by a Fascist, right wing government allied with the Germans.  Still, people walk the streets and seem pretty happy.  At the beginning of the war, Bulgaria embraced neutrality, but they found themselves on an invasion route to Yugoslavian and Greece.  There was some fighting in Bulgaria, some of it involving a native resistance movement.  Sadly for the Bulgarians they were over run by the Soviets near the end of World War 2.  It's never a good thing to be between two warring factions.

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more from the collection.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 16

I've been on a bit of a vacation, and yes I did add a few more photos to the collection, but before I start in on those, it's time to finish The Bulgarian School Boy Album.  (Click on in labels to see more.) 

It looks like this album was put together after the fact, rather than as the pictures were taken.  There are dates ranging from the mid thirties into the mid forties.  1936 and 1939 on this page.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 15

The bottom picture is a shot of school boys and a few school girls, but the top photo is clearly an adult in an army uniform.  Why the suitcases?  Going to the front or fleeing the Germans, or Russians?  Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album to see more.   I'll b e going back to regular programming in the next post, and will finish up things in a month or so. 

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 14

The top photo really suggests some big questions.  Dated April 1944, it looks like Stara Zagora was spared the ravages of World War 2.  The city looks untouched and the two gentlemen in uniforms seem rather happy and self satisfied.  In April of 1944, Bulgaria was still an ally of Germany, but the Soviet army was just five months away from tossing out the Germans as well as the fascist  government.  Were these two young men  happy to be living in a Nazi state or were they looking forward to liberation, as short-lived as that turned out to be?  Of course, they may have been thinking about the two ladies in the second photo.  I almost didn't scan the back of the second photo, but I thought it might be a local way of  writing a date.  February 9, 1942, or perhaps September 2, 1942.  Then again it might be a notation that only the owner of this album could understand. 

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 13

Bulgarian girlfriends more like it.  At least we know that the top picture was from Stara Zagora.  My basic knowledge of Cyrillic script allowed me to do that one phonetically even if I can't translate anything else.    As always, click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more from this collection.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 12

It looks like the Bulgarian school boys are all lined up for inspection.  I'd love to know if this album is from a military school or are we dealing with ordinary kids who had to wear uniforms in school. 

There is some writing on the back of the top photo, but it's so faded that I didn't think it was worth scanning, but I could make out the date, "1941."  The bottom photo shows both boys and girls, all in some sort of uniform.  Both scans are from the back of that print, just separated  into two parts for easier viewing.  The logo is from Leonar Werke, a German photographic supply company that was founded in 1893, in Hamburg.  It started manufacturing printing papers for home use in 1907 and quickly became one of the major suppliers in Europe.  In 1943, their factories and offices were destroyed when Hamburg became a target of allied bombing.  After the war, Lenar rebuilt.   In 1964, they merged with Agfa and the brand name was retired. 

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 10

I only have the word of the seller that these are school uniforms, though these two photos seem to confirm that.  The younger people, both the male and female are all wearing very similar clothing, but there are a few older men who have very different looks.  There is one who is wearing a grey uniform and has been seen before, three older man who look to be wearing suits, and one who looks like he's wearing work clothes.   So, students, faculty, and the janitor?  In any case, we've moved back a bit in time.  A few posts back  had dates of 1941 and 1944.  This one, 1938.

Click on The Bulgarian School Boys Album in labels at the bottom of the post to see more.  I finally got around to actually counting the pages, and I think two more runs will do it, for a grand total of twenty posts, so I'll be moving on to other things for awhile.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 9

Nothing written on the backs of these photos but I did notice that the young woman on the bottom right of the top photo has the same arm badge as the single woman in the last post.  Click on The Bulgarian School Boys Album in labels at the bottom of the post to see more.