Beno Ruso and Roza Kamhi "The years make their own"

They say that here in the Balkans if you listen carefully,citties will tell you their stories.And in a city as old as ours-Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia has many tales to tell.Take this building, for instance on Ruzeltova 24.

It was owned by the Jewish community, and this is where Estreja Ovadia and her firend Adela Faradji used to go to their youth club.So did Zamila Kolonomos and Avram Sadikaro.And the Ruso boys Dario,Beno,Alberto.And Rosa Kamhi and her brothers Pepo and Mois.This is where Beno Ruso and Roza Kamhi

fell in love sometime in 1936 and ten years later,they married.In between, the world went to hell caught on fire, and horrible things happened. Every one of these youngsters played their part in the Second World War.

And this is the story that we know about Beno and Rosa.

Beno Roso
His grandfather had been walthy.He sold leather and coal. Beno lived with his entire family in the house which his grandfather build.He slept in the same roome with his grandfather. His grandfather snored but at one momen he stopped and in the morning he had been dead.Benos father Isak Benjamin Ruso,had been born in Bitola in 1887.He died young from some infectious disease. The hardest thing for them when his father died was that they had been left with nothing.His brother Dario was a sergeant so he sent them every mont from his salary.They lived off of his money.He wanted to follow Dario in a military school but he was rejected twice.The war camed in April,1941.When Yugoslavia surrendered he was with his unite in Sarajevo.When he arrived in Bitola the war had only begun for him and his family.Twice the Bulgarians camed looking for him.The found him once and the threw him in a jail.The beated the soles of his feet,the turned electrical wires onto the backs of his

hands.Since he told them nothing they threw him out. Later, they came looking for him again, but he had been escaped.When he joined up with the partisans he tougtht if he get out of the war as a sergeant he would be proud of himself. But when the war ended, he has achieved something better, he become general.When he came back to Skopje he found Rosa.Soon his brother Dario returned form his prison camp in Germany,and Albert was with them too,but Rosa had no one.Beno and Rosa had been very close and Dario found Dora Nachmijas.All four of them got married on the same day.But Dora and Dario had decided to emigrate to Israel. But leaving from Yugoslavia ? Beno couldn't imagine that. In fact, he stayed in the army , and remained on acitve service untill 1970, when they returned to Skopje.Beno and Rosa had three children : Berta,Vida and Isak.They never spoke with them about the Holocaust.But they did gave them the names of those who they lost.