My parents emigrated to Israel from Iran in 1958. A few months later my mother gave birth to a baby boy. When she asked the nurse to bring her the baby after hearing him cry, the nurse told her: "it is not your baby crying. Your baby died".

"But I just breastfed him", she told them. My father arrived and was told once again that the baby had died. They asked where the grave was and were told that the baby was already buried. "Where is the grave?"

"There is no grave", they were told.

It is no accident that Ben-Gurion encouraged childbirth.

Miri Aharoni