Smadar Neumann

On September 9, 1963 I gave birth at Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, to my eldest daughter, whom I named Smadar. I am a native Israeli of Yemeni origin and my husband is from a kibbutz, his parents were born in Germany. We were married at a young age, and a year later, at the age of 18 and a half, I gave birth to my eldest daughter. The baby stayed at Meir hospital, Kfar Saba on account of being underweight and she stayed there for about two weeks, and was then sent for hospitalization in "Hasharon" hospital, Petah Tikva because of defecation and a single case of vomiting. I came to visit her on Friday, October 11, 1963 and she was without an infusion and looked well.

The next day, Saturday October 12, 1963, I came as usual and found my daughter’s bed empty. When the nurse was asked as to where the girl was, I received the answer: "I don’t know, ask the doctor to come and he’ll speak with you”. I went to the doctor and got a definite answer that the girl had died! I asked to see my daughter’s body, but I was told that she wasn’t there, and was removed from the ward. We went home mourning and in great pain and we believed that the child had indeed passed away, it didn’t occur to us that things may have been otherwise. We closed that door in pain!

I began to believe that my daughter was alive and healthy and that she had been given up for adoption, based on a report on "Hasharon” hospital, Petah Tikva in 1982 regarding irregularities in conduct and baby trafficking, babies who were given up for adoption under the pretext that the children had died. I started to dig and probe deeper, I found things. I started with my birthing chart which I requested from the hospital where I had given birth, in my birthing chart there is no mention of my ID number except my name, with misspellings in my last name and home address. Also, a daily doctor examination was only partially recorded.

Interim with the the information about myself, I asked Chevra Kadisha in Segula Petah Tikva to give me a zone and plot in order to know where my daughter was buried, and to my amazement I found the grave of a child who had passed away four years earlier. Since I had never received a death certificate at the Ministry of Interior’s initiative, I demanded and received a death certificate in which the date of death is registered as October 12, 1963. However, the document I had taken from the "Hasharon" hospital is a document summarizing the illness without her parents’ names or the ID number that was hers, [a document] that was never handed to me and which I had never seen, and in it is written that she passed away on October 11, 1963 - that’s the day I came to visit her and she looked well!

The document says my daughter was admitted to "Hasharon" hospital on September 26, 1963, and passed away on October 11, 1963. The document is signed by a ward paediatrician. In the death certificate issued at my request by the Ministry of Interior in 1989, it says that the date of death is October 12, 1963. In the letter from Chevra Kadisha to Social Insurance, they write that the girl was buried on October 14, 1963 at the request of “Hasharon” hospital. In the correspondence I found, demanded and received from Chevra Kadisha, I discovered a strange correspondence – the correspondence indicates that "Hasharon" had paid for the burial and gave orders to Chevra Kadisha, who accordingly made contact with Social Insurance. From the correspondence it seems as if it was my husband who had paid for our daughter’s burial and Social Security wanted to reimburse him for his expenses. I declare and there is also exists a statement made by my late husband and signed when he was still alive, that he never saw, signed the document, or paid the burial fees! Additionally, the various documents state different burial dates.

A year after the loss of my firstborn daughter I gave birth to a son on the same date, September 9, 1964. Please help me find out the truth.

Ilana Neumann

I came to visit her on a Friday, the 11th of October in 1963, and she was without the IV drip and looked good.

The next day, on Saturday October 12, 1963, I came as usual and found my daughter’s bed empty. When the nurse was asked as to where the girl was, the answer I received was: "I don’t know, ask the doctor to come and he’ll speak with you”. I went to the doctor and received an unequivocal answer that the girl had passed away! I asked to see my daughter’s body, but I was told that she wasn’t there, and that they had removed her from the ward.







I asked Chevra Kadisha in Segula Petah Tikva to give me a zone and plot in order to know where my daughter was buried, and to my amazement I found the grave of a girl who had passed away about four years earlier. Since I had never received a death certificate from the Ministry of Interior, I demanded and received a death certificate in which the date of death is registered as October 12, 1963. However, the document I had taken from the "Hasharon" hospital is a document summarizing the illness without mention of her parents’ names or her identification number, which was never given to me and which I had never seen, and in it is written that she passed away on October 11, 1963 - that is the day I came to visit her and she looked good!