Yona Ratzon

The parents, Miriam and Awad (Ovadia) Ratson (the Hebrew version of the name Radha, sometimes spelled Ratza in the Ministry of the Interior) immigrated from Yemen in 1949. The couple lived in Nahariya with their three children: Miriam, Shalom and Yefet. The fourth child, Yona Ratza, I.D. 050294545, was born on September 18th, 1950, in a hut that presently serves as an old-age home. When she was five years old, she suffered from stomach aches, and she was taken to Rambam Hospital in Haifa for a few days. The parents who then lived in Amka returned there, after being sent away. When the father returned, he was told that his daughter had passed away. He insisted that because the child was five months old, she should therefore be buried and mourned according to Jewish law. He begged for the body to be brought to him, but was informed that the child had already been buried, and he was thrown out of the hospital. According to one of the documents: "ceased to be a citizen of Israel as of 1963". An identifying mark was a bent wrist. My older sister remembers that she was a healthy, white, chubby-faced baby.

An update, June 2020:

After the investigation committee’s archives were opened, the sister, Yafa Komemi, found a document that suggests the possibility that, contrary to what the father had been told, their sister had recovered, and was moved to WIZO. According to this document, a baby born in September 1950 that arrived from Amka was hospitalized in Rambam, and was moved to WIZO in March 1951 following her recovery. A handwritten document states that she left WIZO on June 4.

As mentioned in his testimony, the father of the family was told his daughter had died and was thrown out of the hospital. The family tried to appeal for the removal of the censorship on the document but was refused, claiming that it was for reasons of personal privacy protection. WIZO declared that they have no details or other information regarding their sister Yona.