Testimony by Pnina, Izzik, Yaffa and Dina, brothers and sisters to Yaakov and children of Zaken and Rachel Buchris:

Our parents immigrated to Israel from the city of Djerba in Tunisia in the year 1947 and were then deported to a detention camp in Cyprus, where they resided until Israel was established. At the detention camp, their eldest son Moshe passed away from a disease.

After Israel was established, they were allowed to enter the country. Here all the rest of our brothers and sisters were born.

In the year 1951 Mom gave birth to Yaakov. A beautiful child, fair-skinned and blue-eyed, like Dad. When he was about three months old, he got a mild cold and our parents took him to Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where he was admitted. When Mom and Dad came to see him the next day, they were told he passed away. When Mom tried to talk and ask questions, she was shoved brutally and thrown out of there. The nurse shouted and treated her in a humiliating manner. Our parents were not provided with a cause of death, they did not receive a death certificate, they did not see a body nor were they notified of a burial site.

Later on, a draft order on Yaakov’s name also arrived. If he passed away, how come a draft order in his name arrived? Army representatives, deserter-catchers, came to our house to search for him.

My parents went through a horrible tragedy. They had no answers and not even a grave where they could go to cry and to mourn. They tried to investigate the issue of the disappearance in every possible way. In letters, telephone calls to various authorities and institutions. They also gave testimony in front of the Kedmi Commission at the supreme court.

Brothers Izzik, Yaffa and Dina recount: we accompanied Dad and Mom to the supreme court, to give their testimony for the committee. They only allowed Mom to enter and we waited outside with Dad. They wouldn’t let us go in with Mom. The treatment Mom received at the hands of the commission was horrible, impatient and contemptuous. As if they summoned her not in order to listen to her but only to have her listen. We did not receive any answers from the committee, only more confusion and ambiguity about the details. If he passed away, how come they never got a death certificate? And how come we received a draft order in his name?

We, the brothers and sisters, felt our parents’ difficult mental state every day as children and as adults. We grew up in the face of trauma. Mom and dad, may they rest in peace, lost their trust and their sense of security as consequence.

Moreover, there were financial difficulties. Dad couldn’t find stable employment and Mom worked the most difficult odd jobs in order to sustain the family, while over everything hangs the tragedy of the kidnapped son. We felt it every day, especially on holidays and family events.

Our parents left the world distraught, with a big hole in their hearts. Mom asked us before she died to keep looking for our lost brother, because she was certain that her son was alive. That was her will before she died, and we honor it and continue searching for Yaakov.