We were born in Baghdad, we were four siblings: my older sister, who was already married, my two younger brothers were 16, my nine-year-old sister, and I, the fifth, Oded. My mother worked in Elias hospital, I was born there. I was named Saleh in Iraq but in Israel my name was changed. My parents’ names are Mordechai and Teresa, the family name has always been David.

We emigrated to Israel in 1951, the two bachelor brothers immigrated a little while prior to our arrival. My sister and her husband immigrated before us all.

When we arrived we were my parents, Esther and I. I was six or so. We arrived at Megiddo transit camp, they called it Mansi, near Moshav Yogev. After a year or two there, my sister was not feeling well, she was taken to "Ha’Emek" hospital in Afula. My mother got notice that she had died. They told my parents that she had already been buried and that was it. Maybe they [my parents] didn’t understand the language. I even remember my parents sat shiva for her. But as it turned out, when we went looking for her grave, there was none. In the Ministry of Interior she’s registered as having left the country. We have no clue where she is. Later we moved to Moshav Ta'anakh.

My parents are sadly no longer alive. My brothers and my older sister also passed away two years ago. I'm the only one left who can receive information. Where is she? I don’t know. I have her ID number because it more or less follows mine – 72611239.

She is mistakenly listed under the surname Shmula in the Interior Ministry, which is our relatives’ surname, who live in Kiryat Shmona. She might be registered as Shmula.

Many years have passed and sadly, I have no memory of her. I don’t even have her exact birthdate.

There was some incident, my nephew received a letter or phone call that he has an inheritance from a woman called Esther who passed away. He asked me and I told him that there was one [Esther], but we were informed that she had died when we were in the transit camp. The inheritance turned out to be a mistaken identity or something like that, but our family’s search has not stopped and the incident only sparked our interest.

My parents never talked about this all these years. I hope I'll be able to find her.

Oded David