My parents, Daniel and Zarwashan (later changed to Zehava) Gohari (later changed to Gov-Ari) emigrated together with us, their kids, from Persia to Israel in February 1950 and we were housed in the immigrant camp Beit Lid.

We were five children between the ages of three and 15. My late mother gave birth in April 1950 to twin girls in the maternity hospital (we not sure about the name of the hospital). The two girls stayed several days in the hospital, one was called Rivka and the other Malka.

Mom went to the hospital every day to breastfeed the daughters. One of the days my mother was informed that Rivka had died and that they had buried her. My father went to the hospital and asked for details. They showed him a small pile and told him that she was buried there. They have not received any documents, and there was no sign or plaque on the grave. My father, god rests his soul, who was a religious man, was very angry because he did not understand how a Jewish child could be buried in this way.

Several times we asked and we also checked with the Interior Ministry and we were told these files were destroyed since they do not keep files in the archive for that long.

It has haunted us all our lives. My late mother could not forget the girl who had died – or disappeared – in this way. Since the two sisters were born on the same day on April 1950, and therefore their ID numbers should be consecutive, we tried to make inquiries using Malka’s ID number, but, again, we received no reply.

My name is Mordechai Gov-Ari, and now I'm 76. We are part of that group that does not know what happened with their children during those years in Israel. Maybe finally we will get a sincere answer. Perhaps we will be lucky to see Rivka in our lifetime.