My grandmother Shoshana Shim’on (she emigrated to Israel with the name Sham’ah Yaakov and in Israel they changed the family name to Shim’on), emigrated to Israel from Yemen with the influx of immigrants from Yemen after the establishment of the state. She tells us that Israeli envoys came to her city in Yemen, and called for Jews to immigrate to Israel in order to settle it with Jews. Out of a sense of mission and redemption, they left their homes, their livestock and their property and began the journey to Israel.

The journey was a rough trek across the desert, on camels and donkeys. During the trek, my grandparents lost their eldest son who died. They reached Hashad Camp in Aden and were told that they must wait there because there of a strike. In Hashed, they waited for many months under very difficult living conditions and many died there because of disease and starvation. When the waiting period ended, they were put on a plane. They were instructed to throw all their jewelry and Torah scrolls (religious manuscripts), under the claim that "the plane will not take off" due to their great weight, and naively they did so.

My grandmother emigrated with my grandfather Suleiman Yaakov, their six-months-old daughter Sarah Yaakov (who was born in Hashad) and my grandfather’s family. Upon their arrival in Israel they were housed in Ein Shemer Transit Camp in tents. All the children were taken to the children’s home situated at the edge of the camp (in buildings which belonged to the British in the past), under the claim that they would not survive in the cold of the tents. Every day my grandmother came to nurse Sarah in the morning, noon, afternoon and evening. Sarah was in a room with nine other babies.

On Saturday at noon, my grandmother arrived as usual to breastfeed Sarah and left her healthy at one in the afternoon. By four o'clock she came to the children home again, and the nurses Miriam (tall, of Ashkenazi descent) and Bracha (of Yemenite descent, a veteran in the country and fluent in Hebrew) received her at the entrance to the room where Sarah would be. When she returned to breastfeed Sarah, she wasn’t there. All the babies were gone at once. The room was empty. In fact, only two babies sick and weak babies remained. All the healthy babies who were in the room disappeared and were gone. When my grandmother asked where Sarah was, the nurses answered that she contracted indigestion, vomited and so was taken to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. My grandmother asked where they were when they took Sarah, and they replied that they were on their break, and that they have no further information.

My grandmother rushed to the Rambam hospital along with her father-in-law Shim’on Yaakov. They waited outside the hospital for hours as rain poured. Only towards eight in the evening a nurse of Iraqi origin came out towards them. He spoke Arabic and told them to follow him. He took them to the freezer room and showed them a diaper full of iodine. He claimed that Sarah had died and that this was her blood. My grandmother and her father-in-law asked to see Sarah, and he said that wasn’t possible, and that they must return to the transit camp.

Due to their objection to leaving without seeing Sarah, the hospital called an ambulance which took them back to Ein Shemer. In Ein Shemer they tried to ask in the information centre, and were told that they may want to look in Hillel Yaffe, Hadera. They went there and found nothing. My grandmother and her family were very frustrated. They did not speak the language and did not get satisfactory answers. The biggest challenge for my grandmother until this day is believing that a Jew would harm another Jew, and take their child. My grandmother tells that Sarah was a healthy, chubby, fair-skinned and beautiful girl, and that is probably why they chose to take her.

She did not believe then, and still does not believe today, that Sarah had died then. The family filed a complaint with the Committee and was presented with a document according to which Sarah died from meningitis, pneumonia and an infection on the inner ear. Three diseases, and yet only a few hours before, my grandmother nursed her and she was completely healthy.

After Sarah my grandmother gave birth to 7 girls and 3 boys, with courage and great dedication, and today she has over 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We all grew up on the story of Sarah’s disappearance, and the whole family wants to find her. My grandmother is about 86-year-old, and she talks about Sarah all the time.

Attached is a picture of daughter Michal and daughter Shula, whom my grandmother claims were similar to Sarah in childhood. Also included are photos of the late daughter Esther and my grandmother Shoshana.

Sarah, if you're reading and watching, please contact us. You have a whole family waiting for you.

Liat Rosenstein