My parents, Hananya and Esther Vaknin made aliya from Morocco in 1950, maybe a little earlier, together with my eldest sister. I was born in Israel after the aliya. We lived in Pardes Hana immigration Camp (Ma’abara). Over the years, more brothers and sisters were born, in 1957 my sister Simi was born, and almost a year later another sister was born - Shula. They were both fair-skinned, with beautiful green eyes.

When Shula was about 10 months old, the two babies had a cold and my father took them to the Hadera hospital (in Agrobank), where he was told to leave them and come back the next day. The next day he came to the hospital and they told him they had died. He wasn't given papers or certificates. I was six and a half or seven years old. My parents sat Shiv’a for my sisters but I always felt that they weren't dead. We were never told their place of burial or given any papers regarding their deaths.

A few months ago I was at the cemetery in Pardes Hana by chance, I approached a guy from Hevra Kadisha and asked him about my sisters, he told me that he had a grave with a tombstone in the name of Sima Vaknin with the date of her death, December 16, 1958. When I asked about Shula, he said he doesn't have such a grave. I want to know what happened to my sisters and where they are now.

David Ezer Vaknin