Zyta Eliahu - February 3, 2008
Reuniting with Parents
Um, you came in 1947 to Israel...
Yes.
...but you had seen your father in 194...
At the end of 1944.
What kind of reunion was that?
Well, you know, the thing is this: the younger the child--just giving the background--the younger the child when it was separated from the person the more difficult it was the bonding when they were reunited. And uh, I know some of my Kinder friends--some of them are younger than me--had the same problem. Now, with my father it was almost like a shock, you know, kind of unexpectedly seeing him at the end of '44. It was wonderful to see him, you know, it was the opposite of that terrible feeling when I arrived in '39 in England and...
[interruption in interview] See, for both the younger children and the parents, we left at a certain stage in our lives or emotional relationship and it wasn't possible to pick up from there after many years of separation. Eh, for my mother--I know you asked me about my father--but my mother, I think she sort of thought--and I've heard this from other Kinder--that she was going to get back an eight year old little girl or at least she was going to continue from there on. And I suppose somewhere I thought the same maybe and it just wasn't like that. Now, my father was much more easy going, he was much more optimistic and was much more easy to, to renew a relationship with him but it was strange in a way meeting my father. And, you know, besides being happy and relieved and then I didn't see him for very long because he was sent to Europe, so...
What did you speak about? Or did you speak?
Well, you know, my fa...my father--my brother was born in May and my father brought me a piece of honey cake for my brother's Brit Milah which I found very touching and, you know, something that I've always remembered. We spoke about how their life had been in Mauritius and about my mother and about my brother and how we would all be reunited in, in Israel. And...
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