Zyta Eliahu - February 3, 2008
Family
How large was your family?
Well, at the time when I was sent to England I was just--I was the only child. But later on, thirteen--when I was thirteen, my brother was born in Mauritius, which is another story.
Okay. Grandparents? Aunts and uncles?
No, no, you see, both my parents became orphans at a very early age. I think my father was eight; my mother was about eleven. She was the eldest and she sort of had to take over taking care of her brothers and sisters. She had quite a hard time. After the First World War there was a lot of typhus in the area where they lived in Galicia, in Poland and uh, which is now part of the Ukraine I believe and uh, so both, they both lost their parents.
But you had aunts and uncles?
Oh yes, there were lots of aunts and uncles. Some of them managed to get to Palestine during the '30s. My father had a brother and sister who came here in the '30s. My mother had two sisters and a brother who came here in the '30s.
First cousins?
Yes, there were--yes, I met, I met quite a lot of my cousins here.
Sure but how large would you say the family was?
Well, you know, both my parents had--I think my mother had about six, seven brothers and my father was eight--there were eight children. And then, he lost--they both lost brothers and sisters in the Holocaust with the cousins--with their nieces and nephews. And here I met about five cousins.
How many do you think survived the war in your family?
Let's see, on my father's side three--one sister and two brothers survived and on my mother's side three sisters and one brother survived.
And your parents? They survived?
Yes, my parents survived, yes.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn