Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Simon Maroko - February 19 & 26, 1986

Tell me a little bit about your children.

Um, my oldest child is, is my son. And he is lawyer now. Uh, he seems to like his practice of law, of general law. He has an office in Troy. Um, interesting point is that sometimes some of my patients in my practice end up with him. I do a lot of marital counseling in my office. Um, and some of those when they say they need a lawyer, I ask them do you mind if I were to mention my son. In other words, I want to do it the right way. I say, you have no obligation to go to him. And uh, so far there are several that have uh, quite praised him, which make, makes me kind of proud of him of course.

Does he have any children?

His wife is expecting a baby in September. We go the news not that long ago.

And your other children?

Uh, my oldest daughter is in uh, Be'ersheeva. She um, is very Zionist. In fact uh, the decision by her to leave here came as a shock to my wife and to me. She was in New York and it was either that she would get an answer from some institutions, banks, etc. that they would offer her a job. And if not, then she would go on. And uh, then I didn't realize that she would not, I thought she first would come back here, but from New York, she did not come back, she did not say goodbye. But she went straight to uh, to Israel. She is married now. Uh, I have a granddaughter. And, uh... [pause] What shall I say about her, uh...

What's her name?

Her name is Armonit. The name uh, was chosen by me when uh, my wife was still pregnant with her. And I was on my bicycle going to medical school to lectures and I was passing a park with chestnut trees which were in, which were blooming. And her name means chestnut blossom.

And what are your children's name?

Uh, my oldest uh, is Eli. His official first name, because he changed his name, was Israel Eliahu, which was literally the name of my father. Then uh, when we naturalized here he had a chance to choose a different name and then he chose uh, to make it Eli to simplify it. But he knows he was named after my father. ??? My youngest child born in ??? is a girl, Doris. Just any general name. And uh, she's studying law. She has already received a job offer. And to my wife and my satisfaction, she'll work not that far from home. She'll be in Chicago and not in Boston or some other far away place.