Mira Cotin with Moscu and Henriette Mizrahy

This is a photograph of my parents and sister; they stayed in Bucharest while I, Dan Mizrahy, was in Palestine during World War II. We had already been separated for more than a year when this photo was taken, in 1942. From right to left: my father, Moscu Mizrahy, my mother, Henriette Mizrahy [nee Schonfeld], and my sister, Mira Cotin [nee Mizrahy].

When Romania was still neutral we received postcards from home; they were written in French, in order to escape more easily the British censorship, which was official during the entire war. Those postcards mainly contained news from and about the family. Yet, my father, with his unequaled humor, would slip a joke from time to time, like 'tiens-les de court' ['keep your eyes open']… After Romania entered the war - and, particularly, towards the end of 1941 -, the direct correspondence was no longer an option. For a year or two, I still got mail via Turkey, where my father knew a man who got his letters, put them in another envelope, and sent them to me. Then this way of communication could no longer be used either. The only news we got from one another were the messages sent through the International Red Cross; we were only allowed to send them once every three months and they could not exceed 25 words.

Photos from this interviewee