Doli Lelouch

We immigrated to Israel in April, 1949, from Tunisia—two parents, Miriam and Shimon Lelouch, and two daughters. My mother was five months pregnant and we lived in a tent in Pardes Hanna. Both my sister, whose name was Dolly, and I, were born in Tunisia. Dolly was probably born at the end of 1947.

During our first month in Israel my sister Dolly contracted rubella and was hospitalized. The next day, my parents went to check on their daughter and were told she had died. They did not show them her body and were not told where she was buried.

My brother was born four months later in August 1949 in Nahariya, because in the meantime we had moved to Acre and my father, who was a ranger, stayed in Pardes Hanna for a while to work.

I always had a wish in my heart that my mother was right and that we have a sister somewhere in the world. We do not have her birth certificate, only a photo. Dolly is the girl with the white cape to the right and I am on the left.

Ninette Shiner