I emigrated in 1949 from Yemen, I was very young, 16 and a half years old, an orphan. My husband was sick and his father passed away on the plane on the way here. We reached Rosh Ha’ayin and I had a pregnant belly and felt very much alone, I didn’t know Hebrew and I didn't have a bg family with me. Only my husband’s grandfather. I gave birth to my eldest son in a tent with the help of a midwife who was there. The child was beautiful and healthy but had a light rash on his face, a few sores and no more. Something normal which I now know many babies have, it’s just that then I was young and did not understand.

The midwife told me to take him to Tzrifin Hospital to see a doctor that could take care of him. We hospitalized him in Tzrifin and we were told to leave and come back the next day.

I came back with my husband’s grandfather. They told us the baby had died. I tried to ask and inquire a little more, how exactly does a baby die from face sores, but the nurse yelled at me “Girl, go home. There is no child. The baby is dead.” My husband’s grandfather tried to argue and insistent but it didn’t help.

I came back crying to the Ma’abara in Rosh Ha’ayin and did not shut my eyes all night. My whole life I have carried this with me. My husband, rest his soul, hearted great pain over the disappearance of our eldest. How he longed to see him.

I went to the Kedmi Committee in Jerusalem, I remember the aggressiveness of the judge. How impatient he was, and I felt it was really a pity that I came to testify in front of the Committee. They behaved to us as though we had come to lie. What do I need from the State? That they just tell the truth, that there were abductions.

Even though I didn't grow attached to him, I suffered. I suffered during pregnancy, during birth, and that gives an inner feeling… a baby doesn’t just come into this world. There is suffering first.

Ester Cohen

• The Kedmi Committee notified the family that it failed to find out what happened to their son, and he is defined unknown