Testimony of Rivka Dviev, Yitzhak Georgy’s sister

Our parents, Sarah and Nissim Georgy, immigrated to Israel from Turkey in 1946. They arrived as members of Aliyat Ha’Noar, on their own, young, with no assistance or relatives in Israel. My mother was only eighteen years old. When my parents lived in Ramataim, my mother took Yitzhak, who was then only six months old, to Meir Hospital because he suffered from diarrhea. An hour later, she went out for a few minutes, leaving baby Yitzhak in the care of the medical staff. When she returned –a matter of minutes, one of the nurses told her that he had passed away and brought her his clothes. They did not let her see the baby, the body, nothing. She was informed that the funeral would be held the following day in such and such a place, but when my parents arrived at the location the next day, there was nothing; they were told that he had already been buried and that was that. My parents were sent back home empty-handed, with no documentation and no death certificate. Years later, when I, Yitzhak’s sister, checked with the Ministry of Interior branch in my town, I saw that he was listed as a living person.

The family approached the Commission in the 1990s, which ruled that the baby had died of meningitis in Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv. According to the Commission, he was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv on 9th July 1950 (the 24th of Tammuz). How could the burial have taken place more than a week after the date we were notified of his death (on June 30th )? This cannot be reconciled with what my mother told us. We checked at the cemetery and there is no mark or sign of a grave. The number we were given was of a specific plot, but when we arrived, a representative of Chevra Kadisha Burial Society showed us a different grave (marked number one) and calculated the approximate distance to the plot where Yitzhak was allegedly buried. The representative said that there would be no mark or sign, as long as the family had not paid for a grave.

We do not believe that Yitzhak did in fact die. Our mother has, sadly, already passed away, and throughout her life never found out what had become of her son. We did not raise the subject with her, for fear of causing her pain.