- Name of Child: Hazon Yitzhak
- Country of Origin: Iraq
- Year of Kidnapping: 1951
- Place of Residence: Pardes Hanna
- Hospital: Rambam Hospital, Haifa
- Complaint Submitted to a Committee: No
We emigrated from Iraq in May 1951 and arrived at the immigrant camp in Pardes Hanna. I was 12 years old. My older brothers (ages 15 and 18) were taken to the Kibbutz. I stayed with my parents, along with my younger brothers, Hazon (who was 5.5), another brother, age 4, and a little baby. Hazon was a fair-skinned child with light brown hair.
On one of those days my mother cooked and the saucepan spilled over. Hazon sustained a light burn to the cheek. A few days later we took him to see a nurse and she panicked and immediately exclaimed that he may die. She said he must be sent to Rambam hospital. My father explained that they didn’t have the means to take him to Rambam, and the nurse said there was no need to worry, tomorrow a pickup truck would come and take them there. My father took Hazon to Rambam Hospital, stayed with him for a bit and was then told to leave him there and return home. A week or so later, my father collected some money and went back to Rambam to visit my brother. When he arrived, the nurses told him that my brother had died. He asked to see a grave, and they pointed and said he was buried "over there." Where is that? My father asked. He was answered, "over there." He went out to search at the Jewish cemetery, and found no grave with my brother’s name on it. After a few days he went back to the hospital and asked them to explain to him exactly where the child was buried. Again they sent him “over there”, and again he searched the local Jewish cemetery and didn’t find a thing.
About 10 years ago I started to research the subject. I looked for a medical file at Rambam hospital and found no such file – they said that they had never had a child with that name, or such a case. After a while I received an official letter from them, stating that no file was found. I checked with Chevra Kadisha and they explained that the cemetery where my brother was claimed to have been buried was no longer active in those years.
While in the bank for some other inquiry, I discovered that there is an Interior Ministry registration, according to which my brother was alive at least until 1962. From that year onwards it says he was "no longer a resident".
To this day, I am sure that my brother is alive.
A week or so later, my father collected some money and went back to Rambam to visit my brother. When he arrived, the nurses told him that my brother had died. He asked to see a grave, and they pointed and said he was buried "over there." Where is that? My father asked. He was answered, "over there." He went out to search at the Jewish cemetery, and found no grave with my brother’s name on it.