Zemach (Samel) and Mercedes Edri

Below are the details of my late mother’s stories of how she gave birth, when she was told that her children had died:

My parents immigrated in 1955 from Tangier (Spanish Morocco) with 3 children - Rami (born in 1948), Moshe (born in 1950), and Clara (born in 1952). Upon their arrival, they settled in a shack in Kiryat Malachi.

In 1957, Ilana was born in Kaplan Hospital. After her, I, Dalia, was born in Kaplan Hospital in 1960. Herzl was born in 1964 in Hadassah Ein Kerem.

Between 1958-1959 (approximately) my late mother had a son in Kaplan Hospital, and immediately after his birth she was told that he has died.

Following a television report about the testimony of a doctor from Kaplan Hospital on child trafficking during those years, as well as women's testimonies, we noticed that these cases are very similar to my late mother's.

At the time, my late mother was rushed by ambulance to Kaplan Hospital due to contractions she felt in the middle of the street. It happened on a Thursday and my late mother went to give birth alone because my late father was working in Jerusalem. On Friday they already sent her home, unlike previous times, in which she remained in the hospital for about 4 days. My sister remembers very well the broken cries of grief of my late mother - "How could they tell me the child died? I felt him."

Several months after this incident, my late mother received a letter from Ben Gurion approving us to live in Jerusalem, which at the time was almost impossible. I remember the letter well, I saw it among her letters a few years later.

We never received a birth certificate nor a death certificate of the child who died.

Around 1961, after I was born, we moved to Jerusalem and lived in asbestos shacks in Kiryat Yovel.

In 1962 or so, my late mother went to give birth at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, and there, too, after giving birth she was told her child died (this was before Herzl's birth). In this case too, we did not receive a birth or death certificate.

My late mother always spoke about her two boys who died in childbirth, but unfortunately as a young girl I did not pay attention to her words.

We gave testimony before Knesset member Nurit Koren's committee on 6/21/2018 and we have not yet received an answer.

As far as I know, the Ministry of Interior's computers block any attempt to check details.

I ask for your assistance in checking this issue.

If the children did pass away - we want to know where are the birth and death certificates that we did not receive. If they were given up for adoption, like many testimonies of child trafficking cases in those years, we want to know what happened to these children.

with gratitude,

Dalia Uliel