My mother lives in Ra'anana, Malka Ya'akobov Zamir, daughter of Bracha and Amnon Ya'akobov, who came to Israel in 1944.
They were six siblings: Baruch (85 today) Sara (81) Shoshana (77) Malka my mother (72), the missing brother, Yosef Zion, who was born after my mother in 1947 and should be 71 today. After him, Zion was born (69), and lastly Michael (65).
When the missing brother was 6 months old he cried over a barking dog. Bracha, his mother, took him to Hadassah hospital in Tel Aviv, where he was born, for a check-up. The next day she came back to the hospital to breastfeed him. They told her he passed away even though he wasn't sick or anything. At night time they brought to the father, Amnon, a dead body, with cotton wool over the eyes and the body. It was impossible to recognize the body, and Amnon buried the child. He was a new immigrant who believed in the state and didn't look for his boy.
Over the years, my mother heard the story about the cotton wool and realized it was a trick. She once watched a television show that showed an interview with a carer from the hospital that worked there at the time her brother disappeared, and talked about a baby she liked especially named Zion who had beautiful black sparkling eyes. She said that at the age of 7 months, one day he disappeared from the hospital and that she was told he was sent for adoption.
My mother (Malka) always cries when she remembers how as a child, she was told that if she went to sleep on time "we will bring you Buba" (a nickname for the lost brother). It used to stress her.
Today, according to a check my mother made with the ministry of the interior, there is no record of his death nor an ID existing.
Not too long ago, my mother was hospitalized in Ichilov Rehabilitation Department. Her younger brother Zion was with her when a nurse at the department spoke to Zion as if she knew him. She thought he was working in Kupat Holim Clalit in Tel Aviv, but he didn't know her. My mother thinks that the nurse knew the lost brother and thought it was him.
My mother (Malka) always cries when she remembers how as a child, she was told that if she went to sleep on time "we will bring you Buba" (a nickname for the lost brother). It used to stress her.