The testimony of Ora Ovadia, Mazal's sister:

My parents, the late Hana and Moshe Awad - Ovadia, immigrated to Israel from Yemen in 1949 and were sent to the Ein Shemer immigrant camp. They then were a short time in Moshav Elyachin, and after that they arrived at the Kiryat Ono transit camp.

On 10 December, 1951, my mother gave birth to my sister Mazal Awad, a healthy and beautiful girl. When Mazal was about 11 months old, she felt a little unwell, had diarrhea and lack of appetite. My mother took her to the government hospital in Pardes Katz and there they decided to hospitalize her for the night, and sent my mother back to the transit camp.

The next day, when my mother came to be with Mazal, she was told at the hospital, that the girl had died.

My parents did not see a body and were not given the cause of death, or a death certificate. They were only asked to pay for a grave and a tomb for Mazal and were given a location of a grave.

My mother took it very hard and did not understand, how come one day the girl, who only suffered from diarrhea, was taken from her. She cried and mourned all these years.

Over the years, an army draft order arrived for Mazal and I remember being a little girl, when representatives from the army came to our home, to recruit Mazal. My mother said to them "What are you doing here? The girl died when she was a baby" they apologized and left.

All these years we visited Mazal's so-called grave, every year, in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, but mother always felt that something was wrong, that the girl was taken from her.

All these years she was plagued by doubt.

I've had a few red lights turned on over the years. One was when a draft order arrived for Mazal. If she passed away then, how come a draft order was sent on her name? In addition, before mom passed away, she had a woman care giver who took care of her. A few days before mom passed away, the caregiver contacted me by phone and told me: “Ora, Mother is constantly shouting that her child was taken away from her. She is yelling: "They took my girl!". What does she mean?” This also gave me another push to go and investigate the subject of the so-called death of my sister Mazal.

About two and a half years ago, I took out the burial license from the government archive, and then, I went to the Ministry of Interior, to try and get the death certificate. The answer i got was, that a death certificate cannot be issued, because it does not appear that Mazal Awad died.

Later on, I managed to get a birth certificate that was issued retroactively. Wherever i went, I constantly tried to extract information. Once I even tried to ask for help from a National Insurance clerk, with whom I was sitting for a completely different matter.

I live with the feeling, that we don't really have closure and the truth is unknown to us. If Mazal passed away, why did we receive a draft order on her name and why did army representatives come to recruit her? and if she passed away, why is it not possible to issue a death certificate? What is in this grave that we go to every year? where is she?

We need help and we are thirsty for information and details about her.