Parents – Rumia and Yehia Yehuda Meushar from Tel Mond.

Thirteen children were born, of which only six survived. Three died on the way to Israel, two were kidnapped, one died in an accident, one from a scorpion sting.

Two children were kidnapped: one in the immigrant camp in Hashed, and another after their immigration to Israel.

Father and mother lived in the town Zarib [Marib?]; in 1941 they moved to the Hashed immigrant camp near Aden. They stayed in the camp about two years. They immigrated to Israel via Egypt, to which they sailed by ship, and from there they took the train to Atlit. They were transferred by the British in trucks to Tel Mond. The child Shalom was born in 1941 in Yemen, in the town Zarib [Marib?] near Sanaa. Shalom could read at age three, and he read the sixth section of the weekly Torah portion [per the Yemeni custom in which this segment is read by a child]. When they came to Camp Hashed in 1943-1944 he was taken to the clinic with the claim that he needed to get a vaccination.

Father visited him every morning after morning prayers and was in the habit of playing with him and watching over him. One morning he saw that they were loading the children who were kept at the clinic onto a truck. Father shouted to Shalom, who began to cry and call back to him, and he ran after the truck. Since then, he has not been found. Mother cried day and night, and she fell sick with a temporary blindness for several months because of the salt in the tears. Father, who never ever came to terms with the loss, died at age 68. He searched for his kidnapped children until his dying day. Whenever he saw a bare-chested man, he looked for the familiar birthmark Shalom had on his shoulder. He developed nostalgic stories about how pleasing life would be for him, had Shalom stayed in the bosom of his family.

Upon their arrival at that camp, they cut off the sidelocks and beard of Rumia’s father (who was a merchant and knew four languages) and shaved his head. He lamented to Rumia, "If this is Israel and this is how people conduct themselves there, I do not want to immigrate." A week later he died suddenly. While still in the immigrant camp, Jewish Agency emissaries took the special traditional jewellery and garments from them, with the claim that the plane would not be able to take off because of the weight, and they were brought everyday clothes.

The child Tzipora was born in 1946 in Israel, at home. At that time, all of the children went every day to a daycare center, because the parents had to work for their living. Father worked in Lord Mond’s orchard. When there was need for manpower during wartime, he was drafted to dig ditches and labor of that type. Mother worked in the orchards and in housekeeping. Tzipora was taken from the daycare where she had been, with the claim that she was ill. They were told that the caretakers evacuated her to Hadassah Hospital on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv. The daycare center was located up the main street, in the small commercial center in Tel Mond. (One of the caretakers was called Naomi; she lived in Ein Vered and later moved to Naan.) Father headed off on foot to the hospital in Tel Aviv, helped from time to time by catching lifts on donkey carts. When he arrived at Hadassah Hospital he inquired about the girl and asked to see her. He was ousted with the assertion that there was no child there by that name. He tried again and again until he was thrown out. That night he spent outside, in the street. The next morning he tried his luck again, without success. He was forced out in humiliation by a policeman. A few days later he went back to Tel Aviv, to the hospital, but was not given any information at all about Tzipora.

Tzipora’s sister, Ruti, testifies that her mother was asked that she be adopted as well. Obviously she refused and having learnt from experience, she gave birth to the rest of her children at home. Over the years, as it became clearer to them that they were deceived by the state institutions to which they have given their trust, and that their innocence was exploited, their feelings of shame and guilt at not having managed to prevent what happened grew more powerful. Mother mourned her lost children with tears for the rest of her life. Every Sabbath and holiday during the candlelighting, she asked forgiveness of her kidnapped children and hoped that they were well.