The testimony as written by the sister, Shoshana Barzilay.

”My father and older brothers recounted: My parents immigrated in 1951 from Mosul, Iraq. They arrived in Israel with six children, the youngest of them being ten months old, his name was Rachamim Nachum. According to my father, Rachamim didn’t feel well during the flight - it was hot and stuffy inside the plane. When they disembarked from the plane, Rachamim was taken from my mother's arms under the pretext that he was ill and must be hospitalized. He was taken to "Hadassah" hospital in Rosh Ha’ayin. My parents were forbidden from accompanying Rachamim, but my grandmother, my father's mother, insisted on it and went with him. My grandmother was returned that same night to Atlit immigrants camp (Sha’ar Ha’aliyah B).

(Two days later, my parents went to visit him. In the hospital they were forbidden to enter his room, on the grounds that he had a contagious disease, and my brother was shown to them through a small window. Needless to say, my parents, my brothers and sisters did not contract the hair ringworm disease that was common in those days). After a few days my parents went to visit him again, and during this visit they were informed that he was to be released. My brother Rachamim was discharged and was even given some clothes, because my parents did not bring any, since his release was unexpected.

Rachamim was discharged on Wednesday, and on Friday afternoon, two guards came by our family tent at the immigrant camp. The guards were accompanied by a nurse, who demanded to take my brother to the clinic in Atlit. Rachamim was taken against my mother’s will, but she accompanied them to the clinic. In the clinic, he was given an injection while in my mother's arms. After the injection, Rachamim was in a state of unconsciousness, and immediately afterwards he was declared dead. Immediately after "passing way", an older man who was already present at the place, was brought in to read Psalms. My mother became hysterical and started to scream and cry. My father, uncle and other family members rushed to the scene,hearing my mother’s cries of distress. Rachamim was taken forcefully from my mother and put in another room.

My father and other family members demanded to be given the "body" if he had indeed passed away. The “body” was not handed to my parents, but was put in an ambulance, although it was fully possible to perform the funeral and burial then and there, since there were many clergy and rabbis in the camp who had emigrated from Iraq. When my father and uncles stood in the ambulance’s way and demanded the body, if indeed the child had passed away, they were arrested and detained.

The name of Rachamim was withdrawn from the file (that is, from the population registry - NK) only in 1966 at the end of the investigation committee (Bahlul Minkowski - NK), only after my parents went to the committee demanding to investigate the matter, because the family had received a draft letter under Rachamim’s name.

The questions that arise are:

1. How did they know to come of their own accord to the tent and take my brother, claiming that he was ill? And with no complaint on the family’s part?

2. Why wasn’t the "body" given for the burial - despite having been told by my parents that the burial could be taken care of (by rabbis who emigrated from Iraq and lived in the immigrants camp)?

3. Why were my father and uncles arrested?

4. How can one explain the fact that that my brother Rachamim existed in official state records , and only after a request was made by my parents in 1966, was his name withdrawn from the Interior Ministry?

5. Why are there inaccuracies in the spelling of his name?

In addition, according to the testimony of my brother who was about 13 years old at the time - he clearly saw that Rachamim was breathing when he was taken from my mother under the assertion that he was dead.” I'm attaching the documents possessed by my dad.

The brother, Moshe, adds today:

“I enclose the documents of the committees of inquiry who discussed our case, the police investigation, the death certificate we managed to issue in the Nineties, a photo of the register at Chevrah Kadisha and the inquiry at the Rambam Hospital archive. Unfortunately, we have not found the draft order or the picture of my baby brother from the day we immigrated to Israel. I have attached a picture of me and my siblings, and a picture of me at age 12.

I want to emphasize that so far, in the conclusions of each of the investigation committees, it was said that no one came for my brother's body, and therefore after waiting 4 days his body was buried in the children’s in plot in Haifa.How this is consistent with the fact that my father and my uncle were taken into custody when they insisted on receiving the body??

Also, one of the documents states that there had been an autopsy and it concluded that my brother died of an intestinal infection - but when I went to Rambam Hospital to receive his hospitalization file, the documentation of his cause of death and autopsy - we were told at the hospital archives that there no such documents were found (the letter we received from Rambam is attached here). In the document we received from Chevrah Kadisha, appears a name similar to my brother’s, but not identical, and the death certificate number that appears in the list doesn’t match the death certificate number listed in the investigation committees’ conclusions.

Another point I would like very much to investigate, but don’t know how, is a detail my mother repeated several times over the years and I find to be important: at the Atlit immigrant camp health clinic, there was a nurse (probably of Iraqi origin)named Daisy, who told my mother to take the baby and just escape from the clinic. I wonder if other people know similar stories from the Atlit camp?Does anyone know Daisy? Is it possible to find her? Maybe she could cast some light on the story.”