The story of Gizela - Afik Shiraz. Abinun Shmuel

We arrived in Sarajevo without knowing anyone. At the train station one of the locals contacted us and asked, "Are you Jewish?" When we answered yes he said, "It is your big day today. All the Jews are in the synagogue. I'll lead you there and maybe you'll meet someone from the family”. It turned out to be Yom Kippur. We entered the town in our poor clothes, after sleeping in them in the fields on the ground, when we met our former neighbor from Vishegrad, Bukitza Gaon, a Holocaust survivor who moved to Sarajevo after the war with her sister Lotika Gutman. The same woman took us to her house, where we showered and got clean clothes, which were of course too big, and then we were served food despite the fast. From there we went to the synagogue which was located opposite her house. I entered the synagogue and I didn't know anyone. The locals asked where we were from. I told them that we were from Vishegrad and I mentioned the names of family members who lived in Sarajevo. It turned out that none of them survived. One of the women in the synagogue, Papo Medika told us "I have one daughter and now I have three Girls” and took us under her wings. Toward the beginning of the school year, my sister Cila moved to live in the Sarajevo orphanage which was located in a neighborhood school complex called "The Partisan Gymnasium" or "Tito's Gymnasium," and there she studied three grade materials in one year and completed her adulthood studies. As I was older, this possibility to study and complete the lost school years was avoided. Only later, when I became to be a mother, I would sit for hours with great pleasure with Samuel, my son, while he had studied his lessons and I studied the material with him. Very fast I realized that my childhood was coming to an end, and that if I wasn't interested to take advantage of Medika's heart and hospitality, it was worthwhile I'll get married as soon as possible and start my own family. During the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot we went to visit Medika's friend from the camps, Flora Ashkenazi is her name. That's where I met also my future sister-in- law, Joya, and her husband Binko (Benjamin) Abinun, who was the parents of a sweet newborn baby named Nada (Meaning "hope" and later renamed "Nava"). Nada captured my heart, and when Joya noticed how much I loved children, she offered us to come to visit her home. Indeed, I went to visit them in September and there I met Leon, her husband's brother, who was a soldier of Tito, visiting their home, wearing a uniform. Leon invited me to take a walk and already on that trip, he asked me, "Do you want to get married?" Despite his brief acquaintance, I felt certain closeness to him, and his family I already knew and loved. To this was added the fact that I did not want to be for the burden on Medika's family, and I knew I couldn't make a living alone without education. That's why I said "yes," and on October 1st, we got married, Leon and I. It was not a festive event. I came in the clothes of my body to an officer the city, and there we registered as married. By then, Leon's salary had stood only 200 dinars a month, and after marriage his salary rose per 1,000 dinars with a view to enabling us to have family. On November 18th, 1945, we married in the The meeting with Leon, my husband

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