The story of Gizela - Afik Shiraz. Abinun Shmuel

With the accompanying family and the Tauber family at the Hotel in Zlatibor (2016)

Over the years I have maintained strong relationships with a number of close friends, but my closest friend was Yelica, who was as a sister. Yelica married Yasha Finzi, the brother of Tilda Musafija. She taught me a lot and shared with me the immense love for books. Yelica was a happy and realistic woman who always said, "With friends, be happy, and the pain and tears keep for the night". She lived only 800 meters from me, so we could meet often. Her passing, ten years ago, was a severe blow to me. I felt lost a sister. Yelica believed that her daughter Leitzi (Leah), who suffers from cerebral palsy, would die soon after, and now, ten years have passed and the daughter is still alive. Although she is unable to speak or write and therefore it is difficult to communicate with her, she is very smart and understands several languages. Twice a year, usually on her mother's birthday and Memorial Day, I make her soft home food that will be easy to chew, and take a taxi to visit her. It turns out that we are quite similar, because in every visit some thinks I am her sister. These visits have become very meaningful for both of us - we are both very happy for each other, and I feel that I have been touched by every such encounter. Most of my friends were from Yugoslavia themselves, and we made sure to keep every written word in Serbo-Croatian, be it books or newspapers, for the others, as there is no library in this language in the country. Whenever someone from Yugoslavia came to visit the country, he would bring with him some newspapers. And so we would collect jokes, old newspapers and books in our mother language. Today I have about a thousand books at home, because every time a friend passed away, she left me her books. But what will happen to them afterwards, who will read them? The younger generation already reads in Hebrew and like those who came to Israel in 1992, they learned Hebrew in studios and do not need books in Yugoslav, so in the coming day all this inheritance will pass for the honor of the Yugoslavian Association and will remain there. Until a few years ago, I used to disengage from the various news and TV shows on Holocaust Day. Recently I do listen to stories and testimonies. I have an electric soul-candle lit in succession from December to May. This is a very significant time for me during which I lost many people who were dear to me: my uncle, my mother, my grandmother, my father.

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