Mairy Angel's family

My parents Samouel Karasso and Rachel Karasso nee Ezrati used to go every year to Loutraki to drink water from the Karandani Springs.

They had bile problems and the doctor had suggested do so.
They used to take only my youngest siblings, Isidor and Rene along with them.

On 1940 they suggested taking me too to see the beauties of the countryside because back home in Thessalonica we were very restricted.

We went in the beginning of September. When we came back the war was declared. This was their last year there.

This photograph is taken just in front of the Karandani Spring where they went every morning with a glass to drink this water.

At the top [first] line from left to right is my father Samuel Abraham Karasso. He on his is sixties but he looks younger. I cannot tell when he was born.

It must have been by the end of 19th century. He was approximately 60 years old, or a few years older, when he died. He was caught [by the Germans] at the end of 1943.

He was illiterate. His father died and since he was the only boy in his family he started working from an early age.

Thus he did not have the chance to be educated. But he was a hard working man and became a very successful and wealthy businessman in later years.

He had a very big shop at Egnatia Street. It was a food market store.

After the Fire of Thessalonica he met someone with whom they became associates in business. They had shops also at Nikiti and Ormilia and several other places at Chalkidiki region.

They traded oil, honey, everything that had to do with food market. Twenty years was my father in this business. And when my father left [hiding from Germans] his associate was the one that betrayed him.
Next to my father is me, Mairy Smoel Karasso.

Next to me is my mother, Rachel Karasso nee Ezrati. She did not want to marry my father not only because he was her cousin but also because he was illiterate. S

he wanted to marry someone of her choice. But her brothers were planning to leave Thessalonica and go to live abroad. Before leaving her brother Azriel obliged her get married with my father despite her will. After the marriage her siblings left for France.

All of her siblings that went to France perished during the Holocaust.
She was looking just as she is in this photo when she perished. My mother was roja. She was a very beautiful redheaded woman. I never saw her with white her.

I remember my mother always elegantly dressed. She was making her clothes at Olga Boton, a well-known couturier. I remember her as a young well-dressed woman.

In front of us from left to right is my sister Rene Smoel Karasso that we used to call Renica because she was the youngest. She must have been six years old when this photo was taken. She died at the age of nine.

Next to Renica is my brother Isidor Smoel Karasso. Only my youngest brother, Isidoricos was disobedient. My mother would show him the heels of her sleepers as a treat.

She never hit us. She would hit with the heel of her sleeper at the window instead, thus breaking it.
I do not know who took this photo.

On the back side is written: A ma tres chere amie Nina souvenir de Loutraki de l’amoure, 1940 Mery. [To my beloved friend Nina. Souvenir from Loutraki with love, Mairy].

I must have sent it to my friend Nina Molho. She gave it back to me after the war.

All the people in this photograph, except me, perished during the Holocaust.