Michal Maud Beer with her cousins Hans Stecklmacher and Ruth Federmann

This photo was taken in Sadska. From the left, my cousins Hans and Ruth Stecklmacher. I, Michal Maud Beer, née Stecklmacherova, am in the front in the tree. The photo was taken in 1935. Hans died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Ruth arrived alone in Palestine at the age of 13 with the Kinder aliyah. She lived with her aunt, my mother's sister, in Tel Aviv. She learned to sew. In 1947 she married Samuel Federmann in Tel Aviv, whose brother Xiel Federmann founded the Hotel Dan chain all over the country. Ruth had a Dan boutique for several years. Ruth and I live not far from each other, and see each other mainly during family celebrations like bar mitzvahs, weddings, and lately, alas, the deaths of our husbands.