Eugenie Pardo with her mother Doudoun Beraha and her sister Laura Haguel

This photo was taken in Thessalonica in 1923.

You can see my grandmother, Doudoun Beraha and my mother, Eugenie Pardo, at the time still Beraha, and her sister Laura Haguel (nee Beraha).

Both girls are still very young. My grandmother Doudoun is wearing black as the picture was taken after my grandfather Solomon Beraha’s death.

My grandfather on my mother's side was called Solomon Beraha and was married to Doudoun Frances. They got married in Skopje but came and settled in Thessalonica.

My grandmother went to a nuns' school, so she spoke French and Spanish, which was her mother tongue. Apart from my mother, she had another daughter, Laura, and a son, Gastone.

My mum, like her mum, went to a nuns' school, a 'l'ecole des soeurs' as they used to say, so she spoke French and Spanish and some Greek. Her Greek wasn't very good, but she managed.

My grandmother Doudoun spent some time in Paris with her son Gastone, and then, before the war, she came to Thessalonica and stayed with her other daughter Laura.

My mother's sister was married to David Haguel, who was a son of Ha Giako Haguel, the great rabbi of bet din. Unfortunately the Germans took her away.