Milu Haim and his wife

This photo shows a cousin of mine, Milu Haim, together with his wife. He married in 1935 and on 29th June 1941 he was shot in front of the alehouse he owned on Bratianu Street in Iasi.  That was during the pogrom that took place a week after the war broke out. The progrom in Iasi which would not spare me either. One third of Iasi’s population was Jewish, that is, almost 45,000 people. And we all had a very pleasant life. On 29th June 1941 we found ourselves thrown in trains or killed on the street. It was like a cold shower. It was unexpected. There were frightfully few cases when nice people warned their neighbors and took them in their houses. It was a big question mark as to how this could happen in Iasi where we had lived until the war and till that day that turned into doomsday for many of us.

Photos from this interviewee