Eli Finanser during his 20 classes military service

This is a picture of my uncle Eli Finanser, taken during the 20 classes military service in 1942. My mother had eight siblings. As she was the third child, she saw her mother pregnant most of the time and helped raise many of her siblings. She took so much care of her brother Eli, who was 18 years younger, that she loved him more like a son than a brother. She would tell me, 'He is not your uncle, he is your brother.' As I was an only child, this is how I came to have an uncle/brother. Eli Finanser attended the St. Benoit French School. He had a wholesale business of pharmacy equipment. My father was drafted for the 20 Classes by the Armed Forces, together with my uncles. The 20 military classes: In May 1941 non-Muslims aged 26-45 were called to military service. Some of them had just come back from their military service but were told to report for duty again. Great chaos occurred, as the Turkish officials took men from the streets and from their jobs and sent them to military camps. They were used in road building for a year and disbanded in July 1942.

Photos from this interviewee