Josef Baruhovic's mother Simha Baruhovic in her yard in Pristina

In a photo from the 1930s, my mother Simha Baruhovic is pictured in the garden of our house in Pristina.

My mati, as we called my mother, Simha (Sida) Baruhovic (maiden name - Izrael), was born in 1906 to a large Sarajevan family.

She had three brothers and three sisters, and they all lived comfortably in Sarajevo where my grandfather, Josef Izrael, made a good living off the shares he owned in various companies.

He indulged his children and catered to their interests. For instance, he sent my mother to Vienna for voice lessons when she was a young woman.

She had a wonderful voice and she tried to encourage us to appreciate music as much as she did.

My mother and father lived in Pristina, where my father's family came from. However, my mother wanted to be surrounded by her family for my birth, so I was born in Sarajevo.

We spent a short time there before returning home to Pristina, where I spent my first years.

My mother could read Hebrew, which was unusual for women of her generation. My mother lit one oil lamp on Friday nights for Shabbat.

I do not recall that we ate kosher, but my mother knew how to make all the Sephardi traditional foods.

Photos from this interviewee