Mathilda and Carolos Beraha

This is a photo of my parents, Carolos Beraha and Mathilda Beraha, nee Saporta, in Milan. It was taken in 1923 when they got married.

My mother was beautiful, a brunette, and combed her hair in a modern way; she went to the hairdresser’s and did lots of different things with it. She always dressed according to the latest fashion.

Appearance-wise my father looked very much like me; he was a well built man but not too tall. My father wore a ‘republica’ style hat. I even remember the brand: they were Italian made, very expensive, and were called ‘Borsalino.’ He had many of them and changed them according to what he was wearing.

My mother lived in Paris from 1910 to 1915 where she studied to become a teacher, and then worked for a year in Casablanca, Morocco.

After that she never worked as a teacher again. She arrived at the port of Thessaloniki and the story has it that my father Carolos was thunderstruck. He saw her coming down the stairs of the boat, decided she was the one and they almost eloped.

Back then to get married one had to go through a whole procedure; he didn’t want to delay so he took her to Venice and it’s there the ketubbah was written and they got married.

It was exactly the opposite of an arranged marriage! They were married one year before I was born in 1924, and my mother got pregnant soon after they were married.

Photos from this interviewee