Tag #124811 - Interview #97525 (Zelda Ers)

I don’t have information about the period of my father’s military service. But I have information about my father-in-law’s. My deceased father-in-law, Eliyazer Ers, was a very knowledgeable, educated man. He studied in Allience like my mom. He was a wise and well-read person. He would always tell us: “I went into exile. They sent me to the Russian border for military service. There was a war then”. I think that was around World War 1. “I only had a mother, no one else” he says. “I had a sibling, he starved to death”, he always told us that. He starved to death, he died here. My father-in-law’s family was all from Balat. He says that he had 4.5-5 years of military service. “We were in Russia. Then I could not return to Turkey. I stayed in exile. I had no money, nothing, I could not return” was what he explained. This happened during military service. He always told us that. Because I had not known the love of a father, I had a very good relationship with him. He had a lot of good qualities, he would come and tell me: “We came to Turkey with a convoy, I did not have a penny. My military service was supposed to be two years but I could not return even though World War 1 had ended. I went back to my neighborhood, I could not find my mother or my sibling. They died of poverty and starvation. I was alone”.
My deceased mother-in-law, Anetta Ers, was a little ignorant, she was a peasant woman. She would say: “Friends and neighbors got together and married me to him. I did not have a spectacular life. My father-in-law’s job was to inscribe on tombstones things like poems. He was a sought-out person.