Tag #125089 - Interview #97653 (Rebeka Evgin)

Avram Babaoglu, who was my father’s brother, never had children. Therefore he was very fond of me. And he wanted to adopt me. They even had a confrontation with my father about this subject.  My father had promised that if he had another daughter, he would register the child with his brother Avram Babaoglu to enable him to adopt her.  When I was born, my uncle had verbalized his wish, but my father had not warmed up to the idea.  When my father died, this time my uncle felt a debt towards me and the family in his conscience, and came to Istanbul to take us under his wing.  This way, someone from his family would get his inheritance.  His wife Mina wanted to adopt a niece from her side of the family.  During this time, it became imperative for us to move to Istanbul.  It was the beginning of World War II.  There were blackouts. My mother sold everything to pay for the move and we came to Istanbul all together.  Avram Babaoglu took us under his wing.

My aunt Mina hosted us very graciously but she wanted to adopt the daughter of her sister who had passed away. Some friction started at that point.  Yet this adoption did not take place with my getting married at a young age.  Mina could not adopt her own niece, either.  In fact, after my uncle died, Mina settled in Israel.  My mother, after marrying my older sister and me in Istanbul, went to live with her sons in Israel claiming “it is a shame to live in the house of your son-in-law”.