The photograph was taken in the spring of 1931, probably in the Cismigiu Garden in Bucharest. From left to right: my first cousin, Gabriel Segalescu, and me, Dan Mizrahy.
Gabriel was born in 1926 in Bucharest, seven weeks after I was born. He left the country in 1961. When he got French citizenship, his name became Segard. He was the son of Annie Segalescu [nee Schonfeld], the most religious of my mother’s sisters.
I was born in 1926 in Bucharest. One of the reasons why I was a normal child was the fact that my parents never made me feel like a wunderkind. Thus, to the extent of their material possibilities and trying to avoid spoiling me, they made sure I had all the toys a boy could want; these included the balls and the circle, the tricycle, the sleigh, the mechanic train, the sling, the bow, mechanic games and children's games, like 'Mensch argere dich nicht' ['Don't get upset, man' in German], which I played with my grandmother on Thursday, when she came to visit us at noon…
