Marim Haller with relatives in Iasi

This is I, Marim Haller - the one on the left - with my cousin, Leon Kesler, and his wife, his girlfriend - something like that. The photograph was taken in Iasi, in the street. They wrote on the back of the photograph: "On the occasion of our visit in Iasi, you and your cousins, Tony and Leon. 26th July 1945."

I was born in Harlau in 1915. Officially, my name is Marim, but people call me Maly. I was named after a neighbor whom my mother knew. At school, I was registered as Marim Nuta, even though my father's actual name was Sin Nuta, after his father. Formerly, that's how people were named, Sin Nuta, Sin This, Sin That - son of Nuta, son of this, son of that. [Editor's note: The word "sin" is a dialect form of the Yiddish "zun" (zin)=son.] Afterwards, I secured an attestation from the court of law stating that Nuta and Ghebergher were the same name. It doesn't matter, I changed it afterwards, when I got married.

I was born late in their life. My mother wanted children, but it was a very long time before I was born. I know that I was born after 10 years, 10 years after my parents married. I had no brother or sister. My father died in the war [World War I], I lived with my mother. My mother administered a business in the house, in the very room where we lived - half the room was occupied by the store. She sold tobacco, cigarettes, and she also received a pension after my father - that was our livelihood. My mother loved me very much. Seeing that it was only after 10 years of marriage - for she couldn't bear children - that she had me… I was the apple of her eyes. I don't recall her scolding me. Perhaps she scolded me if I did some mischief, but I don't remember.

My father, Calman Leib Ghebergher, was born in Harlau. I never knew my father, for he went to war when I was a few months old, and he didn't return. I don't know what he did for a living. He was a very good man, everyone loved him and had a kind word to say about him, that's what my mother used to tell me.

My father had 2 sisters - Sura and Ruhla - both of whom I've met. The name of Ruhla's husband - the other sister of my father - was Avram Kesler. They lived in Iasi, but I no longer remember what they did for a living. Their sons' names were Leon and Saul. Ruhla had another son as well, David Kesler, who lived in Dorohoi, and who had a daughter, Jeni Kesler. Jeni Kesler was an actress at the Jewish Theatre in Iasi [Ed. note: The first professional theatre in Yiddish was founded in Gradina "Pomul Verde" (The "Green Tree" Garden), today the Park in front of the National Theatre in Iasi, as it was intended for a Jewish audience, the vast majority of Jews living in the Podul Ros suburb.], and then in Israel.

Photos from this interviewee