Moscu Mizrahy with his family

The photograph was taken in 1927 in our courtyard, in Bucharest. My father, Moscu Mizrahy, having just returned from call-up, is still wearing the army uniform. My mother, Henriette Mizrahy [nee Schonfeld], is in the back row, and my father is holding us in his arms. On the right, there is me, Dan Mizrahy, and on the left, my sister, Mira Cotin [nee Mizrahy].

My father was drafted at the end of World War I, went to an officer's school, and graduated as a second lieutenant. After a call-up in 1927, he was promoted to lieutenant. There were some more call-ups in 1939, to Sibiu and Lipova, Arad County - he was with the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment. He remained in the army until 15th August 1940, when Jews were kicked out from the armed forces. At the crossroads of 1945 and 1946, my father didn't include emigration among his future projects. 'I'm a Romanian officer' - that was his supreme argument.

My sister Mira was born in 1923 in Bucharest. She was a quiet child and a pupil loved and respected by her schoolmates. I was born in 1926 in Bucharest.   I was a normal child and  my parents, 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…