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Leo’s family was not very religious, maybe only his father and his brother Isidor was. They read the Bible [Old Testament] and went to the synagogue. My father-in-law had built a small synagogue at the end of Mitropoleos Street and Pavlou Mela. He was a religious man, my husband was not, though he was a believer. Leo was a fanatic Jew, but not a fanatic believer. Neither were the rest of his siblings. The older one, Raphael – the only one I didn’t meet – had gone to Spain during Franco’s regime and he was killed there; I suppose because he hid priests, rabbis.
My mother wasn’t very religious, but she believed. In the meantime the love affair with Leo had grown, and when one of my mother’s friends informed her, you won’t believe what she said to me, ‘We know the family. Leo is a very nice man and often comes to our house. If you want to live with this man, we cannot tell you no. You decide.’ Neither did my father or brother say anything. I don’t know if you can believe it, nothing. We were from a different planet.
My mother wasn’t very religious, but she believed. In the meantime the love affair with Leo had grown, and when one of my mother’s friends informed her, you won’t believe what she said to me, ‘We know the family. Leo is a very nice man and often comes to our house. If you want to live with this man, we cannot tell you no. You decide.’ Neither did my father or brother say anything. I don’t know if you can believe it, nothing. We were from a different planet.
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Interview
Eugenia Abravenel