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We developed a lot of great friendships during the years we lived in Elmadag. Esti and Mordo Peres, Zelda and Yomtov Behar, and us, 3 families lived in Elmadag. Also Süzi Izak Sarhon and Izi Süzet Levi would come. We would meet every evening. Esti could not sleep at nights, she went to bed late, so she invited us all the time. The place we lived at was called Uftade sokak (street). We would go to the movies. We would have conversations, sing songs, play games, we had a lot of fun. During summers, we would go, again all together, to Caddebostan for years. Later on when Stina grew up, we went to Suadiye for summer. [Two neighborhoods on the Asian side, on the seashore]. We got a nice home, that is to say rented it for summer. The landlady had a son. One day she came home, I wasn’t there, “with the decree of G-d, and the power of the prophet, I want your daughter for my son”. Stina was still 14-15 years old. We stopped going to Suadiye after this and started going to Büyükada [the largest and last one of the Princess islands]. A few years late she married Yusuf Jojo Baruh at the age of 18. On June 1st, 1974. Yusuf has a store about electricity on Bannkalar caddesi(Banks street). She had a daughter named Selin and a son named Ediz. Ediz is 27 years old, Selin is 25.
We had beautiful friendships in Caddebostan where we spent our summers. We would go with them to the sea as well as play games, and dance, we laughed a lot, our days passed wonderfully. I can tell you this, the friendships that I just mentioned with the friends from Elmadag, we never found again. There was such an intimacy that, for example one day, our friend Esti’s son Ceki was sick, they were scared that their other son Moris might catch it, we left our home, Mordo and Ceki went to our house, we went to Esti’s home. All three of us would sleep in the same bed. But I have to go to work in the morning, it is the middle of the night, 3 or 4 a.m., Esti is still talking. That is how we passed the time. We were very very close. This illness lasted for one month. Mordo there, us here. In the choice of friends of course being Jewish was important. But we also had very good Turkish neighbors and friends apart from this. There was one Sara Hanim (Mrs. Sara) and one general colonel. We were so close that the general colonel would come to stay with his relative. He had a bag of documents, he would come and leave his bag at my house, so we could play cards, hide the bag so the guests cannot see it, he would say, he had so much trust in us. I would hide it in the closet. Also we were very close with Sara hanim. We lived in a bungalow in Caddebostan. Sara hanim came to visit us. She used to stay with us. There was a hall at the entrance, we gave her a metal bed, she laid on it. We went to bed inside in the bedroom. Morning came, I have to go to work, I have to go through the hall, I open the door and looked to see if I can get out, I saw Sara hanım has dropped her cover and is lying half naked with her underwear and such, if I open the door and go out, she will wake up and feel bad, so I gently closed the door and left through the window of my bedroom. We had such nice times.
We had beautiful friendships in Caddebostan where we spent our summers. We would go with them to the sea as well as play games, and dance, we laughed a lot, our days passed wonderfully. I can tell you this, the friendships that I just mentioned with the friends from Elmadag, we never found again. There was such an intimacy that, for example one day, our friend Esti’s son Ceki was sick, they were scared that their other son Moris might catch it, we left our home, Mordo and Ceki went to our house, we went to Esti’s home. All three of us would sleep in the same bed. But I have to go to work in the morning, it is the middle of the night, 3 or 4 a.m., Esti is still talking. That is how we passed the time. We were very very close. This illness lasted for one month. Mordo there, us here. In the choice of friends of course being Jewish was important. But we also had very good Turkish neighbors and friends apart from this. There was one Sara Hanim (Mrs. Sara) and one general colonel. We were so close that the general colonel would come to stay with his relative. He had a bag of documents, he would come and leave his bag at my house, so we could play cards, hide the bag so the guests cannot see it, he would say, he had so much trust in us. I would hide it in the closet. Also we were very close with Sara hanim. We lived in a bungalow in Caddebostan. Sara hanim came to visit us. She used to stay with us. There was a hall at the entrance, we gave her a metal bed, she laid on it. We went to bed inside in the bedroom. Morning came, I have to go to work, I have to go through the hall, I open the door and looked to see if I can get out, I saw Sara hanım has dropped her cover and is lying half naked with her underwear and such, if I open the door and go out, she will wake up and feel bad, so I gently closed the door and left through the window of my bedroom. We had such nice times.
Period
Location
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Türkiye
Interview
Jak Rutli