When I was a young granddaughter, grandma would always tell us that she had another girls who died/ was kidnapped/ disappeared. And when we grew up, we grandchildren started asking our parents about this girl that grandma always talked about, and slowly we understood that her fate was unknown--this lost girl grandma dreams of meeting. As I got older, during Ulpana [religious-Zionist high-school for women] I began hearing more stories of incidents just like grandma's.

And again, as I entered the gates of academia for undergraduate education, a friend told me about a boy who was abducted from her grandmother during birth.... Slowly, the pictures becomes clear, and I understand that a historic injustice was done here, during the establishment of the state.

My maternal grandmother and grandfather moved to Israel in 1949 from Djerba, a city near Tunis. They came on a Jewish Agency ship named "Theodor Herzl." There, on the ship, they celebrated the Passover Seder. When they arrived in Israel, they were moved to a transit camp named "Sha'ar HaAliyah" in Haifa, then to Beit Lid [transit camp], to Yaven’el, to Moshav Alma, from there to Be'er Ya'akov, and finally they moved to Moshav Berachya in the south, near Ashkelon.

My grandfather z''l was one of the pioneers who built the Moshav and worked in agriculture. My grandfather Avraham Madar was a Sofer [Jewish scribe], a Shochet [a Jewish butcher] and a scribe of Mezuzahs, T'filin, and Torah scrolls.

My grandparents lived in Moshav Berachya until 1967. A month before the Six Day War they moved to Be'er-Sheva.

In 1957 my grandmother went to Kaplan hospital for her fifth birth. She arrived at the hospital with my grandfather z''l. When she gave birth, they took the female baby, and when she asked the nurses where they're taking her, they told her that she was very sick.

My grandfather Avraham was very innocent and humble, and he didn't know how to manage with the bureaucracy. When they were about to leave the hospital empty handed, my grandfather asked, where's the girl? And he was told that she died.

Until today, they haven't been provided with a death certificate or any document at all. My grandfather asked to bury the girl. He was told they had already buried her. A few days ago I visited my grandmother's, and asked her to recount the story of the lost girl. I explained to her that testimonies are now being collected from many families that lived through exactly what she experienced, and I asked her permission to video-record her story in a few words.

My grandmother isn't healthy these days, and she's paralyzed with a wheelchair, and lives with a dedicated foreign caretaker who helps her. She has a hard time remembering things from the past, and she struggled very much and was excited to tell me [the story].

Before filming, my grandmother was very emotionally distraught. She cried and had a hard time recalling this difficult event in which her daughter was taken from her immediately after birth.

As her granddaughter, I of course tried to comfort her, that maybe thanks to this short video we will find her daughter. I hugged her and helped her calm down.

I am full of hope that this broad collecting of testimonies will amend the terrible injustice that happened in this country.

I am deeply grateful towards the people working towards this important goal.

Good tidings.

Hila Ben-Gigi