My parents, Perwin Sarah and Amir Avieli, immigrated from Iran to Israel in 1950. They lived in Moshav Segula, and were already the parents of two when Yosef was born, on August 29, 1960.

At 5 months of age, Yosef fell ill, probably with the flu. It was a cold winter. He was hospitalized at the nearest hospital, Kaplan. On the last day of hospitalization, he was feeling better. Mom fed him a bottle of milk and wanted to take him home. The lady doctor said she could not release him at that late hour, and began to take an interest in my mother's home situation.

The doctor asked how many children she had and commented that my mother was still young. Mom was naive, and thought the doctor wanted to express her support having realized that Mom arrived by bus, which indicated she had financial difficulties.

The next morning the Moshav office received a phone call informing them that Yosef had died. Mom was in a terrible state. Dad went with his mother, Yosef’s grandmother, to the hospital, where he was told the child had already been buried. It was January 18, 1961.

We did not receive any document since, except for Yosef's birth certificate. Mom's state was getting worse, in fact she did not recover for a long time, because she knew that Yosef had recuperated.

When the story of the Yemenite Children hit the media, we suspected that ours was similar case. We applied to the Ministry of Interior for a death certificate, and received it, but the cause of death was not specified there.

We asked to see the medical file from Kaplan Hospital, but there was no record that Yosef was ever hospitalized there. We also spent a whole day searching for his burial place in the cemeteries in Rehovot, and found nothing.

Testimony: Nurit Magedish, Yosef's sister