Interview with Mrs. Rachil Alkalay

Today is November 13, 2024, Wednesday, the time is 14:24. We are at the Etz Haim Synagogue in Athens. My name is Michalis Daskalakis Giontis and I will be interviewing Mrs. Rachil Alkalay, also known as Lily, about her life, including her experience during the war.

Michalis: First, can you tell us your name?

Rachil: It's Rachil, Lily. Boton is my husband's name and Alkalay is my father's, and Zak is his nickname.

Michalis: What were your parents' full names?

Rachil: Zak Alkalay, Iakovos Alkalay and Esther Alkalay. Her maiden name is Yomtov.

Michalis: Which of the two names did your father use?

Rachil: Zak.

Michalis: Did the neighbors know him as Zak?

Rachil: Zak, yes, very much so.

Michalis: Can you tell us when you were born?

Rachil: In 1939, January 8th.

Michalis: Where were you born?

Rachil: Here in Athens.

Michalis: Where was your father born?

Rachil: In Ioannina.

Michalis: And your mother?

Rachil: Also in Ioannina.

Michalis: Where did they get married?

Rachil: They got married in Athens, if I'm not mistaken.

Michalis: When you were born, how old was your father?

Rachil: [No answer]

Michalis: And your mother?

Rachil: [No answer]

Michalis: Do you have siblings?

Rachil: Yes, one sister.

Michalis: Astro with omega?

Rachil: Astro Matatheia. That's her husband's name.

Michalis: Did she have any other name besides Astro?

Rachil: No.

Michalis: In which area of Athens were you born?

Rachil: At Attikis Square.

Michalis: And how many years did you stay in that place?

Rachil: Until the beginning of the war, until 1943. That is, the persecution.

Michalis: Do you remember anything from your childhood before 1943?

Rachil: I remember the house where we lived.

Michalis: Can you describe the house to us?

Rachil: It was a two-story building and it also had a semi-basement. It was at the corner of Aristomenous and Lysandrou streets, at Attikis Square, exactly very close to the square.

Michalis: Was the entire house yours?

Rachil: It was two-story, yes. The lower floor was rented out.

Michalis: Do you remember describing its rooms to me?

Rachil: A little, yes. There was a central room as soon as you entered. And from there it had various doors that led to the kitchen, to the bedrooms and to the bathroom.

Michalis: Was this on the ground floor?

Rachil: No, on the second floor.

Michalis: And what was on the first floor?

Rachil: I don't remember the first floor at all. It was rented out and I don't remember if it was the same. It might have been exactly the same.

Michalis: Did you use the semi-basement?

Rachil: Yes, for storage.

Michalis: When you were born, what job did your father do?

Rachil: He was a representative. A commercial representative.

Michalis: Your mother?

Rachil: Housework.

Michalis: Do you remember where your father worked?

Rachil: Yes, at Kratinou 11. He had an office on the second, third floor - I don't remember which floor.

Michalis: Did he have partners?

Rachil: He had partners. Mr. Mavroyannis, if I remember correctly.

Michalis: Have you met your grandfather and grandmother?

Rachil: No.

Michalis: Where were they when you were born?

Rachil: In Northern Epirus. They were in Vlora.

Michalis: Did you have many relatives in Vlora?

Rachil: Yes. My mother had a large family.

Michalis: Did your mother have origins from Vlora?

Rachil: After my grandfather was born, he moved to Vlora and opened a commercial store there.

Michalis: And your mother was born in Ioannina?

Rachil: In Ioannina, yes, later.

Michalis: Do you know, have you met any relatives from Vlora?

Rachil: Only in 1989 when the borders opened, only two cousins came - many cousins, some of whom went to Israel. Two cousins stayed here in Athens.

Michalis: And do they still exist?

Rachil: They're still here. One is alive. Actually, both are alive. One is here, another between Miami and Athens.

Michalis: And what are their names?

Rachil: Now, their names - I remember them as Noni, Renos and Nonis. That's how I remember them.

Michalis: When was Astro born?

Rachil: Astro was born in 1928.

Michalis: Can you describe a day at home, at Attikis Square, before 1943?

Rachil: Before 1943... We were a very beloved family. Of course, I was very young then to remember anything. I do remember that we ate in the central room, in the one I told you that all the doors opened to, and that besides my mother, my father was also very involved in the kitchen. He liked it very much.

Michalis: What language did they speak?

Rachil: We also had many beloved neighbors. Some of us were very many at one corner and at the other corner there were two ladies who played piano and with whom we were very connected.

Michalis: And do you remember these ladies from then?

Rachil: I remember them, yes of course.

Michalis: Do you remember their names?

Rachil: Not at all. My sister took piano lessons and she might have remembered them, but she's no longer alive.

Michalis: What was the language you spoke at home?

Rachil: Greek.

Michalis: Did your parents know any other language?

Rachil: Of course, old Hebrew. That is, not Ladino, because Ladino is from others. But my father knew very well. He read all our holidays. He read all the old Hebrew. Everything. Hebrew. And he also spoke French very well of course, because he was a French citizen.

Michalis: Did he go to the army?

Rachil: He had done the French one. He had served in the army. He was 17 years old in the First World War. I must have the... He had received a medal. And I must have both the photograph and the medal. Ah, unless I gave them to the... Maybe my nephew from my sister took them because he has the same name.

Michalis: How did your father have French citizenship?

Rachil: From Ioannina he had... They had come... That is, we searched later because we didn't know either how we found the citizenship. And we searched... He had come from Algeria. And there to save the Jews at some point, they gave them French citizenship. The French.

Michalis: Do you remember where he fought in the First World War?

Rachil: He told us he reached Odessa. He had told us. But he was born in Ioannina.

Michalis: He was born in Ioannina. So he learned French from his parents?

Rachil: Yes because they spoke French in the family. The grandfather or grandmother whom I didn't meet. The grandmother, my sister met her, I didn't.

Michalis: What were the names of your father's parents?

Rachil: Let me remember... Astro it wasn't. It was the name... Maybe Rachil. Maybe, I'm not sure. No, not that either. My mother gave both names from her side. Rachil is my grandmother. My grandmother from my mother's side.

Michalis: Do you remember where your father went to school?

Rachil: He had told us... Alliance us. Maybe the Alliance us. Maybe. I'm not sure.

Michalis: Do you remember any of the holidays at home before '43?

Rachil: I remember that both my parents were very observant. We kept all the holidays to the letter. That is, from the time they left I no longer follow it.

Michalis: Did your family go to the synagogue before '43?

Rachil: Yes of course. Certainly. It was across the street.

Michalis: Do you remember coming to the synagogue before '43?

Rachil: Yes. Very often.

Michalis: Do you remember, let's say, coming for Yom Kippur?

Rachil: Yes, we didn't miss any holidays. My mother and I would go up to the women's section.

Michalis: Would you like to describe a day when many people came to the synagogue? And how do you remember it?

Rachil: I remember that we children who were small, let's say, would go downstairs and play in the courtyard. So I can't tell you many things.

Michalis: How many people would you say came then?

Rachil: Let me tell you, my mother's aunt, my grandmother's sister, lived at the corner, here on Somaton street. So we would go to her house and we would all go together and after we finished we would go to her house again.

Michalis: Do you remember her name?

Rachil: I know that the cousins who would remember her name were my grandmother's sisters and very beloved too because they had been orphaned.

Michalis: Your grandmother Rachil?

Rachil: Yes.

Michalis: Do you remember the name of your mother's father?

Rachil: Yomtov. The nickname. Ah, the father's. Menachem.

Michalis: Menachem. Did you meet these grandfathers?

Rachil: No, never.

Michalis: The grandfathers from your father's side, do you know how they passed away?

Rachil: My grandmother must have been here in Athens. We had her at home for her last years. The grandfather, I have photographs of him, but I don't know when he died and where.

Michalis: We're talking about the Alkalays, right?

Rachil: Yes, yes. Fine.

Michalis: Menachem and Rachil, Yomtov?

Rachil: Both or one, my grandmother that is, died quite young at 72, probably in Vlora. And my grandfather died much later, at 93. From when they were born, though, I don't remember.

Michalis: Do you remember when the grandfather died?

Rachil: My grandmother was 72 years old. I don't remember the dates at all. If I find it written somewhere, maybe.

Michalis: At home you say you kept, observed the holidays?

Rachil: Yes, to the letter.

Michalis: And do you remember observing some holiday before '43 or don't...

Rachil: Always, all the holidays.

Michalis: That is, the Seder?

Rachil: Ah, the Seder, at home, yes.

Michalis: Do you remember doing...

Rachil: Of course, and the whole procedure with the bowls, the ten plagues that we all have. My father was very observant.

Michalis: Before '43?

Rachil: Yes, before '43, of course, always.

Michalis: Did you have visitors then?

Rachil: My aunt and uncle, who were my mother's siblings, who lived in cities, on Veikou 79, we always had them with us.

Michalis: And what were they called...

Rachil: Eftychia and Rikos Silberman was her husband.

Michalis: Rikos...

Rachil: Silberman.

Michalis: Silberman. I don't know where the origin was from.

Michalis: And where was Eftychia Silberman born?

Rachil: She too must have been in Ioannina, because she was younger than my mother. But she must have been born in Ioannina. She was born in 1906.

Michalis: When did you first go to some school, kindergarten...

Rachil: I first went to some kindergarten, which was near the house where... But our house, we never returned to that house after the war. I'll tell you later. We went and stayed for a period with my aunt, because the house was hit by a bomb.

Michalis: Do you remember anything from kindergarten?

Rachil: I remember, what is characteristic, because my parents told me later, is that I didn't want to go at all. I was quite sensitive and I didn't want to go at all. I cried terribly and they had promised me something to get into the... because a bus passed and picked us up and I remember they told me something that... Ah, my father came with me the first day. He got on the bus and came and sat next to the desk so I would take courage and that's how I was finally able to go. I was very young of course.

Michalis: What did you like to do at home at that age?

Rachil: What I liked to do when I was little. We played with dolls. Little houses.

Michalis: Did your father ever speak French?

Rachil: Very little. He sent me to the Institute of course. As soon as there was an Institute on Agiou Meletiou street.

Michalis: After the War?

Rachil: The kindergarten was on Agiou Meletiou street.