Sion Bakola

[from a book by JH & JK:]

Sion's daughter Annie Garty tells this story:

When WWII broke out, Sion, my father, was a student of medicine. He was also helping with the family business. He was engaged to Emilia Kabeli, from Janina, and he was active in EAM-the National Resistance Union. During the Italian occupation they lived in Janina. But when the Germans arrived, they sensed the danger and Sion, Emilia and her two brothers Leon (Arie) and David (John) escaped to Athens where they hid in Christian friends' homes. In 1943, Sion, Emilia and her two brothers, and after countless adventures and hazards, fled to Palestine.

Sion Bacola and Emilia Kabeli got married in 1944 in Jerusalem. She was the daughter of Shema (Sabethai) Cabelli and Anna Cohen and was born on the 12th of September 1925. They stayed in Palestine until the end of the war, sharing a small two room apartment in Shunat Ha-Tikva, (a poor neighborhood in Tel Aviv) together with Emilia's brother David Kabeli and a few more married couples or siblings from Janina. Leon, who at that time was only 13 years old, was staying and studying in a Kibbutz. He came to visit them only at weekends. The others worked in factories or in other odd jobs to make a living.

In 1945 Zion and Emilia returned to Greece hoping to find survivors from both the Kabeli and the Bacola families and also to take care of property that had been left there. Their plan was to return to Israel. David and Leon remained in Tel-Aviv and waited for my parents' return. Very little property was found and was sold "for a piece of bread". But the greatest loss of all was the tragic realization that almost all the family members who had been taken to the camps, had perished. None of the Bacolas returned from the death Camps. Emilia’s uncle, Haim Kabelis, and a few of her cousins were the only survivors in my family.

Soon a civil war broke up in Greece and my father was drafted to the Greek army where he was compelled to serve for a number of years. With his release, he started working as a clerk in O.P.A.I.E, (a Jewish organization in Greece) and later, went back to the textile business. Later on, when he moved to Athens, he opened a jewelry store. He never completed his studies.

My brother Ezra (Roulis) Bacola was born in Janina, on the 29th of March, 1947 and I, Annie Bacola was born also there, 4 years later on the 7th of May 1951. My brother, together with 5 other children born to Jewish families in 1947, were the first babies born in Janina after the Holocaust. Over 85% of the community had perished. None of us had grandparents since they had all been murdered in death camps. Some of the couples were survivors who had been married before the war, were taken to the camps with their spouses and children but returned alone. They married again but most gave to the children born from these second marriage the names of the children they had lost in the camps. The community was small and we all behaved as one big family.

In 1948 the State of Israel was born. Reports from John(David) and Leon(Arie) Kabeli about the situation in the newly born State were at first very discouraging. At first there was war against the Arab countries who attacked Israel, and then (early 50's) because a “Tzena”(economy) restrictions due to lack of food and unemployment. Although my parents' original plan had been to go back to Israel and join the Kabeli brothers, one thing led to another, and my parents didn't return to Israel. We stayed in Janina until 1959 and then we moved to Athens. My father became partner of Moise Jacob (Diamantina's husband). Our family kept coming to Israel for short visits during summer vacations to see my uncles John and Leon, who in the mean time, had got married and together started a children's wear business. (John has 3 children all married, and 10 grandchildren - one of them married. Leon has 4 children and 11 grandchildren. They live in Tel Aviv.)

Life goes on and even though the evil world tried to wipe out this family for the eternities, God had other plans.