Life and family in Baghdad

I was born in 1949 in Baghdad. My name was Khudur Basson - named after my grandfather Khdurie. My father’s name was Salim and my mother was Mariam. My father was a journalist, considered to be left-wing. When the smear campaign happened in 1951, he didn’t leave. All his family - his mother, his siblings, his grandparents - they all left in 1951 or 1950. On my mother’s side also, her nephews and nieces also left. Her family was smaller than my father’s. And we stayed on our own (in Iraq) - my father, my mother and I. I was a year and a half old when the whole family left. I have an uncle who also remained in Israel - sorry, he stayed in Iraq. And we didn’t have any contact with them from 1951, 1950 - we lost all contact with them. We didn’t have any family abroad, in another place…that could become the communication between us. I studied at a Jewish school, of our community, Frank Eini. I finished primary school and […] and the same applies - I continued…I finished high school at Shamash, Shamash school, which was the same building. When I started I didn’t speak the Jewish dialect - I spoke the Muslim dialect. We had Muslim friends - I’ll tell you their story too. My father, in 1948, before I was born, a month after he was married, he wrote articles against the government, (because) he was a journalist. And the government took him and sent him to Badra, which was a small city or small town on the Iraqi-Iranian border. He was kept away for a period of on year. There, he had to come to register at the police station every day (to confirm) that he was present. After a few weeks, a police manager named Madhat al-Aani came and a friendship was formed with my father (and him). From that time on, he (my dad) didn’t have to come to register (himself) anymore. My mother also came to Badra and she…he adopted her, she became like his daughter. A year or year and a half later, dad came back to Baghdad. They also came back to Baghdad and bought the house neighbouring us. That’s how our friendship was with them. So I was always at their place when I was young. So I learned to speak the Muslim dialect - I mean, in the Iraqi Muslim dialect, not the Jewish Iraqi dialect. And when I went to our Jewish school, some of them thought I was Muslim and not Jewish. With the years we started speaking the Jewish dialect. But most of the time I spoke the Muslim dialect. So even…not like a Jewish Jew…a bit different.