My parents immigrated from Germany in 1937. My father was a student at the end of his study. He studied mechanical engineering at the Institude of technology in Breslau. Being a student at a German university in those days, made him understand and feel , that the Nazi regime is not just an unimportant passing episode.

He was a member of the Hechalutz organization, and decided to leave Germany with my mother .A year later his parents arrived and they all settled in the agricultural settlement Nahariyya , which was established in 1935 by Jews from Germany. My uncle who was nominated as the first school principle was already Building his house in Nahariyya. They joined him.

I was born in Haifa at the Molada hospital. There was no hospital in Nahariyya and it's surrounding. On our house was a firing position, it was occupied at night by guards. After I was born one of the guards got the news by the field telephone. And he screamed through the window : Neumann you have a daughter Mazal- tov.

On the 29th of November the famous voting took place at the U.N. center .Nahariyya was not included in the borders of the Jewish state. In March 1948 was the western Galilee cut off the country. Nahariyya was on complete boycott. I remember that the matzot were brought on a raft which was called Mauna. This Passover there was no need to put the matzot into salty water it was all done in advance on the boat.

Another peace of history is about the convoy to the besieged Kibbutz Yechiam. I remember this Saturday on the 27th of March when the armoured cars were waiting in the Gaaton avenue to go to their mission. Boys at my age were climbing happily on the cars. A few hours after the convoy had left the village we heard the explosions and shooting from the area near Kabri .on the next day all the settlers knew that 47 soldiers lost their lives on a heavy fighting near the Arab cemetery at Kbrita.

In the midst of the grief and sorrow, I remember the celebrations on the day of the proclamation of independence of our new state.

People were dancing in the streets all night The reason for the joy and happiness in Nahariya was redoubled: first the establishment of our state, second because Nahariya was included in the new borders.

The joyful days didn’t last long. On the 26th of May 1948, in the early afternoon , our small village was bombed by an enemy aircraft. One of the bombs hit a building parallel to Penguin .In this building were shops, a Kiosk and a barber’s shop. The building collapsed, and 5 people were killed, among them 2 kids, one of them my 31/2 year old brother. This tragic event I’ll never forget, it had a lot of influence on my life. My mother who was close to him was hardly physically injured, but was of course mentally hurt, full of guilt feelings for the rest of her life. She couldn’t forgive herself going with my brother to cut his hair on that

Very day.

In the independence war 6100 lost their life. it was 1% of the population which was about 600000.

In my class were 4 pupils who lost close relatives. Bereavement was really a part of the collective being. yet we didn’t sink into depression. We grew up in a beautiful small village as healthy and optimistic children believing in a good future to come.

Miriam Sela ( Neumann)