According to the data given in the victims’ record,[22] one of the passengers aboard the Struma
 was Sofia Sara Zisman. Thanks to new data that has come to my attention I can now add information from her daughter-in-law Mrs. Alda Mouchly and her son’s childhood friend, Prof. Bernard Sulitzianu.

Sofia Goldstein was born in Roman or Jasi in 1884. After marrying Carol Zisman she moved to his hometown of Barlad before World War I. Zisman was a wealthy man, owner of the largest hardware store in the town. They had two sons, Leon Nashu and Joseph, whose nickname was “Bebe.”

Sofia had a hobby and when she was not helping her husband in the family store she wove giant carpets in a special room in their home fitted for that purpose. An enormous loom stood in that room. She worked for two years on every carpet; when it was completed, she hired a number of farmers to stretch the long threads of the carpets. She made the carpets for the family alone, not for sale. Thus it is not surprising that the house was full of carpets – all of which were lost: Towards the end of World War II, after the Russians captured Romania, in August 1944, they expropriated the house, forcing the family to find other lodgings. Naturally, all of the possessions in the house, and primarily the carpets “were lost.”

In 1931 Carol died of typhus, leaving Sofia a widow. Their son Leon took over the management of the store. His brother Joseph, born in 1920, joined Beitar, the local branch of which was led by Shabbetai Nadiv (Gutenmacher), whose brother Micky was among those who later perished in the Struma.

In 1940 Joseph set sail for Palestine on the Sakarya, legally, carrying a certificate as a student registered to study at the Technion in Haifa. His mother, Sofia, paid his tuition. When he arrived he decided not to start his studies immediately, but to join the Beitar brigade in Rosh Pinah, to which his friend Bernard Sulitzianu belonged. Sulitzianu had arrived in Palestine on the same boat about a half a year earlier. Joseph was unaccustomed to the difficult conditions and the food, and after a few months became ill with an ulcer and had to be hospitalized. When he recovered, he did not return to Rosh Pinah, but went to work in a diamond factory in Netanya.

Joseph’s mother longed for her younger son and decided that since he was a bachelor he needed her more than his married brother did. For that reason she purchased a ticket for passage on the Struma, and sailed to her fate. Lost at sea, along with, her were the deeds of ownership of two plots of land in the Ahuza neighborhood of Haifa she had purchased earlier.

In addition to the tragic loss, Joseph was left penniless in Palestine. He started his studies at the Technion and to support himself played the violin in Haifa coffee houses. After a few months, in July 1942, he volunteered together with his friend Bernard, to serve in the British army, as did hundreds of young Jewish men in Palestine at the time. In their unit, which was part of the Eighth Army, 80 Jewish men from Palestine served. They were stationed in Egypt, near Cairo. According to the testimony of Prof. Sulitzianu they served in the 524 Survey Company, which was a part of the Royal Engineers. Their job was to prepare military maps. Shortly before the Battle of El-Alemein Joseph was sent to a bomb removal course, and he took part for a short time in the battle of El-Alemein, returning afterwards to his unit. Later the unit, together with the Eighth Army, was sent to the Italian front.

After his release in 1946 Joseph went back to his studies at the Technion and completed them in 1948. While a student, he made a living by working for the engineer Jacob Mouchly (Ivri) and the two became good friends. [Jacob Mouchly (b. Jaffa 1885 – d. Zurich, 1960) worked for the Hijaz Railways (and later for the Palestine Railways) from 1910 until 1933. After his retirement from the railways, he was founder and managing director of the Haifa Bay Water Works and in other important positions.] In the War of Independence Joseph was drafted naturally to the engineering corps and served as an officer in a bomb removal unit. Like other officers he was asked to take a Hebrew name. Since the translation of his name to the Hebrew “Metuki” would mean “my sweet”, he looked for another name. Taking the advice of his engineer friend Mouchly, whose Hebrew name meant “my ruler,” he adopted that name for himself. (Mouchly’s widow, Alda, says that the choice was a tribute to his deep friendship towards the Mouchlys and their children, but there was no family relationship between them. Their son Theodore, a mechanical engineer was born in Damascus 1915. He studied at the University of London and served as an engineer in the British army. Their daughter Ruth married the engineer Aryeh Glicksman.)

As a consequence of his dangerous military occupation Joseph’s hand was injured in the War of Independence (1948) and he underwent a number of operations.

In 1959 his older brother Leon immigrated to Israel along with his family. He brought with him a framed embroidery made by their mother Sofia or her sister. This item is the only remnant of the skill the sisters developed long before in their family home. Joseph died in 1984.

Bernard Sulitzianu later became a professor at the Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (For his testimony see Appendix 3 below. For Alda Mouchly’s testimony see Appendix 2 below.)