La familia de Victoria (Spanish and English mixed)

En la foto Victoria, una tía abuela de mi mujer con su familia inmediata, antes de cumplir 18 años. La foto esconde un secreto que desvelé ayer.

En la foto se va una niña sentada con mirada triste. Por incongruente que sea calza zapatos con taco alto. Se trata de Victoria Jakimian, a quien la familia casó con Yosef Vasfi cuando tenía 13 - 14 años. La nena a su lado es una de sus hijas, no esta claro cual, pero yo tengo mis suposiciones que discutiré mas adelante.

Yosef viste el uniforme de los empleados de la compañía inglesa Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) que extraía petróleo en el golfo pérsico. Yosef era como veinte años mayor que Victoria. El caballero sentado es Mordechai, el padre de Yosef. Viste la ropa típica de aquellos días en aquellos lugares, antes de la segunda guerra mundial: galabia, con un saco europeo y fez (en árabe lo llaman tarbush).

La foto fue tomada en Abadan, a orillas del golfo pérsico. Victoria era la hermana mayor de Matilda, la madre de Liora, a quien perdí hace seis años.

La familia llegó a Abadan escapando de Basora en Irak, donde habían vivido de antes de que el persa Ciro el grande conquistara Babilonia en el año 639 antes de Cristo. O sea antes de que Persia conquistara la Mesopotamia, antes del nacimiento de Alejandro Magno, Julio Cesar, etc., incluyendo a Mahoma. Igual sufrieron el ser una minoría hasta que escaparon en 1950 al nuevo Estado de Israel. Los hijos de Victoria son parte integral del Estado y pese a todas las vicisitudes vividas nunca se consideran "refugiados".

A Dan, uno de los nietos de Victoria le gusta la fotografía y vive en California. Le escribí preguntando detalles. A continuación su respuesta.

 

 Hi Reuben, thanks for sharing this. I know this photo. From left to right, the “adults” are Victoria, Yosef, and Yosef’s father, Mordechai. My mother thinks the child is her sister Parvin, who died in an accidental drowning when she was very young. However, the girl may be Margalit. Actually, maybe it is Margalit who thinks it is Parvin, and my mother thinks it is Margalit. That difference of opinion would make more sense. I know I have looked at it with both. It was taken in Abadan. Given the child's age, I think it was taken in the mid-1930s. The uniform Yosef is wearing apparently is the uniform of a bureaucrat in the Anglo-Iranian oil company. The most notable thing about the photo, though, is Victoria’s age. The photo makes it impossible to deny that she became a mother while she was still very much a child.

 Mi respuesta:

I had a good look at the picture, probably better than anyone the last 60 or 70 years. Before that it's probably everyone knew the secret but did not want to discuss the issue.

I write this to you because you love photography at least like me. I don't know if you like history of photo but I resolved to discuss the matter only with you. As you know photography permitted the population to keep an image of those who died. The rich had painters to perpetuate the image (and embellished. Others had only the new medium. I think the girl in the picture is dead. You see that Mordechai is sitting on a chair without arm rests. But his right arm is in a position that can only be explained if he is holding the girl from her back. The girl is standing in an awkward position. Her left elbow on her grandfather rises her shoulder. Her right arm on her mother’s lap. Her right foot is inverted as many children do, but this is a special case, because this is a studio picture that take some time to expose, and the position should have changed during the taking of the image, as it is a painful position to hold. Here is the picture of poor Parvin, kept forever with father, grandfather, and mother. This way, at least her image can be perpetuated. But the family escaped to Israel, were the mores were different. The younger sisters of Victoria got married at an older age, with someone they elected. No one took anymore pictures of the dead. Victoria knew this but she "denied knowing who the girl was" because mores changed from Iran to Israel and she felt she couldn’t say the truth. I know from Matilda how she suffered of being married so young, a child raising children, but the pain of the time her daughter died she could occult from the rest of the world.

She had worse reasons to be in permanent pain, but that is another story.

A sacrificed life from the start to the end.

Dan:

I think you may be right. It’s a thought that hadn’t occurred to me but it’s very possible. I thought that this was a long exposure which explains the image quality which is inconsistent with the foot position.

The enhancement didn't reveal much. I also read about the practice of postmortem photography of children and I'm convinced that you're right about what it is showing. In addition to the foot position and Mordechai's hand there are two other indicators. The positions of Parvin's hands and arms are also not a natural position for a long exposure. I think she has been propped up in three places: her right hand is positioned on her mother's lap, her left elbow is on her grandfather's lap, and her grandfather's hand behind her. You can't tell much from the facial expression and the AI that I used to enhance the image is designed to make her expression look more alert. However, her face is bloated and she drowned. The bloated face is consistent with drowning.

 

OK, well here's another mystery. There is a second pair of child's legs behind Parvin's legs...

It's Mordechai's chair leg. There is a symmetric left one on the other side of Mordechai's left leg.

Victoria, as a million Jews hailing from Arab or Moslem countries, not only had to overcome the uprooting from their ancestral homes but also the cultural shock of leaving a very conservative society and move to the modern world. The young were enthusiastic and adapted to the new liberties, imposible in the countries from were they escaped. In this picture you see who is who. I don't have to say who is Victoria and who her mother in this picture taken some time after they arrival to Israel. All of them members of the Jakimian-Vasfi families, circa 1951.

 

About Yosef uniform: In some places BP says that her employees didn't have a uniform. But I find in the Net a picture showing an employee with the same attire as the one of Yosef Vasfi.

You can see that at:   https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/employees-of-the-anglo-iranian-oil-company-seen-here-news-photo/599288346?adppopup=true