Aster Yitshak

Father's name: Shmuel Shmual

Mother's name: Hebest Aharon

Year of birth: 1962

Place of birth: Gondrosh Mariam, Dembia

Region in Ethiopia: Dembia

Main occupation in Ethiopia: Student

The language of the interview: Amharic

Aster Yitshak, Ankoi Shmuel, housework, shepherding and cattle herding, studies, student, agriculture, construction, milking, pottery, weaving, games, cemetery, the Red Terror, school, letters, ORT, imprisonment, prison, journey, rape, robbery, fire, Derg, Emperor Haile Selassie, Ido, EPRDF, Ihapa, TPLF, Gondrosh Mariam, Dembia, Waglo, Ambuber, Addis Ababa, Sudan, Israel, Metshe, Gondar, Gedaref, Khartoum, France.

Summary of the testimony:

Aster describes her family tree and the village she grew up in, Waglo, as well as the history of the place and its Jewish cemetery. As a child she helped her mother with the housework. Her oldest brother worked the land with her father, while Aster and her nieces shepherded the flock, herded the cattle and guarded the fields from monkeys and other wild animals. Her mother contributed to the family income by selling pottery works and her father by selling weaving works. When she was ten years old, even though she had received many offers of marriage, her parents sent Aster to study. Aster returned home every day after school to help her mother with the various housework tasks and her father milking the cows and building houses. On the sabbath, she would play various games with her nephews and friends.

When the Derg regime deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and took power, it instituted land reforms that enabled Aster’s family to acquire the agricultural land it had worked on until then. Another reform passed was universal mandatory education – for people of all ages. Alongside these positive steps, Aster talks about the “Red Terror” that claimed many casualties, some of them Jews.

Aster studied in the Jewish school in Ambover from first grade until fifth grade and would walk for an hour and a half each way, accompanied by her friends and students of different ages. Her favorite subject was English. She relates that her parents were very proud of her studies. She also describes how she wrote letters to her siblings who had immigrated to Israel in the meantime.

When she started fifth grade, Aster moved to Addis Ababa to live with her sister. Aster describes the differences between the city and the village – in the style of speech, dress and housework.

When she returned to her village, Aster continued her studies but was arrested by the authorities when she and her friends tried to escape to Sudan to immigrate to Israel from there. Esther and nine of her friends were transferred to be imprisoned in the city of Gondar. She describes the harsh conditions of imprisonment and daily life inside the prison walls.

Aster was eventually released from jail and continued her studies in the school in Matse, until the regime stopped the ORT organization’s activity and the school was closed. The regime and the various rebel groups began to fight between them and Aster and her friends hid in the fields to avoid the forced conscription of the Derg regime.

When she saw an opportunity, Esther left with her cousin and joined a group of 52 people who left for Sudan. When they reached Guyana, Aster was robbed and left penniless. She relates that the smuggler “guides” took advantage of their weakness and raped several of the women in the group. They reached Sudan after a week, and after another few days arrived in the “Amra-Kube” refugee camp in the city of Gedaref. They were transferred from there to safe houses in the city. During her stay there, a large fire broke out and burned down the house Aster lived in. After many trials and tribulations, Aster moved to Khartoum and flew from there to Israel via France.