Shimshon Gobezie Tsegahun

Father's name: Tsegahun Baron

Mother's name: Sabahet

Year of birth: 1932

Place of birth: Agrejaya, Azazo, Gondar

Region in Ethiopia: Gondar

Main occupation in Ethiopia: Teacher

The language of the interview: Amharic

Shimshon Gobezie Tsegahun, shepherd, childhood, reading, writing, pupil, teacher, school, ORT, fire, police, prison, agriculture, ploughing, army, city, village, Italians, Emperor Haile Selassie, Derg, Wasaba, Gondar, Ambuber, Teda, Ankover, Geyana, Kusheshil, Asmara, Addis Ababa, district judge, farmers union, court, milking, calves, Kes, tortures, soldiers, walking, escape, Hebrew, math.

Summary of the testimony:

Shimshon describes his family tree. He mentions that, during his childhood, he worked in shepherding and milking. He also talks about the relationship with the Christians of the neighboring villages, which was a transactional one: Christians would come and buy clothes, iron and clay vessels from his family, but they never entered each other’s houses.

Shimshon talks at length about the war against Italian rule in Ethiopia and the changes that transpired upon Emperor Haile Selassie’s return to power.

At the age of twelve, he was sent to study in a village called Kusheshil. Shimshon describes the process and methodology of his studies. He returned home and worked as a farmer until the age of 17. During his time in the village, he was upset that he could not study. He tried to run away to Addis Ababa with two other friends, but their attempt was unsuccessful. When he was 17 years old, he and his friends ran away again, this time to Asmara, with the goal of studying in the school that had been established there. When a boarding school was opened in the village of Wasaba, he moved there and continued his studies, which were interrupted once against when the school was burned down by local Christians. A new school was opened in its place in the Jewish village of Ambover, where Shimshon continued his studies. As a top student, he was appointed as a teacher for students from first grade to fourth grade. He married and his first daughter was born.

After teaching for five years in the school in Ambover, he was sent to teach in a village named Geyana, where he taught for four years. He was then sent to teach in the village of Ankober for another four years. After eight years of only seeing his family on weekends, he went to teach in a village named Teda, adjacent to Ambover. He taught for two years in Teda and was then asked to come back and teach in the school in Ambover.

Shimshon taught in Ambover for twenty years, until the Derg regime, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, came to power. The new regime put an end to the activity of the ORT schools in Ethiopia. Shimshon was arrested by soldiers and sent to prison for teaching Hebrew. He describes the period of his imprisonment, the torture he endured, and how he became the prisoners’ work supervisor.

After his release Shimshon, refused to teach under the new regime and went back to working as a farmer. A short time later, he was chosen to serve as a district judge in the farmers’ union. He relates that, as part of his role, he resolved disputes relating to theft, killing of cattle, and land. When he was promoted to the position of appeals defense representative in the large court in the city of Gondar, he and his family decided to escape to Addis Ababa and to immigrate from there to Israel.