“I would have been your great-aunt,” Yael continues. “He always said that she was an amazing actress. I was destined to go to Hollywood. But then the war came and she didn't survive."
She did not survive. Only Saba did.
"Szabo was his stage name?" I ask.
"No. Szabo was Saba's last name before immigrating to Israel and he hebrewed it. Many Europeans did that."
To distance myself, I think. I understand that. Although he couldn't really distance himself. All those silent movies he took me to. It kept the ghosts at bay and kept them close.
Olga Szabo, my great-aunt. Sister of my grandfather, Oskar Szabo, who became Oskar Shiloh, father of Yael Shiloh, wife of Bram de Ruiter, brother of Daniel de Ruiter, soon-to-be father of Abraão de Ruiter.
And just like that, my family grows again.
Fi
