A letter received during the Nakba

Last summer, through a series of coincidences and connections, I discovered third-degree cousins from Spain on my paternal grandmother Victorine Zamaria’s side of the family. As it turned out, they too were researching their Zamaria ancestors from Jaffa. Our shared curiosity brought us together, and we formed a WhatsApp group where we exchanged old pictures, documents, and family history.

One of the most moving pieces I received during this process was a letter shared by my cousin, Pablo Rosetti. It was a letter his grandparents, Louis Zamaria and Loulou Pappas, received after fleeing Jaffa to Alexandria in early 1948. The letter writer’s identity remains uncertain, though a note in green ink along the left margin of the second page suggests it could have been “Jacques Auet, the bank director.” Sent from Jaffa on April 1, 1948—just weeks before the city fell to heavy bombardments and was ethnically cleansed of nearly all its inhabitants. Pablo kindly allowed me to share it here (see below).

This letter holds profound meaning for several reasons. First, it mentions many members of the Berouti family: Edouard Berouti; his daughter Hélène, who was then just a toddler; Rita Zamaria, Tony Berouti’s wife, who was pregnant with Nadine; and possibly Marcelle Roch, Jean Berouti’s wife. The Zamarias and Beroutis not only moved in close social circles but were also family, so it’s unsurprising to see their names appear together in the same letter.

Second, to my knowledge, letters written during the Nakba and preserved through generations are rare. It is one of the very few I have come across, which makes it all the more valuable.

Third, with most of the Beroutis who lived through the Nakba now gone, this letter is as close as we may ever come to hearing firsthand what Jaffa looked and felt like in those final, fateful weeks. Despite its dry humour throughout, It captures in real time the exodus of its people, the growing sense of dread, and, above all, that ominous realization that the Jaffa they knew and loved would soon be transformed beyond recognition, perhaps forever.

Page 1. Credit: The Zamaria-Pappas Family

Page 2. Credit: The Zamaria-Pappas Family