Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

person... I have never seen him, but both my father and my uncle told this... about him – that he was agreat person and he never cared that they weren’t his own flesh and blood. Because he too had a family,they had killed them all. He... by some chance, he survived. Kerob Madoyan... He gave his surname tomy uncle, like he was his father, his second father... He was Madoyan. My father was Jamjyan, and myuncle was Madoyan, but after [going] to Iran this Jamjyan also changed, we have become Mamikonyans.Among those who went to Kharkov... the majority... they got scattered. Very few relatives were leftthere, most of them were scattered around the world... Moscow, Novorossiysk, Anapa, America, France...various places. We have relatives all around the world, they are all scattered like this, they are very scattered...My father’s aunt and her son... They came to Tiflis.My father, after he graduated from the Mkhitarian... then [he graduated from the] Philosophy Departmentof the University of Rome... He was a philosopher. He spoke thirteen languages... he had very goodcommand of seven of languages - standard language, written and spoken /laughs/ - Russian, Armenian,Turkish, Farsi, French, Italian, Latin... When he got away from Iran ... In Europe... He did some work, heworked in Switzerland... they saw many people... Then, there was the war; so, getting away, they wentto different places. Then, I don’t know how it happened, perhaps his friends decided so, he went to Beirut.They reached Beirut... He worked in Beirut, there was someone who said “I know a good woman, agirl, let me introduce you to each other, you’ll get married”. Then de Gaulle - well, Lebanon was a Frenchcolony then, he came to Beirut, and they were looking to find a person who would speak perfect Frenchso that he could interpret for them... So they took my father. During the banquet... my father was interpreting.My mother... On my maternal side... they too were refugees. My maternal grandfather was from Kars;her mother – that is, my grandmother, was from Ardahan. They also escaped during the deportation.My grandmother... what relatives did she have? She didn’t have anyone. No, no, she had a brother. Sheused to tell, they were two kids who escaped, without parents; they went, got into an orphanage. Well,my grandfather was an orphan too, and then they got married to each other, two orphans from the asylum,yes. In Beirut. They got married, they had children... my grandfather... he was building houses... Accidentally,he fell down the roof, so he died at a young age. Well, by saying young, he wasn’t so young,he was 50. My grandmother had to look after her family... four boys and two girls... It was very difficult...When my grandfather died, my uncle... There was a tobacco factory in Lebanon, he went to this factoryand worked there; thus he managed to look after the family. Later, when they grew up, there was immigrationto Armenia; during the immigration ... in 1946 they applied to come to Armenia. My unclesand my mother insisted, but my father didn’t want to. They were giving some... cards... of two differentcolors... Yellow one was to start getting prepared; red one was to come. My uncles received red cards,whereas ours – my parents - got a yellow one. My mother came to my father and cried, telling that shedidn’t want to stay there, that all her relatives were leaving, that she would be left alone, and what willshe do then. So my father went to the Russian Embassy - he spoke Russian fluently; he went and askedthem... They gave him the red card, telling “OK, you can go”. My uncle was a cab driver in that period.147