...On the whole, we led a comfortable life in Iraq in the 1960s. By that time the Iraqi Jewish community has dwindled to some 2,500 - 3,000 from the original 150,000. To survive in Iraq, we learned to keep ourselves to ourselves and stayed away from any contentious issues. Throughout the Sixties we tried to keep a semblance of normal life, even though there were many restrictions placed on us. For example, with the exception of a very limited period in 1963, Iraqi Jews were denied passports or an exit visa. Even then, any Iraqi Jew who stayed outside Iraq for more than three months automatically lost their nationality and the Iraqi government confiscated their assets. Since the 1950s, Iraqi Jews were issued with a special yellow identity card to prove that they have not lost their Iraqi nationality. I still have mine to-date...

...I remember that we went to bed on the night of the ruling not knowing what was going to happen and whether the death sentences would be carried out. Little did we realise what was in store for us, because the following day and early morning, the nine innocent Jews were hanged and their bodies put on public display in the main squares of Baghdad and Basra. The Iraqi TV and Radio called on the masses to come out and bring their children to witness the death of the Jewish spies. To this day, I have never forgotten the scenes that I watched on TV of ordinary Iraqis dancing, playing joyful music, having picnics and mutilating the bodies of nine innocents Jews...