Chaimas arrived in Palestine on the 28th of July 1938, after finishing his medical and music studies in Bologna. It was the start of a whole new chapter in his life as he joined his mother and brother in Tel-Aviv. The situation for the Jews in Europe was getting worse and being in Palestine seemed, at that time, as a safe haven for Jewish immigrants. The fact that Chaimas could speak and write fluent Hebrew due to his Hebrew studies in Vilinius and Kaunas was an important advantage for him to integrate in his new homeland.

When Chava and Leonas (Arie) arrived to Palestine in 1935, they initially lived in an apartment on 46 Yona Hanavie street in Tel Aviv. In May 1936, Chava bought an apartment building on 54 Merkaz Mischari street, using the money she received from selling the coin shop in Kaunas. Buying this building was very important for the family as it became their main source of income for many years through renting apartments in the building.

The exact address of the building Chava Kobrinas lived in, found in the Tel-Aviv archives, Israel.

In 1939 Binyamin Weinstein, the good friend of Chaimas from the university of Bologna, also arrived in Palestine after graduating. On that occasion he introduced Chaimas to his family (the Weinsteins) who lived in Tel Aviv since 1936, including his sister Malka Weinstein. This introduction resulted in the marriage of Chaimas and Malka.

We always thought that Chaimas and Malka got married in September 1939. But based on a letter we discovered in “the other box” written by Malka to Chaimas, we found out that in fact Chaimas and Malka got married a year later on September 1940. Now we know why as in September 1940 Malka was six months pregnant. Gila was born on December 4th 1940 and the family lived in one of the apartments in the building on 54 Merkaz Mischari Street in Tel-Aviv.

Life in Tel-Aviv was quite difficult for the family. In order to earn some money to sustain their life in the city, Chaimas joined a group of musicians and played the violin in cafes along the Tel Aviv beach. He could not practice medicine at that time probably because his immigration status was not settled. In the evenings, after arriving home from his job as a musician, he would sit with Malka, count the money earned and plan their next grocery shopping day.

As we continued our search, we discovered letters from October 1944 that Chaimas wrote to the immigration department in Tel Aviv. In a letter dated July 4th, 1944, Chaimas requested his license to practice medicine in Palestine after completing police training and being accepted to the British army. In a letter received from the district police headquarters in Jaffa on the 3rd of October 1944, it indicated that Chaimas completed 6-months of training as a police officer at Citrus House, Tel-Aviv as Supernumerary Constable (policeman) from the 10th of April to the 1st of October 1944 and was discharged upon resignation in order to join the British army on the 2nd of October 1944.

After Chaimas joined the British Brigade, Malka did not give up and continued sending letters to the immigration department. On the 26th of December 1944 she indicated in her letter that Chaimas still did not receive his medical licence from the health department. She emphasised that the immigration department should take care of her husband’s immigration status and his medical license request. In addition, she also mentioned that their Polish and Lithuanian passports were taken away from them by the police authorities and were never returned. Reviewing these letters clearly reveals that Malka was very determined to solve the situation of Chaimas while he was away.

After several months during which many letters were exchanged between Malka and the immigration department, on the 8th of February 1945 the migration request of Chaimas was rejected. Their passports were returned to them and they received a deportation order. On the 2nd of April another formal letter from the migration department indicated that the reason why Chaimas was rejected as an immigrant of Palestine was because he did not completes the 6-months police training. It also indicated that Malka was already registered as an immigrant of Palestine as of the 21st of February 1937. We believe that many more letters were exchanged to clarify the fact that Chaimas did complete his training as a policeman and was serving in the British army as an officer and a physician. As a result, the Inspector General of Jerusalem finally confirmed that Chaimas Kobrinas, who was serving as a Captain and a Physician in the British Army, was officially registered as an immigrant of Palestine on the 16th of May 1946. Thanks to the determination of Malka, he was allowed to return home.

After completing two years of service as an officer and a physician in the Jewish British Birigade in Italy, Chaimas was finally permitted to return home to Palestine. He arrived on June 18th, 1946.

While in the army, Chaimas wrote letters home to his family. From these letters we found out more untold stories which we will reveal in the next chapter.

The search continues…