Gollar: The early 1970’s were the most beautiful time of my life. Finally to have children!
The children grew up and went to school. Like all of the other Iranian Jews, we sent our children to the international school because we wanted them to have an international education, and acquire English in addition to German.
My father bought a house for each of his daughters, saying: “A father must endow his daughter with a dowry, and this house is the dowry I give you.” He only did it after he was sure their marriage will be a successful one, so our house was bought in 1968.
My mother said: “We’ve decided to distribute our wealth as follows: half to your only brother Parviz, and the other half will be divided between the three sisters.”
We accepted this distribution with willing hearts, because at that time in most Iranian families, the girls did not receive anything except their dowry, and to receive one-sixth of the inheritance was almost unheard of. The house my father bought us was located in a beautiful area in Hamburg, and I started to renovate. We lived on the first floor, and made small apartments out of the other floors, which we rented out.
Two years later we also built a covered swimming pool in the garden, which was also a present from my father. Sasson has always had an affinity for sports. He started to gather all the kids from our community, hired a swimming teacher, and invited everybody for swimming lessons.
Katrin Yaghoubi-Sosnick, Nani’s best friend from childhood, was one of those kids:
The Khakshouris, in their generous spirit, were responsible for every single Persian Jewish kid [in Hamburg] learning how to swim by age 10. I remember the Sunday gatherings at Gollar and Sasson Khakshouri’s pool. Kudel was the name of the instructor that took on this mega task. As a result, we all have had decades of water safety. I mention this anecdote for archival purposes as to how profound the value of community was amongst the Hamburg Iranian Jews. Learning to swim is a survival skill, and one that went beyond their own kids, in this community.
Sasson also became very active in Maccabi, and was a member of the Maccabi basketball team in Hamburg with other friends from the Iranian community.
Eventually, he became president of Maccabi in Germany, and we went to Israel with the children very often. We wanted them to develop a love the country. Sasson always told me we should go live in Israel, but I didn’t want to part with my family. Sasson insisted, and said the later we do it, the more difficult it becomes to immigrate, and he wanted the children to have an Israeli identity. It took too many years for us to finally move to Israel, and by that time our nest was already empty.