Because the neighbor wanted to report that I was emitting signals – we had to make dark in the evening – for the Datas. Data corresponds to the present MiG aircrafts. But those are small fast aircrafts, they run here and there. And that I’m emitting signals for Data aircrafts. He sent word. He threatened me. But then he got a message, he didn’t know from where, he only knew that he got a report from the Securitate, that he ought to shut his mouth, because he might be hanged. Otherwise they would have finished me, or until I would have got to the captain, they would have hanged me already. But when I told him, he said: ‘You shouldn’t mind about it!’ He always said: ‘Stay calm!’ But anyway, he left off speaking after a while, since a note was put out: ‘No entrance here without permission!’ So he protected me somehow.
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Bella Steinmetz
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In short he was an infiltrator against Horthy, that is against the Germans, but I wouldn’t believe that in those times.
At first I was distrustful, because he invited me in many times in the evenings to listen to the radio, because I was forbidden to have a radio. A Jew couldn’t have one. Either you handed it over, either you sold it, or threw it away, or you gave it to somebody. We weren’t allowed to own radios. Well, we must not have learnt the news! We couldn’t have a bicycle or typewriter, I won’t mention radios.
In 1942 they put in requisition two of my rooms, and gave them to a Hungarian royal captain. The captain was the son of an extremely rich landowner, it was war, so they called him up. He had an estate of five thousand Hungarian acres. That is he wasn’t a professional soldier, but he had to do the army service, and they called him up on the basis of his age. He could certify that he had bronchial asthma, he was delegated here in a separate car, so they got in requisition, he had two rooms at my house. He behaved very correctly, he introduced himself gentlemanly, he sent in his visiting card, and asked if I could receive him, he would like to pay a visit to me. I answered I would be glad to receive him. He entered like a gentleman, I offered him a glass of liqueur, cakes, he thanked me, we talked a little. He tells me: ‘Don’t worry, as far as possible, I will be able to protect you from everything. You won’t be bothered ever.
In 1942 I didn’t dare to go to Pest anymore. Then miseries came. My mother lived in Toplica with my brother. He was taken as well in 1942 to Ukraine, for work service. My husband was taken too in ’42. Unfortunately [we were together] only from 1931 until 1942… I said then: ‘Mammy, come here definitively, because I don’t know what will come. It makes no sense that you stay there alone, and I stay here alone.’ She, in her large apartment, me with my five rooms.
In 1940 my husband didn’t get paid from the Bar. Only the Jewish lawyers [didn’t get paid]. Then they obliged him to accept a Christian lawyer partner. But he had no means. He couldn’t deal anymore, they weren’t allowed to. That would be bread and butter for a lawyer. They behaved badly, because there were a lot of lawyers here, 90 percent of them were Hungarians of course. And none of them offered him to solve at least the current cases. None of them. No. And a Romanian lawyer turned up, who didn’t care much of his office, he was a landowner. It was written: dr. Micu. He paid my husband well. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had a little reserve. He had a more normal way of thinking, respectively he was considerate. And he didn’t support much the Hungarians because of their behavior. Maybe three or four of the lawyers were Romanians. Maybe… But the Romanian wasn’t kicked out from the association. My husband had to pay a certain percentage after his work.
Before the war all kind of music was played one after the other at balls. In the evening, at the beginning there was a short performance, let’s say until eleven, then the ball started, the dance started. The czardas dances were towards the morning, after five o’clock. People used to joke: ‘Well, Mrs. Almasi has swept again the hall.’ Since I was always the last one to leave the hall. Oh, I danced so much… I got used to, as I frequented clubs that people would gaze at me. Sometimes I liked it as well that people stared at me.
In Marosvasarhely it [the ball season] started in autumn, and we had a ball almost every week. Every association organized a ball once in a year: we had Bethlen Kata ball, the MSE [organized] the sports ball, then the Lorantffy Zsuzsanna [Women’s Association] ball, that was the Hungarian women’s society, four or five balls were kept each year. The Jewish Women’s Society [the WIZO] organized a ball once in a year in the Palace of Culture. One could go to a ball with invitation, and the snack-bar was always supported by the respective association: drinks, meals, meat. The snack-bar was very well provided, and this produced quite a lot of money. One wanted to surpass the other, well, all of them wanted a more and more beautiful ball. So that I had my specialty as well [at the ball of the Jewish Women’s Society], cake a la Almasi. For me it was the simplest thing to prepare. It was a simple cake, but of course I put whipped cream on it, and all kinds of colored, green, red, violet little jelly on the top. I chopped up almond and hazel-nut, and the top was sprinkled. It looked so nice, like a flower garden. And that was all with the cake. People always looked for it, for Mrs. Almasi’s cake. We had discussed that five of us would bring cakes, three, four, five would bring meat dishes, men drinks. We also prepared fine punches.
Romania
As we come from the Kossuth Lajos street towards the center, after the Labashaz there is a big multi-storied house, the Hungarian Casino used to be there, it has a vaulted gate. The Jewish Club was in the Main Square, now there is a hairdresser under it, a grocery, and I don’t know how many shops. A big house. The balls weren’t organized there. In the Tipografiei street, where the cinema is today, there was a large hall, which belonged to the Jews. The Jewish balls were organized there.
Romania
There was a Jewish Club here, some people went out there. There was a separate Hungarian Casino as well. Jewish Club and Hungarian Casino – these were their official names. I think it [the casino] too had Jewish members. As far as I know the Retis also frequented the Hungarian Casino. But whoever frequented the Hungarian Casino, wasn’t member of the Jewish Club. One could play cards in the Club, there was a lecture room with periodicals and music. It had a separate small room, a small kosher restaurant, so one could have there for dinner something simple. The small restaurant didn’t have a name. However the main emphasis was on cards.
Romania
The boys had an organization, the girls didn’t. I wasn’t member of the WIZO when I was a girl, only as a married woman. We gathered so that we organized game of cards in the after-noon. It seems we didn’t like to chat a lot. We chattered half an hour, that was it, it was enough. Playing cards seemed to engage our interest more, and it attracted people. I was a great card-player before the war already. Of course not with millions, but according to my pocket. There were WIZO evenings, the gains went for the WIZO, so I gave to the WIZO what I gained. Whoever had a proper apartment and money, organized such parties four times in one year. I had five rooms, and my dining-room was large, so I could organize it. If I opened the hall, the dining-room and the hall were so big together as a chamber. I organized about four parties, and my girlfriend organized as well. It meant that four times four, sixteen people [were invited]. I provided them with teacakes, coffee – I don’t’ know whether it was coffee or tea –, so with something modest, not gateau and things like that, just something to serve the purpose, so that sixteen persons would gather. The gain after sixteen persons went for the WIZO.
Romania
It was a nice little box made of tin, and it was placed in every house in a visible place, and everyone who wanted dropped into it. Someone always came to empty it, and they collected it in a specific place, but I have no idea where. The centre was in Bucharest. The initiator of all this was Tivadar Hertzl, not on a religious basis, but on national basis. We had such a box in our apartment too. My mother-in-law didn’t have one. There was no need for a special occasion or whatever, I just came home, I had a lot of coins, and I just put them in the box. Or somebody came to visit me, they saw it, had some change, so they dropped them in it. That’s how it piled up, and people say those were quite big amounts, that they brought finally to Vienna. They collected the money from the country first in Bucharest, then sent it to Vienna. I don’t know anymore how often they emptied the boxes.
Romania
I never belonged to any organization. I did only sports, I had only that membership [at the Sports Club]. I got involved in charity activities as a woman, of course. I was a WIZO member. The WIZO’s activity consisted in gathering money for the establishment of Israel; there was a little money-box in every Jewish house. I don’t know if they had a name.
Romania
I never picked up breadcrumbs before Passover, I never organized Pesach [separately]. At Pesach we always went to mammy, until my parents, more precisely my father was alive. After my father died, we had nobody to lead that ceremony. Here [in Marosvasarhely] was a Jewish Club in the main square, it organized Passover for 8 days, and we took lunch there for those 8 days. They laid the table up on the first floor, there was somebody who told the tale [Editor’s note: That is he read out the Haggadah], as a symbol. The stealing of the afikoman was ignored, it can be hid only within the family.
I had some lard in my house, because I liked bread with lard, but I took care not to mix it [with goose fat], because my parents ate at me and my parents-in-law ate at me – so I took a great care to this. They were kosher, but even my father wouldn’t have eaten at me, if he knew. He arranged in a way to eat it [treyf meals] out, so that we didn’t find out. He worked on Sundays, but we accepted that we had to have something to live of. We brought home many times a little piece of ham, but we had a tin plate, and we ate it half from the paper, half from that plate, in the kitchen, where we would never have eaten otherwise. My husband didn’t know for a long time that I was eating bread with lard.
Romania
I went to competitions sometimes, but my husband wouldn’t let me. I participated in competitions in Gyergyoszentmiklos, in Csikszereda, the farthest place I reached was Kolozsvar, my husband agreed to it at last. However I could see he wasn’t pleased with it at all, and I quitted. Bad times came as well, and I didn’t feel like competing. I was happy to be willing [to play tennis], because from 1942 I was no longer in the mood for it, because they took my husband. My past ended in all means.
It had different sections: bowling, tennis section, I don’t know what else. And they told me: ‘Come, play here.’ Two Christians came with me out of solidarity. They quitted the MSE and came with me. I would have had anyway a partner at the Muresul. I was welcomed, because there weren’t many members. I suppose the MSE had more members. It was sponsored by the Hungarian Casino as well.
There wasn’t any difference [between people] until 1940. Then a law was introduced, that I couldn’t be [a member], because I was a Jew. In the meantime three tennis courts were made in the ‘Liget’ [the City Park], there was a club called Muresul.
Here [in Marosvasarhely] I was the member of the MSE for 11 years, until they kicked me out. The MSE is the Sports Club of Marosvasarhely. Whoever wanted to play tennis, frequented the sports club. One could find there Romanians, Hungarians, Jews. But Jews were just a few. There were just two of us, Mrs. Reti and me, the poor Mrs. Almasi.
First I didn’t have a racket, but my brother had, or I asked from somebody. While they were sitting, I played with the ball-boys. I was skilful, and when I got 14, the grown-ups played with me as well. I always played tennis, as a wife too.
It was typical for my husband how he adored me and loved me, for example he didn’t even know how much dowry I had. My father told me that the money was deposited in the bank, and we could buy the house, whichever we’d like to. I didn’t ask either: dad, how much did you deposit? After two months my father asks me, ‘How’s that, you still didn’t find a house? You pay, you live in a rented apartment!’ Then he said very modestly [she laughs] ‘Dad, in fact, to be honest, I don’t know how many available funds we have for that.’ I didn’t ask it either. So he told us the amount, and we went then [to buy a house]. Briefly my husband was a very modest man.
My husband had an advantage, he spoke Romanian perfectly, and sometimes he helped the elder lawyers, he translated as well. We had society due to him, the friends invited us for cordiality. I wanted to go to work at the lawyer’s office, or to give piano lessons – I had a diploma in piano as well –, and I could have had students. My husband wouldn’t even hear about it. ‘What do you think? Any client who would come into my lawyer’s office, would say: Why did this fellow get married, if he can’t support a wife?!
My father bought us a house with five-rooms and two bathrooms. It is 500 m far from here, where I live now. If I stretch out my neck well, I can see my house. It was in a small side street, in the continuation of the main square. It was furnished. My uncle furnished it. And he met all the expenses of my wedding.
I don’t have a photo of my own wedding dress. They didn’t take any picture. As I was so bored by the wedding, so bored, I could hardly wait its end to get in the car and go home. I wouldn’t have stayed there to take photos of me. Now I’m sorry, because I had a very nice wedding for my first marriage.
Perhaps I never had so much superfluous money, I couldn’t even spend them on myself. I said ‘I need this amount, this is enough.’ I bought my husband a wonderful modern golden Doxa watch in Budapest, in the Vaci Street, with the money my uncle had given me. It cost a huge amount. I showed it to my uncle: ‘Look what I bought to Bandi!’ He was tearing his hair. ‘Why didn’t you tell me your money wasn’t enough, that you wanted to buy this? I would have given you more money.’ I told him: ‘I didn’t need anything else to buy myself.’ I could have bought shoes, underwear, dresses, fur-coat, but no: ‘It’s enough for me, I have everything, and I’m elegant enough!
It’s not about miserliness, but sparing, I had that in my veins, that money should be spread out, because we always lived on fixed money, fixed salary, I learnt sparing at home.
I don’t know the name of my husband’s mother, she was from Makfalva [today Ghindari]. She wore a wig. They were very religious. They weren’t delighted about his marrying me, because I had a certain reputation, since I was dancing until the end at every ball. I had a bad reputation in the sense that I was demanding; however I was the daughter of a factory director, who would look down at them surely, because they were simple people from Nyaradszereda.
The grandparents from Beszterce were observant, as observant as my grandfather. But my husband didn’t observe anything. After we got married, he only escorted me to the synagogue, and after it was over, he waited me outside at the gate, to go home together.
Actually he dared to tell my parents in the last minute that he wanted to marry me. As a student he didn’t dare even to open his mouth, though my parents saw well that we were dating. But they weren’t against him, because he was a very nice person. And he earned enough money to live on in the first month already.
The office was open and then we had the wedding in 1931.