Selected text
Before the war I was engaged. A Jewish teacher, Simon Spitzer, the son of a rabbi from Tapolca, was my betrothed. He was a soldier there in Zalaegerszeg and asked me to marry him.
My parents proposed him – I didn’t really want him, but at that time, things used to happen as the parents wished. He couldn’t establish himself as a teacher, and then he came up here to Budapest as an adult re-trainee at a technical school, as a turner, I think.
He couldn’t come to Zalaegerszeg very often. When he did come, my mother made strudel. And once his parents invited me to Tapolca. There was this charming rabbi, and his wife, Jutka, was even more charming. Well, I went there all done up: Gloves crocheted by my grandmother, hat made in the biggest salon.
They were very impressed; I looked like a dame from the capital. When they entrained him [took him to forced labor] he ran over from the railway to say goodbye to me. But when I got back [from the concentration camp] he had already gotten married.
I wrote him another letter, and I didn’t receive a reply. And once I received an answer, telling me not to keep on writing, because he was married – his sister wrote that. He couldn’t wait for me. You can imagine it. I met him once more.
My parents proposed him – I didn’t really want him, but at that time, things used to happen as the parents wished. He couldn’t establish himself as a teacher, and then he came up here to Budapest as an adult re-trainee at a technical school, as a turner, I think.
He couldn’t come to Zalaegerszeg very often. When he did come, my mother made strudel. And once his parents invited me to Tapolca. There was this charming rabbi, and his wife, Jutka, was even more charming. Well, I went there all done up: Gloves crocheted by my grandmother, hat made in the biggest salon.
They were very impressed; I looked like a dame from the capital. When they entrained him [took him to forced labor] he ran over from the railway to say goodbye to me. But when I got back [from the concentration camp] he had already gotten married.
I wrote him another letter, and I didn’t receive a reply. And once I received an answer, telling me not to keep on writing, because he was married – his sister wrote that. He couldn’t wait for me. You can imagine it. I met him once more.
Location
Hungary
Interview
Jozsefne Marta Feher