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Well then, I got married, I knew this man, as his [first] wife had been my cousin. That’s how it had to happen, it was fate. My husband, Jeno Simonovits – in Jewish they call him Jajni, Jojne – was born in Remete [Palosremete, today Remeti in Romanian] in 1907. He lost his father when he was eight. His mother was left with five children.
He started to work at the age of eight, he was already a wage-earner. He went to shake plum and walnut from the trees, and he got paid for it. Then he became a coachman, he explained me all his life and the things he passed through. He had here [in Sziget] an uncle, who had a perfumery, he saved money there, that’s how he managed to become a ‘szkimbas’ [schimbas in Romanian, substitute], a hussar – ‘szkimbas’, that’s how hussars were called.
[Editor’s note: There weren’t hussars in the Romanian army, Golda Salamon refers to soldiers when she says hussars.] Only that person could become a hussar, who had money. He was orphan, although he was working and saving money, so he had money. My second husband was a hussar too, they were soldiers together [in Nagyvarad], both my first and second husband. All this in the Romanian era [under Romanian rule, after 1920].
My first husband was a very skilled horse-coper, a good merchant, he knew all about animals, cows and horses. Soldiers had to present themselves with their own horse. He joined up with such a beautiful mare, a white one that the colonel told him: ‘I shall ride this horse.
You go to the stable and look for other horse, which one you’d like. But you won’t ride a more beautiful horse than mine. When you’ll get disarmed, you’ll get back your horse.’ It was so splendid, one couldn’t even paint a more beautiful one. As he was an expert, and he knew what he was buying.
He was [a soldier] in Varad, and he told me that one could go to the synagogue with tickets at the autumn festivals, like in the opera, one had to buy a seat.
He started to work at the age of eight, he was already a wage-earner. He went to shake plum and walnut from the trees, and he got paid for it. Then he became a coachman, he explained me all his life and the things he passed through. He had here [in Sziget] an uncle, who had a perfumery, he saved money there, that’s how he managed to become a ‘szkimbas’ [schimbas in Romanian, substitute], a hussar – ‘szkimbas’, that’s how hussars were called.
[Editor’s note: There weren’t hussars in the Romanian army, Golda Salamon refers to soldiers when she says hussars.] Only that person could become a hussar, who had money. He was orphan, although he was working and saving money, so he had money. My second husband was a hussar too, they were soldiers together [in Nagyvarad], both my first and second husband. All this in the Romanian era [under Romanian rule, after 1920].
My first husband was a very skilled horse-coper, a good merchant, he knew all about animals, cows and horses. Soldiers had to present themselves with their own horse. He joined up with such a beautiful mare, a white one that the colonel told him: ‘I shall ride this horse.
You go to the stable and look for other horse, which one you’d like. But you won’t ride a more beautiful horse than mine. When you’ll get disarmed, you’ll get back your horse.’ It was so splendid, one couldn’t even paint a more beautiful one. As he was an expert, and he knew what he was buying.
He was [a soldier] in Varad, and he told me that one could go to the synagogue with tickets at the autumn festivals, like in the opera, one had to buy a seat.
Location
Romania
Interview
Golda Salamon