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Vlada Rothbart was born in 1925 in Subotica in a quite strange time and in a strange family. I say strange time because it was 7 years after World War I ended. That area was an area where Hungarian was spoken. At the end of World War I Backa [Voivodina] [1] and some other areas became part of Yugoslavia.
Vlada, in the first days of his life, felt double isolation, first because he was Jewish and second because he was Hungarian speaker. He was not only isolated as a Jew but he was not desirable as a person whose mother tongue is Hungarian.
Vlada's family consisted of father Maxim Rothbart [born in 1886] and mother Irena Rothbart [nee Wollner, born in 1919] brother Paja and sister Vera. Allegedly great grandpa came from an Orthodox family.
Vlada's mother [Irene Wollner] was born in Pest [Budapest]. Both, his father and mother, as Vlada remembered, had completed commercial college. They spoke German, Hungarian, Serbian and Yiddish. They dressed conventionally. They married in synagogue. Back then Jews married that way. They didn't want to have a civil marriage. [Editor’s note: Ever since 1895 in Hungary civil marriage has been obligatory and the religious one optional.]
Father Maxim Rothbart was very religious. He would go to the synagogue whenever he could. Mother Irena Rothbart was from Pest, more exactly from Ujpest [2] Father would not even touch anything that was not kosher, but he would bring home ham. ‘Let his wife and kids still eat something nice’. Mother would go to the synagogue, but she was not an orthodox Jew. To the kids she gave food that was not kosher and she has eaten that type of food herself.
Vlada’s mother was much younger then her husband. She was also a real beauty. She didn’t work, but devoted herself to her family and particularly to the kids. Vlada was specially attached to her, among others also because he spent much of the time in his youth with her. With his mother he would go for afternoon walks, mother would take him to the seaside and other picnics and father would always work and didn’t have that much time for the kids and the family.
Mother always dressed nicely, she always had nice silk dresses with decorations and had always nice stylish hairstyle. She always supported the children and kept their side. Vlada’s father in the beginning didn’t like that his son was learning to play the violin, so Vlada hid this from his father, but mother knew all the time he was playing and was hiding it from her husband. Father was, beside other things, very rational, and was hard on spending money. When it was necessary to buy coats for the children, he would always suggest buying for elderly son Paja a new coat and that for the younger son Vlada we should turn the old father’s coat and sew from it. Mother never allowed that and managed to persuade the husband to buy for Vlada as well as for Paja identical new coats.
Vlada’s family belonged to a Neolog [3] community. His father was a member of the executive board of the Jewish Community. It means that he was in charge for religious issues. Vlada’s family had a friend from the Orthodox community, but their friend didn’t wear the traditional Orthodox dresses. Vlada’s family lived at a place where they couldn’t build a sukkah, so at Sukkot he would always go to them to sit for a while in their sukkah.
Vlada, in the first days of his life, felt double isolation, first because he was Jewish and second because he was Hungarian speaker. He was not only isolated as a Jew but he was not desirable as a person whose mother tongue is Hungarian.
Vlada's family consisted of father Maxim Rothbart [born in 1886] and mother Irena Rothbart [nee Wollner, born in 1919] brother Paja and sister Vera. Allegedly great grandpa came from an Orthodox family.
Vlada's mother [Irene Wollner] was born in Pest [Budapest]. Both, his father and mother, as Vlada remembered, had completed commercial college. They spoke German, Hungarian, Serbian and Yiddish. They dressed conventionally. They married in synagogue. Back then Jews married that way. They didn't want to have a civil marriage. [Editor’s note: Ever since 1895 in Hungary civil marriage has been obligatory and the religious one optional.]
Father Maxim Rothbart was very religious. He would go to the synagogue whenever he could. Mother Irena Rothbart was from Pest, more exactly from Ujpest [2] Father would not even touch anything that was not kosher, but he would bring home ham. ‘Let his wife and kids still eat something nice’. Mother would go to the synagogue, but she was not an orthodox Jew. To the kids she gave food that was not kosher and she has eaten that type of food herself.
Vlada’s mother was much younger then her husband. She was also a real beauty. She didn’t work, but devoted herself to her family and particularly to the kids. Vlada was specially attached to her, among others also because he spent much of the time in his youth with her. With his mother he would go for afternoon walks, mother would take him to the seaside and other picnics and father would always work and didn’t have that much time for the kids and the family.
Mother always dressed nicely, she always had nice silk dresses with decorations and had always nice stylish hairstyle. She always supported the children and kept their side. Vlada’s father in the beginning didn’t like that his son was learning to play the violin, so Vlada hid this from his father, but mother knew all the time he was playing and was hiding it from her husband. Father was, beside other things, very rational, and was hard on spending money. When it was necessary to buy coats for the children, he would always suggest buying for elderly son Paja a new coat and that for the younger son Vlada we should turn the old father’s coat and sew from it. Mother never allowed that and managed to persuade the husband to buy for Vlada as well as for Paja identical new coats.
Vlada’s family belonged to a Neolog [3] community. His father was a member of the executive board of the Jewish Community. It means that he was in charge for religious issues. Vlada’s family had a friend from the Orthodox community, but their friend didn’t wear the traditional Orthodox dresses. Vlada’s family lived at a place where they couldn’t build a sukkah, so at Sukkot he would always go to them to sit for a while in their sukkah.
Location
Serbia
Interview
Vladislav Rothbart