Ilona Seifert's mother Iren Riemer

This is my mother in a photo taken in Budapest in the 1920s. Mother was born in 1897 in Budapest. She married my father in 1917. My sister was born a year later, in 1918, and I followed in 1921. Mother helped my father in his soda water workshop, and my sister and I were looked after by our ?Fräulein, Herta, who came to us from Graz, Austria, not long after my birth. Herta spent eight years with us, and our first language was German. We passed the whole day with our ?Fräulein? talking, singing, and playing with dolls. We spent Sundays with our parents. We talked a lot, and when we were a little older, we also went to the movies. I remember going to the Corvin Cinema every Sunday. A movie ticket cost one pengo, and we always sat in the same place. We were taken to theatrical plays that were held Sunday afternoons, and on such occasions our ?Fräulein? accompanied us. My parents also went to the theatre, but not very often. Sometimes, when the weather was nice, we went to Lake Balaton, but we never spent our summer holidays there.

Photos from this interviewee