Jeno Szabados

This is Jeno Szabados, my oldest brother. This was taken in 1942 in Budapest. Jeno was born in Ilk in 1907. He went to school in Vasarosnameny, just as I and Erno, my other older brother did, and there he learned tailoring and sewing. Both of them took this road. All three of us did the same thing. As an apprentice in Vasarosnameny, he learned the same trade as our father. Jeno went to Pest in 1930 and opened a tailorshop on Baross street. Nobody had ever left Ilk. Ilk was a backward village, and they cursed him for leaving. He was the family's benefactor. He was a very smart man. Everything went well for him, for a while he even sent money home. As soon as Erno and I had finished our apprenticeships, there was money waiting at the post office for our train tickets. We joined up with him and worked together as brothers. We sent money home every month, so our parents and sisters wouldn't lack for anything. Jeno was a well-known tailor in the area, before the war. Erno and Jeno were liberated from Mauthhausen. Erno surely would have died without Jeno. If he had to carry him on his back, or steal food for him, he did it, and by the way, he kept their spirits up. I know this from when Erno succeeded in struggling home. A drunken Russian soldier had shot Jeno as soon as they got to Austria.