Karoly Izsak

When this picture was made of my father Karoly Izsak, then 41 years old, he had been the chief gardener of the HICAA (Hungarian Israelite Crafts and Agricultural Association) for 17 years. He got his gardener assistant certificate here at the age of 17, after three years of learning. All his family lived in Budapest at that time. His parents were from Szatmar [Szatmarnemeti, today Satu Mare, Romania], he got to Pest from there with his mother and older siblings after his father's death, at the age of five. My father got married to Iren Torok in 1928. I was their only child. With his job he got a spacious service villa, a nice garden, and an income which assured a middle class living standard for his family. And very much work for him. He managed bedding plant, vegetable and fruit production and marketing, and the students' theoretical and practical training. He traveled to Western European countries officially several times. Until the anti-Jewish laws, he took part in the national professional-social organizations of gardeners.

Photos from this interviewee