Karoly Izsak's certificate of the MIKEFE

This is the certificate of my father, Karoly Izsak, which proves that he finished the third year of the HICAA gardener training. A couple months later, in December 1914, he passed the gardener assistant exam with excellent results. Six years later, at the age of 24, he was appointed the chief gardener of the gardener training grounds. He held this job until May 1945. During the 24 years of his activity as a chief gardener he managed the bedding-plant, vegetable and fruit production and marketing and the theoretical and practical training of the gardener students. Not yet in 1914, but later, a joyful event was connected to the gardener students' exam. They held a so-called liberation feast every fall, since the students were 'liberated,' meaning they got an assistant certification. There was a cultural program and a dance in the building of the dorm, in a big room. The students performed small literary scenes, recited passages from plays - I remember Karinthy, Heltai, Rejto -, they recited poetry and played music. I always prepared for these festivities with great excitement. I was still a child at the last occasion. I had only turned 14 in the fall of 1943. I danced for the first time at these festivities.