Katalin Erdos and Edit Laufer

This is a picture of me, the first from right, and my friend Edit Laufer. The photo was taken in Budapest in 1936 while we were preparing for our graduation exams. There were loads of photos of us, sitting amongst the books. My mother took those photos of us. I had a girlfriend called Edit Laufer in the Jewish high-school for girls, we had come there together from elementary school. I felt great at high-school. I felt that I was in the right place. Our headmaster, Jeno Zsoldos, was a great scientist, though very serious and severe. He noticed me on the very first day and from that time on he kept his eye on me - Hungarian, orthography, penmanship - I liked these very much. Zsoldos was our mentor, we are indebted to him for everything: for our erudition, and for the fact that we can speak and write Hungarian correctly. He taught Hungarian and Latin. We read and translated Hebrew texts, and learned the grammar of biblical Hebrew. When we were preparing for the final examination Edit moved to our flat, and we studied day and night, like madmen. We woke up at dawn at half past four, we went out and studied; sometimes in the fresh air, on the bench, by the statue of Anonymus in the Liget, or sometimes at home in the outside corridor. The interesting thing was that after many years Edit finally came home for a visit from Israel, and everybody was excited. The meeting was in Gerbaud Coffee house, and we went there but couldn't talk to each other. We looked at each other politely, but we had no common subject to talk about. Too much time had passed. It was so disheartening. We, who had been on such good terms!

Photos from this interviewee