Laci Deutsch

This is a picture of my brother-in-law, Laci Deutsch. 'To dear Auntie Ilon and Uncle Henrik, Lacika, Szaszregen, 16th March 1916' -this is written on the back of the photo. We got this picture from the Mestitz family. Auntie Ilon Mestitz was the sister of my husband's mother. It was usual to get more copies of a picture and send some to relatives.

My husband Gyula's mother sewed beautifully and did some needlework. As far as I know she made these trouser-straps and sewed edelweiss on them. These trousers were called Tyrolean trousers, and many children wore them. I think they were originally worn by people in Tyrol, Austria, and I believe that's where they got their name from. Just like jeans are now, the Tyrolean trousers and the sailor-suit were in vogue back then.

The Deutsch family lived both in Szaszregen and in Marosvasarhely. They were wealthy; they owned a textile store in Szaszregen and they also had a store here in Marosvasarhely. Laci was born in 1910 and Gyula, my husband, in 1918. Laci and Gyula were good brothers, but they didn't have a very strong relationship because Laci was eight years older, and he always made Gyula feel it. Laci became self-supporting earlier. He also attended school in Marosvasarhely, what is now Unirea high school. At that time it was the Catholic Boys' high school, and I think he graduated from there in 1928. Then he went to a textile engineering school in Germany. He spent two or three years there, and after he graduated from that school, he returned home.

Gyula began studying to take his doctorate, and I think he had only one or two exams left, but then he was taken to forced labor, along with his brother Laci, in 1942. They first went to Maramarossziget, then to Hungary. They also worked in Nagybanya, Szentkiralyszabadja [in Hungary], in Poland and Subcarpathia. They were together all the time, and they were liberated together. I think they came home already at the end of 1944, and luckily they pulled through the rest of it.

By the time I met Laci in the 1950s he was working in Segesvar, then he was transferred to Szeben. He got married in 1952, at the age of 42, although he was beginning to look like an inveterate bachelor. He was very selective, but eventually he got acquainted with his future wife, a Jewish lady originally from Balazsfalva, Boske Stark. Their son Gyorgy was born in Segesvar in 1953. In 1963 they emigrated to Israel. They ended up in Migdal Haemek. He worked in a textile factory there, and had to take the bus to go to work. Laci died in 1995, but his wife and son are still living in the same small town.

Photos from this interviewee