Iren Izsak and Klari Biro when they were little girls

This photo was taken in Budapest in 1905. The girl standing is my mother, Iren Izsak, nee Torok, at the age of three. Next to her, her one and a half year old sister, Klari is sitting. A nanny took care of the children, because their mother worked in their shoe store from morning until the evening. Later they had a governess, always a German one. Both Frida's and Cili's family lived in Germany. They only came to Hungary to work. This was important because of something, perhaps so that they would be more attached to the employer family, they would depend on them more. Even if this was so, the Toroks didn't take an advantage of it, for sure, the girls loved their governess, my mother sometimes spoke of Cili even in her old age. There was a cook and a maid for the housework for a short time, but then only Matild, who was at our place for a very long time. She was a widow, her daughter Manci, who was raised in the country at her grandmother's, was about the same age as my mother. She sometimes visited her mother, so my mother knew her. She sent her gifts for festive occasions and Manci thanked her for these on nice postcards. My mother liked her very much, and she respected Matild as a child respects an adult. But she always called her by her first name because as a 'servant' she wasn't entitled to be called auntie. Matild sent us art postcards even in 1918, when she wasn't at our place anymore, and for a long time.

Photos from this interviewee