Ilona Seifert's mother Iren Riemer

My mother in a photograph taken in Budapest during the 1920s. She was born in 1897 in Budapest, and married my father in 1917. My sister was born a year later, in 1918, and I followed in 1921. My mother helped my father in the soda-water workshop. My sister and I were looked after by an Austrian Fräulein from Graz who began working for our family shortly after my birth. Herta lived with us for eight years, and so our first language was German. We spent the whole day with our ?Fraulein" talking, singing, and playing with dolls. We spent every Sunday with our parents. We talked a lot, and also went to the movies, when we got to be a little older. I remember going to the Corvin Cinema every Sunday. A ticket cost one pengo, and we always sat in the same place. We were also taken to see plays on Sunday afternoons, and on such occasions our ?Fraulein? accompanied us. My parents also went to the theater, but not very often. Sometimes, when the weather was nice, we went to Lake Balaton, but we never spent our summer holidays there.

Photos from this interviewee