Armin Mittelmann

My grandfather Armin Mittelmann is in this picture, while on a trip abroad, when he went by himself to Czechoslovakia to Postyen [Piestany today], a spa. This was in 1927, and he went there to treat his stomach problems. In the back row, in the middle, that's grandpa, a tall, handsome man, under the train window with two people. The crowd were probably passengers or a group of vacationists.

My maternal grandfather's name was Armin Mittelmann. He was born in Lippa, near Arad, in 1863, and from there he got to Marosvasarhely, in fact first to Szaszregen. My grandfather was a tall, slender, handsome man, he had a moustache even when he was old. He was handsome even when he became old. I have memories about him from when I was around 4. They loved me very much, I was the first grandchild and especially later, when my father got sick, my mother went to the hospitals with my father, I spent a lot of time with them. So I became very fond, especially to grandpa, because grandma was already dead by then.

My grandpa graduated middle school, it was a great thing then, even he had no diploma, he had middle school. So he got into the bank, he was the director of the savings bank from Marosvasarhely. At the moment the Casa Armatei [the Army House] is there on the corner [at Petofi square]. This was a serious institution and he had a high position. He was very appreciated, because he was a very honest and intelligent man. He wasn't rich, he had a salary, and from the salary he maintained his five children and his wife. My grandparents were Neolog Jews. Grandpa didn't prayed at home, at least when I stayed there. Maybe he did it when he was young, but near Arad the Jews were usually assimilated, they kept their religion, but they grown up with Hungarian culture. Mittelmann grandpa use to went to the synagogue at high holidays with a hat on his head, they had kosher household at home until grandma lived, but after she died, when he got married for the second time, he married a Reformat woman, there were no more kosher household, but he always observed the high holidays.