Paula Riemer and her family

This picture was taken around 1914 in the town called Lippa. My grandfather Armin Mittelmann's mother lived as widow there [second sitting person from left], with her five grandchildren, that is my grandfather's children, surrounding her. The person standing behind great-grandmother is my mother, Paula Mittelmann, on her left that's her younger brother Sandor, who was one year younger than my mother, and behind him that's one of my mother's younger sisters, Agnes, some 7 years younger than mom, and in front of her that's aunt Aliz. On grandmother's right [first from left] there's a little boy standing, that's the youngest child, Gabor, who was around 2 years old in this picture. The picture was surely taken during a summer holiday, because they used to go quite often to great-grandmother to Lippa. There was a fairly big family living in Arad, so they stuck together and spent a lot of time there.

My grandfather was born in Lippa, near Arad (in Arad county) in 1863 and he got to Marosvasarhely from there, in fact he first went to Szaszregen. He died in Auschwitz.

They didn't tell me anything about great-grandmother. By the time I was born she was long gone. I have no idea what she was doing, I don't know anything about her. I don't even know what was her husband's profession, but as far as I know he participated in the 1848 revolution. At least that's what I remember.

The apartment, I think, they told me so, it was in the yard of a house, according to the construction style of that period, that is there were several houses in the same yard. They weren't rich, they were simple middle-class people and since she was a widow, there was no way she could be rich so I think grandpa supported her because he was the breadwinner. The girls, Dora and Rozsi, grandpa's sister, were still living at home, so the only breadwinner was my grandfather.

My mother had four siblings, she was the eldest. After she came Sandor Mittelmann who was born in 1898 in Szaszregen, too, he graduate the high school and he worked as a clerk I couldn't say where. He got married with a Romano-Catholic girl from Marosvasarhely, called Iren Dudutz. They moved later [after World War I] near Regen, to Marosfelfalu, there was a mill, my uncle managed it. In World War I Sandor was in Italian detention, he was silver medalist lieutenant or chief lieutenant, I don't know exactly, but it is important, because just the same he was deported [during World War II] and he perished there. In spite of the fact that he had Christian wife he was white arm-banded forced laborer first, and then he got to a camp in Austria and he died there. They had a son, Istvan, he was born in 1927, he still lives in Szaszregen, had no wife, he is retired at the moment.

The next child, Agnes, was born in 1903. She graduated high school and married quite young a bank manager from Szaszregen, Sandor Mendel. They had two children, a daughter, Johanna, who was born in 1926, and a son, Tamas, who was born in 1929. Unfortunately Agnes, along with her husband and Johanna, perished in Auschwitz. Tamas lives in Kolozsvar, he is an engineer and he is retired now. At the age of 15 he was deported, he was a bright boy and miraculously he survived. He was together with Laci Grun [Editor's note: Centropa made an interview with him, as well]. A German foreman from there liked him very much, and he saw Tamas was a single child so he tried to help him as much as he could. Tamas lives in Kolozsvar, he has two sons, both of them live in Israel.

The next child was Aliz, Vertes after her husband, she was born in 1911 in Marosvasarhely. She married in Arad in 1933 with a merchant, Gyula Vertes, they had a paint store. Her husband died in 1955. Aliz wasn't deported, she had two children: Adam Vertes, born in 1936, and Eva, who was born in 1939. Both of them live in Bucharest, so aunt Aliz around 1960 moved to her son, Adam. Poor of she died in 1986. My two cousins live in Bucharest, I keep in touch with them.

The youngest son, Gabor Mittelmann, was born in 1912, he was a merchant, a charming, very kind boy, he was single and he perished in the Bor camp, supposedly he was shot.