Judita Jovanovic’s father Zoltan Biro at a scout convention

My father at a scouts' convention. He was there with scouts from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He is in national costume, holding a flag. The photo was taken somewhere near Budapest in 1933. 

My father Zoltan Biro was born in Budapest on March 30, 1912 and died in Belgrade on April 2, 1998. My father spent most of his childhood moving around as that was the nature of his father's job with the railway. When he was born they lived in Vinkovci and then they moved to Subotica where they lived from 1914-1918. In Subotica they lived close to the train tracks and my father liked to spend time watching the trains go by. When my father finished primary school they moved from Subotica to Mostar. My father finished high school in Mostar and then enrolled in law school at the University of Zagreb. 

In Zagreb he lived in the student dormitory. I don't know whether this was a Jewish dormitory. If there was a Jewish dormitory in Zagreb at the time then he certainly would have lived there, if not then he lived in the regular dormitory. He shared a room with a Jew named Tibor Szekely. Tibor was a fascinating character who happened to look like a short Lenin. He finished law school but never practiced this profession. Instead he was a professional traveler and anthropologist. 

My father finished his first year at the University of Zagreb and then transferred to the University of Belgrade. He transferred because his father had planned to retire and to move to Belgrade that year. However, grandfather's retirement was pushed back one year so father spent his second year at the university in the King Alexandar dormitory in Belgrade on Revolution Boulevard. The next year his parents were in Belgrade and he lived with them in their apartment on Charlie Chaplin Street. 

Photos from this interviewee