Gyula, Berta and Laszlo Gaspar in Abbazia

This is not one of my photos. I have it from my husband Andras Gaspar, Andris. He had more photos about his family than me. It is from an old album, he used to collect photos. We moved many times, but my husband used to say we should bring the photos with us to prevent them from being thrown away.

In this picture, the man first on the left, with spectacles, is their father. His name was Gyula Gaspar. I didn't really know him, he was very busy, because he was a lawyer, and he died when Andris was in twelfth grade. I was in tenth grade. We only met on the street. On his left that's Laci, and in front of him that's Obi sitting. She was Berta, but Andris called her Obi. This picture was taken in Abbazia. About the fashion of those days in what swimsuits concerns I know my mother had one too, and she even had a belt for it, made from sateen or from some linen-type material, not from this plastic material. Men wore pants, but these too had buttons for holding them up at the shoulders. If they wanted to expose themselves to the sunlight, they unbuttoned them.

Laci, Andris' elder brother, has not been deported, because he, for the sake of his wife, converted to Christianism and he wasn't taken away because he wore the white armband. [Editor's note: The white armband was worn by the Christians of Jewish origins, that is the ones who converted, and whom, according to the anti-Jewish laws in force were considered Jews. They have been deported to forced labor units for Christians.] Andris was a late-born, her mother was 43 when she gave birth to him. He had an elder sister, who was 16 years older than him, and she didn't come home, neither. And none of his relatives, especially his mother. His father was a lawyer, but he died of heart attack and left them nothing. By then his bother was already working and he had to help out his mother, while Andris had to sustain himself: he gave lessons to the weaker students for money.