Photo of my mother Ilona Hacker (nee Fried). Photo was taken in Novi Sad, 1939.
My parents lived an urban life in Novi Sad and belonged to the well-situated middle urban class. They were active in the Jewish community but not orthodox in their religious practice. My parents went to synagogue and celebrated all the Jewish holidays, and the other details I do not remember.
My mother Ilona Hacker (nee Fried) was born in Szentes, in south-eastern Hungary. Her parents were Karl Fried and Jolan Klein, and they lived in Szentes. My mother was born and lived all her life in Szentes, Hungary until she married. My mother married my father in 1924 and helped him in his business. She had two children, my brother Ladislav Ivan and me. Ivan was in a political prison during most of the war, my father was taken away to dig trenches and clear land mines for the Hungarians on the Russian front and he did not return, and my mother was deported to Austria and then Theresienstadt.
