Ladislav Hacker, Suzana Petrovic’s brother

Photo of my brother Ladislav Ivan Hacker. Photo was taken in Szentes, 1928.

My brother went to elementary school and then gymnasium. He studied painting and violin, which he owned. He was practically taken away, that is sentenced to forced labor, from the gymnasium. 

When the war broke out, during the time of the raid, when the oppression of the Jews began then complications began to arise and then my parents moved us to Szentes thinking that it would be safer there, however they captured my brother after a few days because they knew about his local work, that they threw nails under trucks. These were youth actions. It was a big group of Jewish youth that were captured and among them two were given the death sentence, and the rest were given between three and seven years in prison. There, practically in Szeged, in Csilag, in an infamous prison they survived the war. However, it is interesting that regardless of the fact that Hungarians were occupiers, for every big Jewish holiday, since these were de facto children of 16-17 years old, they allowed mothers to come and cook for the holidays. I went with my mother and the mother of Vlada Rodbart, they had a daughter the same age as me who was killed in Auschwitz, so we were in Szeged and cooked for the big holidays, when they were allowed to get better food. Look, nevertheless they permitted this.