Josip’s father as a soldier, recovering from a wound in hospital

The photo was taken in Bekescsaba, in 1917. My father Abram Papo was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army for 8 years. He was wounded in the Carpathian mountains and went to the Bekescsaba hospital to recover. His friend, Juda Kamhi, from Sarajevo is sitting next to him.  My brother-in-law's father is also in the picture. I don't remember where he is sitting. 

My father was a merchant and my mother a housewife. We owned the shop which was registered in my mother's name because my father did a little of everything. He finished one year of Jewish school and then spent nine years in the Austrian army. He spoke German, Hungarian and Spanish and learned them all while he was in the army. The textiles sold in the shop were mainly supplied from Sarajevo, and my father also sold seasonal goods - souvenirs. Since the shop was not big enough, we moved to a bigger store in which they sold many souvenirs, especially in the summertime. They did not sell any kinds of ritual items in the store, only those things that were used by the people of Makarska and those from the surrounding villages. There were a lot of confections, pants, jackets and coats. My father brought the merchandise in trunks from Sarajevo. The store functioned until 1941 when we emptied it but even then a section continued to work.