Aleksandar Necak’s grandmother Tereza Hacker posing for a portrait

Aleksandar Necak’s grandmother Tereza Hacker posing for a portrait

My grandmother Tereza Hacker is posing for a portrait dressed for a ball. The photo was made in Senta. 

Tereza was born in 1885 in Senta to Moric and Sirina Bergel. She came from a considerably well-off Senta Jewish family. Her father, Moric Bergel, was a wheat trader in Senta who had his own mill and bakery. At the time there were laws forbidding Jews from owning land so he did not own any wheat fields. They say that he was "poziv na pogrom", "invited to the pogrom" because he had such a Jewish face. He was known to be very witty, constantly pulling practical jokes. He was known to be very witty, constantly pulling practical jokes some of which had severe effects. While he was a prankster, he certainly was not a traveler. He did not like to travel and rarely left Senta. Great-grandfather's wife Sirina [nee Stajnfeld] was born in Slavonia and at some point moved to Senta. She was much more observant than he, who was always looking for a way to avoid religious practice and observance. 

My grandmother was married to Kalman Hacker who worked as a professor of Greek and Latin in a Senta gymnasium. Tereza was much less observant than her husband and was further removed from the customs and practices of Judaism. Although she observed these practices at home, when traveling she would often not adhere to them. She traveled a great deal, most of the time on her own. Rarely, did she travel with her husband, my grandfather, who preferred to stay at home. 

Tereza and Kalman had one daughter, Suzana Hacker, my mother. At the beginning of the war, Tereza was in Belgrade with my mother. But when we [my mother and us childen] went into hiding my grandmother went back to Senta. She was deported in 1943 and taken to Auschwitz where she was killed. A Jewish woman from Senta who survived told my mother about Tereza’s death in Auschwitz. 

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