Alzbeta Schafferova with her sisters

Alzbeta Schafferova with her sisters

This is a picture of my mum and aunts. My mother, Helena Pollakova, nee Paszternak is first from left, beside her standing is Charlota Kerteszova, nee Paszternak. First from left sitting is Ilona Kleinova, nee Paszternak, the woman in the middle is one of their friends and first from left is aunt Alzbeta Schafferova, nee Paszternak. The photo was taken in Kosice, I would say after World War I. Aunt Alzbeta was my favorite aunt. Before getting married, she graduated from a commercial high school. She worked and lived with us in Bratislava, as we had a large apartment there at the time. She then married a Jewish traveling salesman called Viliam Schaffer. Her husband wasn't home very often, due to the nature of his job, so she used to stay at our place. I loved her very much and was very close to her. She was very witty. I knew my mom's side of the family the most. Dad's sister, Aunt Hermina, was once staying over at our place when Aunt Alzbeta came along. When dad brought her in, I ran up to her with joy, as I always did. Afterwards, mom told me off for never greeting Aunt Hermina in the same way. Aunt Alzbeta always had health problems. She loved children and in 1939 became pregnant, but because of the war she didn't want to have a child, so she gave it away. During the war, Alzbeta and her husband were in a camp in Novaky and during the Slovak Uprising they hid out in the mountains. They both survived the war. They didn't have any children later on. Charlota got married to a Jewish farmer called Kertesz, who had a farm in Hungary, not far from Miskolc. I saw very little of her, for it was a great distance in those days. They had two children, a son called Laci and a daughter called Pimpi. Charlota was an amusing person. Apparently she came home late once and my grandfather got annoyed. Charlota told him it was ten o'clock, but then the clock struck one and my grandfather said, 'What are you talking about?' Charlota said, 'Well, it can't strike the zero.' All her family perished. Ilona married and became Mrs. Kleinova, but didn't have any children. She lived in Kosice where she ran a powder and cosmetics factory with her husband. Neither of them survived the Holocaust.

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