The Deutsch textile store

The Deutsch textile store

This photo was taken inside the Deutsch store, my husband Gyula’s family had in Szaszregen. You can see the counters.

The man standing there is Gyula's father, Samuel Deutsch. The picture was probably taken before World War II, but I don't know when exactly.

My husband’s family lived both in Szaszregen and in Marosvasarhely. They were wealthy; they owned a textile store in Szaszregen, which was founded by Gyula's grandparents at the end of the 1880s. They also had a store here in Marosvasarhely.

This branch - which was on the main square, on the corner of Posta Street, where the Bernady statue stands today - was opened much later and was closed quite early, because they hired a manager who couldn't manage it properly.

My husband was born in 1918. During the time Gyula, my husband, went to school they already lived here in Marosvasarhely.

During the week his father used to manage the store in Szaszregen, and he came back on Friday evenings, because on Saturdays all the Jewish stores were closed, while Sunday was an official holiday.

He used to stay in the city until Sunday evening or Monday morning, when he went back. He managed the store nicely and efficiently, and had a group of good customers.

He used to buy goods even from abroad, I know he bought very nice things from the Italians and the Czechs. They dealt with textile and cotton products.

Back then the villagers used to weave many things at home: table-clothes, shawls and wiping-clothes, and they used to buy the cotton from stores, so they distributed these kinds of materials, too. He used to order them by phone and they were delivered to him.

The textile store in Szaszregen was a corner house, and it still exists. The building was rearranged many times. During World War II at first the German commandment operated from there, and then the Russians, when the tables turned.

In 1948 it was nationalized, and the store housed the Commercial State Company, which I worked for in Marosvasarhely. The store in Szaszregen was the local branch of the company in Marosvasarhely.

It operated for quite long and I don't know when exactly it was closed. Upstairs there were inhabitants and some offices, I think. Previously Gyula’s family lived upstairs.

During World War II they were taken to Auschwitz and didn’t return. When Gyula returned from forced labor, he initially moved in there, then he moved to Marosvasarhely in 1950. Currently the building accommodates the law-court of Szaszregen.

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