Dr. Bertalan Bernat

Dr. Bertalan Bernat

This is my maternal uncle, Dr. Berti Bernat. The photo was taken in the 1930s in Beregszasz. Uncle Berti was an attorney.

He magyarized his name from Klein to Bernat in the 1920s. He was a lawyer in Kisvarda [village in Hungary] in 1919.

I was born on 1st January 1918 in Hetyen, Subcarpathia. My mother, Maria Klein, was born in 1871. There was a one year gap between her and my father.

Jakab Rosenberg, my father, was a merchant and farmer. We weren't strongly religious, but we observed the holidays, and prayed. My mother kept a kosher kitchen.

In my youth, we went to Kaszony[mezo] for get-togethers. We sang and danced. We sang the Hatikvah, the anthem of Israel today. This was in the Czech period, so I could have been 17 or 18.

There were many Zionist organizations in Beregszasz, and I went to the Somer [Hashomer Hatzair]. It was so centrist. Dezso Rapaport organized the Zionist movement.

Uncle Berti was a big Zionist, he always told us to learn a profession, because they needed that in Palestine.

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