Photo of Maria, my daughter, when she was around six months old. Maria graduated from an economic high school and worked first in a ministry and later in social services. She has two sons, Tibor and Zoltan. Tibor married a Gypsy girl and became a peddler. They have one daughter, Anita, who is 10 years old. We do not really keep in touch with them. Zoltan is now 36 years old and works as a cook. He married a Bulgarian girl and they have a child, Sandor. They live with me in my flat. I am painfully conscious of the fact that everybody in my family married Gentiles, and I feel as if I were the only Jew left in the family.
But I believe that it does not matter whether somebody is Jewish or Christian, all that matters is that they should be good and kind-hearted. Still, I feel proud to be a Jew, I would never deny it, and I used to go regularly to the synagogue up to quite recently. Now I am too old and frail.
Edit Kovacs' daughter Maria Daragos
The Centropa Collection at USHMM
The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.
Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC".
Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).