The graduation certificate of Janos’ father

My father’s graduation certificate from trade school.

My father was born in 1893 in Nagyvarad. He was called Laszlo Feigelbaum, but he magyarized it to Dorogi in 1906. My grandfather decided to magyarize it, and it became Dorogi because he was born in Hajdudorog. My father went to high-school for four years in Nagyvarad [today Oradea, in Romania], and then to a trade college for three years. He graduated from there. Uncle Vilmos, who wanted my father to work in the trade business, sent him to Pest for a year to learn banking, and in Marosvasarhely [today Tirgu Mures, in Romania] he sent him to work with an agent who would buy a trainload of, say, coffee or tea for the business. Uncle Vilmos had my father educated. But in the meanwhile the war began. My father was a volunteer then, with the rank of Captain.

Right after the war my father got into the Association of War Invalids, and worked there for two years. At the start of the '20s the Rico Bandage Factory was established. My father became the Assistant Director there. Then in '28 he got into the Hungaria Rubber Factory, which had 10 workers at the time. By the time of the Second World War it had 1,200 workers, and was a very modern factory. And my father was there until December 2, 1944.

My parents lived in Dohany street, but in '26 my father was sort of out of a job, and we had to give up the flat. That's when we moved to where my aunts lived. So, my grandfather Ullmann, my mother's three siblings, my mother, my father and I lived in that very big apartment [Janos was born in 1924]. I grew up there from '26 to 1933. Then, in '33, when my father had become a good, honored colleague, his pay was 1,000 Pengos, and that was quite a good salary then. Summer vacation, and everything fit in.

Photos from this interviewee