Judita Sendrei's class photo

The picture was taken in 1937 in the courtyard of the former women's gymnasium in Subotica. This is a group photo of the first grade of the gymnasium with Milenkovic, the class room teacher, and Professor Gizele Sandor, who was a Jew. I am to the left of Professor Gizele Sandor in the second row from the top. In the top row, the fourth person from the right is Vera Engel (married name - Ungar), who lives today in Israel. The fourth person from the left in the top row is Kiti Feldes, who is no longer living in Yugoslavia. In the second row from the top, the second person on the right is Rejh (Srajber Lea), who now lives in Canada. In the third row from the top, the fourth person on the right is Magda Kis, who died in Israel. In the first row the third person on the right, on her knees, is Zuzu Kunec, who was killed in Auschwitz. The girl on the extreme left in that row is Alisa Najhaus (married name - Francuski), who lives in Belgrade. When I graduated from primary school, I went to gymnasium for three years. In 1941 when the Hungarians came, my father, through some connections, succeeded in enabling me to stay in school even though a recently enacted law only allowed a small percent of Jews to continue going to school. In the school there were teachers who came from Hungary, and in most cases they were anti-Semites. They noticeably lowered the Jewish children's grades. Our friends in our grade would make fun of us. The Catholic priest, Ciprus, treated the Jewish children the best. During religion lessons, Jewish children were forced to go outside regardless of the weather conditions. But Priest Ciprus allowed us to remain in the classroom if it was cold outside. Private Jewish religion classes were taught well and in detail by Professor Vadnaj. In addition to Jewish history, he also taught us to write and read Hebrew.