Ladislav Roth’s wife Maria Roth

My fiancee Maria Leschinskaya. This photo was taken in Uzhgorod in 1935. She gave it to me on one of our first dates in 1936.

In 1936 I worked as the waiter in Bercsenyi restaurant. At work I met Maria Leschinskaya, a Slovakian girl from Goronda village [37 km from Uzhhorod, 670 km from Kiev] Uzhhorod district. Her last name sounded like Polish. Perhaps, her ancestors came from Poland. Maria was one year older. She was born in 1921. We came to work at the same time. Maria was an apprentice of a cook. One year later she began to work as a cook. We began to meet and fell in love with one another. We worked the same shift and saw each other at work and after work. Maria was Christian, catholic. My parents or Maria's parents had nothing against our marriage when we learned to earn our living. Maria's parents had four sons and three daughters. Maria was the oldest of all children. Her father was a worker in a quarry and her mother was a housewife. They kept a cow and had a plot of land. They were poor and Maria's parents were very happy that Maria was going into a nice family. They believed that Jewish men made the best husbands.