Magdolna Palmai's certificate of citizenship from 1939

This document served as the certification of citizenship. The certification of citizenship was needed in 1939 because of the anti-Jewish laws. If a Jew didn't have a citizenship paper, he could easily get in trouble. At that time many people fled from Oberland and Transylvania, and if they were caught they were executed easily, that's how many Slovakian refugees were shot on the borders. Because they had papers in vain, they couldn't ID themselves, because they were born there and they didn't get the Hungarian citizenship, and with Czechoslovakian citizenship papers they couldn't go anywhere. At that time my father was told to get hold of this paper for himself and his family. So each family member had his own citizenship certificate. I kept it, I think the others got lost. I took this with me everywhere, I had it here in Pest, and everywhere else. That's why it looks so thumb-marked. The citizenship certificate was issued in 1939, based on this I got the passport on return from Gyula Szekfu, the ambassador in Moscow at that time. Because I already had the passport in 1947, my daughter should have been born in Hungary. But the Soviets took it and didn't gave it back to me. It disappeared for good when I handed in my request for a visa. When I kept going to ask if there was a visa a clerk told me 'Don't jump around too much, otherwise we will send you where there is winter for 12 months.'