The Nussbaum brothers with their father, Heinrich Nussbaum

In this picture, taken in Budapest in the 1910s, you can see my grandfather, Heinrich Nussbaum, with his three elder boys. From the left the eldest, Laszlo, the second one is my father, Jeno, and the third one is Jozsef. The fourth child is not in the picture; he must have been 14-15 years old then. These ones here were already 17-18 years old as well. The children in the background are nothing to do with them. I don't know where the Ambrinus restaurant is. It is possible that the photographer intentionally wanted publicity at the same time. This is about the proud father who gives three boys to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to protect this wonderful country. They must have had a rather good financial situation, but exaggerated patriotism, that's something they definitely had. The typical assimilated Jew: it often happened that they wanted to be more Hungarian than the Hungarians. My grandfather was also a bit of an opportunist and adapted to fit the situation. This wasn't special to him; it was a general characteristic, an acknowledgement, gratitude for the permitted emancipation. In every war, especially those which are going badly, states float war bonds; of course my grandfather gave a lot to these war-bonds in order to further victory for the Austro-Hungarian army, which lost the war in the end. Then he was discharged. He could not be a soldier after the war was lost, and he remained with his money, and with his children. He decided to go back to Transylvania, where he had relatives, so he bought a house in Torda. They came to Torda, and they lived very well there.

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).