Piri Deri and her first husband Gyula Krausz

This is my sister Piri Deri, nee Friedmann, with her first husband Gyula Krausz. The photo was taken on their first wedding anniversary in 1927 at the Graf photo shop in Eger. There weren't too many photographers in Eger, maybe two or three. The Graf shop was a very big photo shop. The owner wasn't Jewish.

Piri's husband was a merchant. They got married in 1926. We had a cousin, Bela Korosi. He was somewhat of an eccentric but he was a lawyer by profession. He courted Piri. And Piri was about to marry Bela, the wedding was to take place within a week. But nothing came of it because in the meantime Gyula Krausz also proposed to her. Mom went to Reb Shayele, who was a rabbi, who told her not to marry her off to America and that there was this decent fellow here and she should marry her to him.

Piri finished middle school and then two years of commercial school. This was a commercial high school, where nuns taught. And it was very expensive. If someone wanted to work in an office then she, like my sister, finished two years of commercial school and then she could become an employee [in an office]. There was a car dealer in Eger - there was only one at that time, there were hardly any cars; we went everywhere on foot, it was a small town, we could walk from one end to the other in two minutes - and Piri worked for this car dealer before she got married.

When she got married, Piri lived in the 7th district in Pest, where I also lived later when it became a yellow-star house. Her husband died somewhere in forced labor in 1945. Piri took over her husband's job after the war. She picked up bread in the big bread-producing factory and took it to various shops. This was an independent occupation at the time.