Tibor Salgó and his brothers
This is me and my two brothers: Gyuri in the middle, Imre, who left for the United States, on the right and me on the left, in white. The photo was taken in the Summer. When I was seventeen, my father bought a plot of land in Erd, the three of us boys were photographed there. We put a wooden cottage on it, it was nearly in the forest. Unfortunately I am the only one still alive. My middle brother, Imre [1911--2001] went to a technical school in Nepszinhaz Street [this was a Hungarian Monarchy State Upper Industrial school. There were no ‘technical schools’ then.] At that time, it was so – it raised you to such a level, just like University. There were classes in the morning and afternoon. My brother was so good with his hands, he had such a head [for it], that University students came to him and paid him to draft these technical drawings on vellum for them at night. Imre worked here on Fehervari Road in the Ericsson factory [The Swedish company, Ericsson first opened it’s subsidiary company in Budapest before the First World War, which was later taken over – for unclear reasons - by the International Standard Electric Corporation in the 1920s.] as an engineer. He had studied technology, and was the head engineer there. Early in the year 1939, various Jewish restrictions came in [Jewish Laws in Hungary] 2. I was a soldier then, my mother told me about Imre: the Swedish Director called the four Jewish engineers in. “Gentlemen, I just got a directive from the government that says, I have to fire two of my four engineers. So it’s you and Balazs.” My older brother was a bachelor at the time, and said, “Please don’t fire him, he’s got two children! I’m single, please kick me out instead.” And two of them left. My brother was a really good-looking kid. I know, because the girls always asked me about him. He was brought together with a girl who was here from America, to take a husband back to America with her. Well, my older brother, it appears, got together with this American [non-Jewish] girl. My brother got his traveling permit a half a year later, in 1939, around December and went with the last boat to America. After that the ocean was too dangerous because of the submarines. But he just made it out.
