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After liberation, my parents enrolled me at the State Arpad High-School, which was a very modern school with very good teachers. After two years my father took me out of that school, because he noticed that the spirit of the past was still so alive there, and he thought it would be better for me to attend the Jewish school on Wesselenyi Street. Before the war children of high officials attended this school, and certainly not the children of workers from Obuda.
My grades were pretty mediocre. My parents didn’t understand how it happened that I fell so far behind in my grade-school studies. When my father, who was an outstanding artist, drew my homework assignment for me, and I got a bad grade anyway, my father was sure that because I was among the first Jewish kids in that school since the War, there was no place for me there. I didn’t have many friends in Arpad High-School, but I didn’t get any flak for being a Jew.
I ended up going to the Jewish general school on Wesselenyi Street with the kids who had been my classmates at the Jewish school in Obuda before the war, and after that, I went on with them to the textile industry technical school. There were about twenty-five of us in the class, both girls and boys. I don’t remember my classmates too well, but I remember that my teachers were outstanding. At school, and at the Obuda temple, they prepared me for my Bar Mitzvah. That was a great celebration, and I wasn’t the only one having a Bar Mitzvah then, several other kids did too. They congratulated us and gave us presents. I got clothing from my parents.
My grades were pretty mediocre. My parents didn’t understand how it happened that I fell so far behind in my grade-school studies. When my father, who was an outstanding artist, drew my homework assignment for me, and I got a bad grade anyway, my father was sure that because I was among the first Jewish kids in that school since the War, there was no place for me there. I didn’t have many friends in Arpad High-School, but I didn’t get any flak for being a Jew.
I ended up going to the Jewish general school on Wesselenyi Street with the kids who had been my classmates at the Jewish school in Obuda before the war, and after that, I went on with them to the textile industry technical school. There were about twenty-five of us in the class, both girls and boys. I don’t remember my classmates too well, but I remember that my teachers were outstanding. At school, and at the Obuda temple, they prepared me for my Bar Mitzvah. That was a great celebration, and I wasn’t the only one having a Bar Mitzvah then, several other kids did too. They congratulated us and gave us presents. I got clothing from my parents.
Period
Location
Budapest
Hungary
Interview
Peter Reisz