Tag #139421 - Interview #78149 (Marika Krpez)

My father, Lazar Deutsch, nicknamed Lazi, went to a Jewish elementary
school. He started school during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and all the
lessons were in Hungarian. In 1918 when Yugoslavia was created, he had to
change to a Serbian school, because, according to the law, Jews had to go
to Serbian schools. He had never learned Serbian and that is why he was a
bad student. But he had nice handwriting.

He went to work in a big wholesale store as an apprentice. He worked there
until 1937 when he married. My mother, Jelena, sold a small parcel of land
that she and her sister had received from the state, and my father used
this money to start his own business. He sold buttons, threads and other
items to tailors in neighboring villages. My mother used to tell me about
how he was such a good man and how he used to give people the goods on
credit. When he came to collect the money, the debtors would prepare a
chicken soup and ask him to be patient, and they would certainly pay him
back the next time he came to collect. Because of this laxity, he was
always on the verge of bankruptcy.