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Deniz Nahmias

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Deniz Nahmias

Read Deniz Nahmias' full story below. 

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Short summary

Deniz Machmais was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1924. She was raised in a prominent Sephardic Jewish family. Her grandfather’s name was David Angel and his wife was called Diamante, and Deniz’s parents gave me her name, but in a more modern version, Deniz. At that time it was a common practice among Jews to give modern names. 

Deniz attended French Lycée and excelled in mathematics. She also learned to play the piano during her childhood, and remained a lifelong passion. During World War II, Deniz and her family fled from Thessaloniki on February 28, 1942 to Athens before the Nazis imposed their measures in March. In Athens, Deniz and her family lived under false identities and moved between homes with the help of friends until the end of the war.

Deniz Nahmias as a young woman

Deniz moved back to Thessaloniki after liberation, and married her husband, Albertos Nahmias on March 6th, 1949, in the Synagogue on Suggrou Street. She had two children named Ernestine and Iossif. While raising her family, Deniz maintained cultural traditions and continued her passion for music and saw the importance of sharing her memories and stories to preserve history. She remained an active member of Thessaloniki’s small Jewish community with her family and friends.

Deniz and Albertos Nahmias's wedding

Krókusz Projekt - Virággal az erőszak ellen

A Krókusz Projekt több éve sikeresen működő európai emlékezetprogram, melyben 12 ország több mint százezer fiatalja és pedagógusa vesz részt. Magyarországon a Holocaust Education Ireland és a Szembenézés Alapítvány projektje az ELTE PPK Neveléstudományi Intézet és a Magyarországi Reformpedagógiai Egyesület támogatásával, az Európai Unió társfinanszírozásával valósul meg.

A kezdeményezéshez csatlakozó oktatási intézmények és ifjúsági szervezetek fiataljai krókuszvirágok ültetésével emlékeznek a holokausztban meggyilkolt 1,5 millió társukra és az előítélet sok millió más gyermekáldozatára, és ehhez kapcsolódó – saját helyi előítélet problémáikra is reflektáló – önálló projekttel készülnek a holokauszt magyarországi áldozatainak emléknapjára, a megszerzett tapasztalatokat és eredményeiket pedig megosztják közösségükben és online.

A Nemzeti Alaptantervhez is illeszkedő kezdeményezés az élménypedagógia eszközeit alkalmazza, játékos, interaktív megoldásaival alkalmas a résztvevő diákok bevonására és önálló cselekvésre inspirálja őket. Növeli történelmi tudásukat és érzékenységüket, nyitottságukat, alkalmazkodóbbá, elfogadóbbá teszi őket mások, és önmaguk iránt is.

A projekt partnereként a Centropa Alapítvány oktatási anyagokat, képzéseket kínál a pedagógusoknak ahhoz, hogy a virágültetés mellett történelmi tudással, zsidó személyes sorsok megismerésével gazdagítsák diákjaik tudását.

Project duration
2019 - ongoing
Show in websites
No
For Students
No

Crocus Project – Flowers Against Violence

The Crocus Project is a successful European remembrance program that has been running for several years, engaging more than 100,000 young people and teachers from 12 countries. . In Hungary, the project is organized by the Holocaust Education Ireland and the Szembenézés Alapítvány (Reckoning Foundation) with the support of the ELTE PPK Institute of Education and the Hungarian Association for Progressive Education, co-funded by the European Union.

Through the project, students from educational institutions and youth organizations commemorate the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust, along with millions of other young victims of prejudice, by planting crocus flowers. They also develop independent projects that reflect on local issues of prejudice and discrimination, which they present within their communities and share online, often as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Hungary.

The initiative, aligned with the National Core Curriculum, employs experiential learning and playful, interactive methods to engage students and encourage independent action. It deepens their historical knowledge, strengthens their empathy, and fosters open-mindedness, adaptability, and acceptance—towards others and themselves.

As a project partner, the Centropa Hungary provides educational materials and teacher training to support participants. In addition to planting flowers, educators can enrich students’ understanding with historical context and personal stories from Jewish life.

Project duration
2019 - ongoing
Show in websites
No
For Students
No
Selected text
We had a small cabin by the dam on the Maros. Dad always checked the weather to see if we could go there - he was crazy about the place and loved going there. We didn't cook there, we just brought ready-cooked food with us. There was an underground storage room, a hole they cut inside the cabin floor. In this hole with a trap-door we put the containers of food. The roof of the cabin was longer than the cabin by the length of a room, and the outer part was supported by pillars.

We used to have lunch under this covered portion, so we had full comfort. We had two boats, one belonged to my parents; we called it Doc-Doc, like dad used to call mom when she was pregnant. My younger brother had a skiff, a one-man coxed, long and narrow boat. We were living a life of ease then. Next door my uncle Erno had a house, a caravan he converted: not the outside, he only furnished it.
Person
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Property and possessions
Vacations
Selected text
Young people like us never went to cafés, but my parents - when they weren't invited anywhere and had no guests over - went to a café and to have some coffee, ice-cream or cakes. What really mattered was that they got some fresh air and listened to some music. There were two cafés, one of them was called New York. Both had an outdoor terrace, and both had music, so when it stopped at one of them, it started at the other. People either sat on the benches, or they walked around, dated each other and flirted.
Person
The interviewee
Parents
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Selected text
When I was a big girl and the college years began, there were students who made money playing music, and formed bands. For instance, there was the Young Boy Band from Kolozsvar, made up only of upper-class students. On the main square, where the cinema called Pitik would later be, during the communist era, was a Jewish cinema in the interwar period. Everyone knew it as the Jewish cinema, probably because it was owned by a Jew. They also organized evening parties and performances there: singing, poetry readings and other performances. There were all kinds of movies shown in the Jewish cinema, and we went there quite often. There were times when there was nothing going on on Sunday afternoons and we were so bored, that we went to see both shows: we watched the movie running in the Jewish cinema, then we went over to Transilvania cinema on Bolyai Street to see another one. In the interwar period there were four or five cinemas in Marosvasarhely.
Person
The interviewee
Period
Before WW2
Location

Marosvasarhely
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Social/cultural organizations, (youth) clubs
Arts
Selected text
The ball season started in fall, and every Saturday they organized a ball in the main hall of the Palace of Culture. It began with a performance on the stage, then the chairs were pushed aside so that there was room to dance. I performed many times and in many places. We had a Jewish ball, a civic ball, a Kata Bethlen ball. [Kata Bethlen was an 18th century countess and writer in Transylvania.] We organized Jozsef Kiss [4] evenings, where everyone had to show up wearing the Hungarian gala-dress. Jozsef Kiss was a poet, but I haven't heard of him ever since. When I first attended the Jozsef Kiss evening I was a fairly big girl, and they let me dance a few times, then sent me home with a servant. The parents stayed there for as long as they liked. There was the Maros ball in the Maros restaurant, and it was imperative for my parents to attend it. Everyone was invited.
Person
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Marosvasarhely
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Selected text
My parents had many Jewish friends, and used to organize parties for 60-70 people at one or another of their friends' apartments. The apartments were big those days. I don't remember what they were doing, nor where we were during these parties. We were surely there for supper. Mom frequented the Jewish club, where I think men were allowed, too. Each week, on a specific day, she went there to play rummy. They used to play cards and chat. Dad didn't go there because he got used to going to the Hungarian casino years before. He came from work at the end of the day and went directly to the casino. They played cards, read and chatted. For the summer, the casino was moved to the gym-garden, just a little further away from the present old maternity ward. It was a very pleasant place with a terrace, people used to go there in the afternoons or the evenings. There was a building rented by a married dancing instructor couple who came from Kolozsvar. We took dancing lessons there. I brought along the uncle of Zsuzsa Diamanstein, who lived in the same house as us, and I believe my brother also took dancing lessons there. Later they organized banquets there.
Person
The interviewee
Parents
Mother
Friends
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Social/cultural organizations, (youth) clubs
Selected text
Grandfather Laszlo died in 1926, and my grandma moved in with her daughter, Margit. They were living opposite the Catholic grammar school, now called Unirea Lyceum. I was approximately 15 or 16, so it must have been around 1928, when we got a radio set. An engineer came from Kolozsvar to install it. We were all stuck to the radio all the time. Grandmother Laszlo, a very intelligent woman, listened to the radio day and night. She always knew everything.
Person
The interviewee
Grandparents
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Property and possessions
Selected text
We used to read every book that fell into our hands, and we read a great deal. So did my mom and dad. First of all we had all of the German and Hungarian classics, in Gothic print, and in special binding. We read mostly in Hungarian, the works of the great Hungarian writers. We always talked about what we were reading at the time. My dad was someone with whom you could discuss everything. He was a very bright, intelligent man. They used to buy periodicals, and they probably subscribed to a daily paper, but I don't remember which one. We didn't really read purely religious books. We had prayer books because we needed them since we strictly observed the holidays.
Person
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Jewish holidays (in general)
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Selected text
Mom completely lost her head, because my brother Andras was still a babe-in- arms. She rushed home, took off her elegant coat and her hat, grabbed her jewel-box, took Andras in her arms and ran out of the house to take him to Auntie Margit, her older sister, or to my grandmother - I don't know exactly where. On the way almost all of her jewelry fell out, but a young lady from the office followed her and picked everything up. Mom went by car to save the children because it wasn't only the factory that had caught fire, but also other buildings from the yard. The attendants protected the house as best as they could, and the fire fighters were also there. The water level in Poklos creek was very low, and there was no water. All the young people came there to help out. Afterwards we sold the big house and everything we had there.

On Grivita Street, a restaurateur was having a house built, and he came to dad saying that he'd heard he was looking for a place to live, and if my dad was willing to move into that house, the walls would be erected just as he wanted. Dad accepted. The house was finished the following year, and we moved in. We didn't stay too long because when we took it over, although it seemed like the walls were dry enough, it turned out they weren't. We kids, got all kinds of diseases. Andras got chicken pox, and then measles, which I caught from him. My parents had already lost two children, so their concern about us was justified. We moved then to Koteles Street.
Person
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Marosvasarhely
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Our house and living conditions
Property and possessions
Selected text
In the early 1920s the furniture factory in Dozsa Gyorgy Street was set on fire three times; I remember we were still children. The workers began to organize themselves: probably not officially, but by their own accord, and I don't exclude the possibility that this was triggered by some sort of provocation. In those times this was the first industrial company in Marosvasarhely, and probably the fact that it was owned by a Jew was also a factor.

We were at Grandmother Laszlo's house when we saw the two-horse carriage racing along by the corner and we were very anxious about what could have happened. We had a black and a yellow varnished horse carriage, two horses, a car and a truck. And suddenly we saw dad and mom hurrying away with the car, and then we heard the sirens screaming. That was the first time the factory burned down. The problem after it was set on fire for the second time, was that there wasn't enough time to insure the factory again. When it was set on fire for the third time, everything burned down and the insurance company paid nothing. We never found out whether it was a worker or somebody else who set it on fire.
Person
Family
Father
Period
Before WW2
Location

Marosvasarhely
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Profession & work (in general)
Selected text
He was a very good- looking man, gentle and polite, and most people liked him. He graduated from high-school, but he was never really encouraged to study further because he had to be involved in the family business. I don't think he attended cheder, but he always observed the holidays according to the traditions. On these occasions he and my mom went to the Neolog [3] synagogue. On holidays going by horse and carriage wasn't allowed, so they went on foot. Our family wasn't Orthodox, so dad worked on Saturdays, and we didn't keep a kosher household.
Person
Family
Mother
Father
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Neolog
Synagogue/house of prayer
Jewish atmosphere at home
Education (in general)
Selected text
My family was never involved in politics, neither when Transylvania was still a monarchy [that is, when it belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy], nor later [after 1920, following the Trianon Peace Treaty] [2], nor when it became part of Romania. I never heard about dad being a member of any political parties.

Apart from that he was involved in everything, there was no bank where he wasn't on the board of directors, there was no school of which he wasn't a vice-president or president of the board; he always took part in everything and helped wherever he could. He was an associate at the sawmill, the furniture factory, the floorboard factory; the Mestitz family were involved in everything.
Person
Family
Father
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Trianon Peace Treaty
Political affiliation (in general)
Selected text
Once a year, in fall, we had to go to Borszek. Borszek was my dad's obsession, he adored the place. [Borszek is one of the most renowned regions of mineral water springs in Romania.] Once, when my brother Andras was six weeks old, dad took us to Borszek. It was quite cold there.

Occasionally we had to put a stove inside the room. We didn't like Borszek because there was no place to bathe [there is no lake or river there], but our parents' friends had a villa there and we spent the time playing. Later, of course, everybody could choose where to spend his or her holidays. I continued to go to Szovata.
Person
The interviewee
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Borszek
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Vacations
Selected text
We spent most of our summer holidays at Szovata, together with our friends, a young couple, and we stayed there six weeks or two months. Our father came with us only to stay a week or two, and then he only came for the weekends. We rented a villa with four rooms: one for each couple and the other two for three children each. Both couples brought along a housemaid. They slept on the glassed-in porch and they cooked, thus it was quite comfortable.

On several occasions we stayed in the village, and facing the river, on the other side, there was the villa of Queen Mary. On mornings we used to go to Medve Lake to bathe, and on afternoons to the creek, since all our friends used to go there. We were together in the mornings and afternoons, as well.
Person
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Szovata
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Vacations
Selected text
We celebrated the seder at my grandmother Laszlo's, and we spent every holiday there until my grandfather died. My grandmother's children were also there, in a word, the Laszlo family. These occasions were merry and festive, and it was all so natural. My youngest brother, Andras, was the one who asked the questions [the mah nishtanah] at the seder supper, but I don't remember who conducted the ritual. The tables were laid beautifully, we always had challah, but I don't remember what other meals we had.
Person
The interviewee
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Passover / Seder
Selected text
Where we lived, there was a garden where the grass couldn't grow because the children always stamped it down. The kids who were living on that street all came there to play because there was so much space there. My father installed all kinds of gym equipment; it had everything from swings to climbing poles.

However, I always played the piano, that was my favorite 'toy', and I played everything I heard. When I was seven, dad enrolled me in the music academy, which was in the building of the Palace of Culture. I can still see him how he put his hand on my neck while we walked.

He liked to walk with me this way. He brought me to the teacher, a Saxon lady called Leona. She only taught me for two years, then someone else came, because she got sick; she had lung cancer. In any case, I studied 11 years at the Music Academy.
Person
The interviewee
Father
Period
Before WW2
Location

Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Education (in general)
Teachers
Leisure/Social life (in general)
Arts
Selected text
We had a female cook, a housemaid and someone who came to do our laundry and to iron, but she only came when we needed her. I remember that the two servants did some needlework every afternoon because they finished their work in the morning and had nothing to do in the afternoon. They weren't Jewish. We also had a man in the mill, and we could send the servants there if we needed something. Dad always hired Saxon girls for housemaids, because he wanted us to practice German.

Initially we also had a governess. I suspect she was a bad or wicked German governess - although I don't remember anything like this - because later, when I grew up and talked about such things, I always said that I only feared three things: Germans, Kossuth Lajos Street [in Marosvasarhely] and cancer. I'm only saying that some German person must have been mean to me because we didn't know at that time, what they would do to us. It was a premonition. I had fears that I could never explain, such as my fear of the Germans. Besides, I'm living on Kossuth Lajos Street now.
Person
The interviewee
Family
Period
Before WW2
Location

Marosvasarhely
Romania

Interview
Julia (Juci) Scheiner
Tag(s)
Helpers (maid, cook, Fräulein etc.)
Selected text
After I resigned my wife and I observed Jewish holidays at home. We have everything we need for this. We have a chanukkiyah and students of the Jewish school gave me a cloth for covering the matzah that they embroidered. When American rabbis visited our synagogue I was the only one who could speak Hebrew to them. They liked me so much that they gave me a tray with little holes used at the seder on Pesach and special glasses for the seder. They used to be made of silver when I was a child, but nowadays they make them of some stainless metal that looks very nice. I use them at the seder. When time comes I will give them to somebody.
Person
The interviewee
Partner / spouse
Period
After WW2
Location

Uzhgorod
Ukraine

Interview
Ernest Galpert
Tag(s)
Jewish holidays (in general)
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