This is me and my husband in Sfantu Gheorghe, in 1998; we had just been to my brother’s, Francisc Lowi, funeral, he had died that year. You can see that we are both in black. The photo was taken by a common friend of ours, Mr. Rosner, in front of the block of flats where he lived there, in Sfantu Gheorghe.
After I came back from deportation, I only found home my sister, Livia, and my brother, Francisc Lowi. Francisc had been to Mathausen, and he returned in Novemeber 1946, and found me and my sister already in Sfantu Gheorghe. There he worked as a waehouse administrator.
After my first husband, Francisc Pollak, died in 1965, I remained in Sfantu Gheorghe, working at the bank, for a long time. I met my present husband, Alexandru Gotterer after a few years, in 1980. He came once in Sfantu Gheorghe with rabbi Ioles from Sfantu Gheorghe. I was there, and I asked that my sister would be given a package as well, if it were possible, because my pension was small and I had to help her. My sister had a very small pension, 400 lei, that was nothing. And I told him to help us; that's how we met and then we got married in 1984, here in Brasov, in the synagogue. There was a cantor from Bucharest at the ceremony. The civil marriage was held in Sfantu Gheorghe. In 1984, after I became Sany's wife (that's what I call my husband, it comes from Sandor, the Hungarian version of Alexandru), I moved here, in Brasov, I went to the synagogue; he was employed as vice-president of the community for 18 years. I learnt here some things I didn't know, and I heard about the things that happen in Israel, I celebrated the independence day at home.
My husband has been married before, but his wife died in Brasov in 1981, and he has two children from his first marriage, Ivan Gotterer and Veronica Iancu. They both consider themselves Jews. Veronica was born in Brasov in 1963, and she died here in 1996. Ivan was also born in Brasov in 1953, and now he lives in Rehovot, in Israel. He had brit mila, and he married religiously in the synagogue in Targu Mures, where he studied medicine. He left for Israel in 1984. He worked as a surgeon in Israel, at Hadasa hospital, in Tel Aviv. He has two daughters, Iris, who is a dentist-surgeon, and Karen, who is a psychologist. I keep in touch with my husband's children, and we get along very well.
We thought everything would be all right after the revolution. I wasn't glad that they killed Ceausescu. We thought that culture, freedom were coming…but, what do you know, something came, but there are a lot of steps to be made. I receive help from the German government, because I was deported. It is a monthly fund, and we don't receive as much as the others, we only get 100 euro per month, others, in other places, receive food as well. In the meantime I received compensations in marks. My health is very bad: I went to the doctor a few days ago and he told me that he couldn't cure anything, I could walk until now but because of the advanced age the state of my legs has worsened. Now I spent most of my time at home, reading, filling in information in the files I have made about the Jews in Sfantu Gheorghe, and walking with my husband.
