Karoly Hacker, Suzana Petrovic’s grandfather, with family

Photo of my father`s family, taken in Pancevo, 1932. First from left on the top row: Artur Lang, Lili Varga, Melita Hacker, Bela Hacker, Ilona Hacker, Ernest Hacker (my father), Samuel Hacker.

Out of the 15 people in this photograph, 10 were murdered in the Holocaust.

 Sitting: Jolan Lang, Ervin Lang, (baby) Marija Vig (nee Hacker), Berta Haker, Ladislav Ivan  Hacker (the boy) Karoly Hacker, Irma Vig (nee Hacker) and Djordje Vig.  

My paternal grandfather Karoly and grandmother Berta came from a rather religious Jewish family.  My father was religious and in the last letter that he wrote from the Russian front, he constantly mentioned God . 

Grandfather and grandmother spoke German and Yiddish, while all the children in addition to German spoke Hungarian and Slovakian because they were born in Kovacica which was still a Slovakian village. 

Grandfather Karoly sold large agricultural machines. Grandmother was a housewife. They had three sons and four daughters. The eldest son was my father, Ernest, the second Bela , the third Samjuel or Sam. The sisters were Marija  (married name Varga), Irma , Jolan  and the fourth I do not know exactly what her name was. She died very young, at 16.

Bela Hacker lived in Novi Sad. He was married to Melita, both were taken to Auschwitz. Unfortunately he did not return, she returned and went to Israel, she married again, had a poultry farm and died there. They did not have children. 

My other uncle Samjuel or Sam, was the youngest of my grandfather and grandmother's children. The Germans killed him in the Pancevo Jewish cemetery.

Marija Haker Varga had three children, Djordje who was killed during the war, Lilika the youngest was in a camp, survived the war and went to Israel and Steva who lived the longest of all of them. For some time he was the director of the post office in Belgrade and died of a heart problem. 

Joli  married  a man named Lang and they had a son, Ervin, who lives in Israel. He worked until his retirement at the airport as a telegraphist. 

Aunt Irma, was first married in Bacska Topola to a doctor. From that marriage she has a son Djordje who was a dental technician and who died a few years ago in Loznica. Aunt Irma divorced and married again in Budapest . She survived the war in Budapest while the rest were all killed in camps. She cared for us when we got out of the camps.  She lived to be eighty some years old and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Budapest. 

Grandfather Karoly, grandmother Berta and Marija were taken to the Sajmiste camp and killed there by the Germans, while aunt Jolan and Bela were killed in Auschwitz, Samjuel was killed in the cemetery by the Germans while fleeing. My father disappeared on the Russian front.