Arnost Brod and his wife Olga at a Jewish celebration

This photograph was taken on 5th December 1937 in a large hall at the Auto Club, and in it are my parents, Arnost Brod and Olga Brodova, together with some friends of theirs.

I don't know what the celebration was for, perhaps Chanukkah, the others were most likely also Jews. At home we never celebrated Chanukkah.

My father was very occupied by his job, he worked as a grain wholesaler. He had very little free time, I don't remember much about his social life.

Otherwise, as far as my parents' social life goes, I especially remember my mother's lady friends. My mother was a very passionate card player.

She had lots of lady friends, who just like her played bridge. It was this social circle that came to visit her, or she would go with them to coffee houses, because they mainly played in coffee houses.

This society of women met at our place for various tea parties, afternoons, various women's matters were discussed. Some of these ladies spoke Czech, some German and they would fluidly switch from one language to the other.

With some of these lady friends of hers, who had children, we used to go to our summerhouse, as summer holidays were then called.

It's interesting that they were all assimilated Jewish families. Really, our family friends were only Jews.