Erzsebet Klein

This is my brother's real mother, my aunt Erzsebet Klein. The photo was taken in 1932 at a police station in Budapest. My father's younger sister Erzsebet was born in 1898. She got schizophrenia, it started in her adulthood. Not getting married was her big regret as how otherwise could she have children? She was pretty, according to the photographs, but ill. An acquaintance of my father's introduced her to a young man called Jeno Klein, he married her and they had a son. My parents adopted him because of his mother's illness. He was born Endre [Bandi] Klein in 1930; after adoption he became Endre Foldes. Bandi always thought of my parents as his, and still speaks of them so today. His mother was in many hospitals including Lipotmezo. [Lipotmezo is a big, famous mental institution in Budapest.] Mental patients still get TB today but then it was especially prevalent. There was no proper attendance for the 16-24 bed wards and they infected each other. She got it and died of it in 1942. We knew that Uncle Jeno was Bandi's father as he came to see us from Rakospalota, where he lived, every week. But I think that he didn't want Bandi with him. He probably noticed that his brother-in-law was well off. I can't say what Uncle Jeno's profession was. Sometime in 1943 he got married again. Then, when Rakospalota was ghettoized, they were taken away and perished. I think they were taken to Auschwitz.