This is my father Mor Ringel, me and my mother Anna Ringel (nee Bergida). We were photographed on my birthday. I turned 4 years old. My mother gave these photographs to her sisters. This photo was taken in Onokovtse village in 1924.
My father Mor Ringel was born in 1881 in Transylvania. He was neolog. My father must have finished a school well since he managed to enter the Trade Academy in Transylvania. My father and grandfather served in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI, he was corporal at the front. .
My mother Anna, Hanna in Jewish, was born in 1885 in a village near Uzhgorod, called Onokovtse. My maternal grandfather Menyhert owned a pot-house, an inn providing hot meals, drinks, accommodation and a shed for cattle in a village. I don't know what education my mother got, but I think it was a secondary school or grammar school. At least my mother helped me to do my homework when I studied in a grammar school.
My parents met and fell in love with one another before WWI. In 1914 my father went to the army and they corresponded till 1918. After the war they got marriege. After the wedding my parents moved to Uzhgorod. My father worked as an accountant in 3 stores owned by Jews. My mother was a housewife.
My father had beautiful thick auburn hair. He didn't cover his head. He wore a hat in cold weather, but it had nothing to do with Jewish traditions. He wore suits in fashion of the time. In spring and summer he was fair-color clothes. My mother only wore a shawl to go to the prayer house. She had thick dark hair that she wore in a knot. My mother wore fashionable clothes and high-heeled shoes. My parents were neologs. They observed the main Jewish traditions and went to the synagogue on holidays. We spoke Hungarian at home. My parents rented an apartment in a 3-storied house. I was born in Uzhgorod in 1920. I am called Laszlo, even today everybody calls me as such. When the Czechs came to Subcarpathia they made me Vladislav, when the Russians came they made me Vasiliy. I have three birth certificates in three different languages. [i.e. Hungarian, Czech and Russian] I was called Laci, Lacika, at home. [affectionate of Laszlo] My Jewish name is Leizer. I had a brit milah at the synagogue in Uzhgorod in accordance with the tradition. There was an entry made in the roster of the synagogue about this event. I went to cheder in the neighboring village at the age of 4.
In 1922 my parents decided to move to Onokovtse. Grandfather Menyhert asked my mother to help him in the pot house. Onokovtse was in 5 km from Uzhgorod and my father could keep his job in Uzhgorod. My father bought an open carriage and horses to ride to work. Besides working as an accountant in the stores, my father began to work in the town court in Uzhgorod as a wine expert. The building housing the pot house was 250 years old. We also lived in the rooms of this house. There was an annex to the house where there was a food store. There was a big dinner room, a living room for parents and children where it was not allowed to smoke or drink, there was a room where one could play chess or cards and another room, something like a bar. There was a big yard in front of the pot house. There was a big orchard in the backyard and on the other side there were sheds for cows, horses and pigs. There were 2 Slovak women working in the kitchen. My mother tasted the food and added spices. There was a waiter working in each room of the pot house. My mother worked in the food store selling cereals, sugar, salt and all other day-to-day goods.
