Laszlo Ringel with his father Mor Ringel and sister Agnes

This is my father Mor Ringel, my sister Agnes and me as a boy scout in a Czech Boy Scout organization. We were photographed in the garden by our house. My sister turned 2 years old. Onokovtse, 1929.

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 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 married. 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. 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.

In 1922 my parents decided to move to my grandfather 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 orchard in the backyard and on the other side there were sheds for cows, horses and pigs.

I went to cheder in the neighboring village at the age of 4. My father took me to the cheder when going to work, and then I returned home with other Jewish boys after classes at 3-4 pm. We took lunches from home with us. When I turned 7, my parents sent me to the Slovak school in our village and I had to stop my studies in the cheder. It was a Roman Catholic school. The pupils greeted their teacher saying 'Glory to Jesus Christ!' in Latin, a traditional Roman Catholic greeting. [Laudeter Jesus Christus] Jewish children didn't have to attend the religious classes. I finished my 1st form in this school, and went to the 2nd form of a Slovak school in Uzhgorod. I rode a bicycle to school and later to a grammar school. After finishing my 4th year I went to the Czech 8-year school in Uzhgorod.

My sister was born in 1927. She was named Agnes, and at home we called her Agi, Agica in the Hungarian manner [diminutives for Agnes].